Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Exploring The Role Of Ecological Traits In Shaping Spatial Patterns Of Genetic Diversity, Rilquer Mascarenhas Da Silva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of comparative phylogeography aims at uncovering common underlying causes for shared patterns of diversity and diversification at the population level. However, it is now widely accepted that intraspecific genetic diversity patterns can differ considerably across co-occurring taxa due to ecological processes acting at the population level (and influencing individual movement and abundance). To model the processes underlying lineage diversification and demographic shifts in response to environmental changes, phylogeographers and population geneticists are now faced with the challenge of incorporating measurements of species ecological traits into their molecular studies. This dissertation aimed at investigating how different types of ecological …

Origin And Maintenance Of The Andean Bird Fauna, Elkin A. Tenorio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The origin and maintenance of the tropical montane diversity have been evaluated over multiple decades using various techniques and perspectives. Despite major progress in understanding phylogenetic relationships, diversification patterns, distributional data, and general ecology in the Andean biota, large gaps in our understanding remain, particularly in the synthesis across scales. To fill these gaps, I aimed to explore patterns and processes that underlie species diversification in birds of the tropical Andes of South America by combining different approaches using phenotypic, phylogenetic, and genomic data in multiple temporal and spatial scales.

In the first chapter, I examined the macroevolutionary patterns of …

A Review Of Androctonus Of Iran, With Redescription Of A. Crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) And A. Orientalis (Birula, 1900) Stat. N., And Descriptions Of Four New Species (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Ersen A. Yağmur, František Kovařík, Victor Fet, Graeme Lowe, Mohammad Moradi, Farzaneh Kalami

Euscorpius

No abstract provided.

Abiotic Factors Influencing Anuran Occupation Of Neotropical Brazilian Caves, Vinícius F. Sperandei, Willian Vaz-Silva, Tejerina-Garro L. Francisco

International Journal of Speleology

Despite increasing research on the Neotropical underground environment, anurans remain poorly understood in this habitat. It was analyzed scientific literature records of anurans in Brazilian natural caves and performed a redundancy analysis (RDA) to identify the environmental, taxonomic, geographic, geological and land-use variables that influence their cave occupancy. It was examined a total of 247 literature records, encompassing 83 species/morphospecies, which revealed distinct cave-dwelling tendencies. Some anuran species occupy caves at altitudes between 5 to 21 meters above sea level (m asl), in areas characterized by rocky outcrops and grassland. Others are associated with caves surrounded by forest, savanna, pasture …

Abundance And Demography Of The Wood Turtle (Glyptemys Insculpta) Across Two River Systems In Michigan’S Lower Peninsula, Marianne Kelso

Masters Theses

Turtles worldwide are declining from habitat loss and fragmentation, predation, and illegal collection, and their slow life histories and sensitivity to environmental change make reliable abundance and demographic data critical for conservation. Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) are declining across much of their range, yet baseline information is lacking in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. To fill that gap, we performed standardized visual mark–recapture surveys at 27 one-kilometer river reaches in two distinct watershed systems during springs of 2022 and 2023. Using hierarchical N-mixture models with negative binomial mixtures to account for imperfect detection, we estimated site-level latent abundance and evaluated …

Montserrat Developments Impacting Local Coral Reefs, Emma I. Bartholomew

2025 Symposium

Montserrat is a small island in the Caribbean, and over half of the island is in the exclusion zone because of the active volcano, Soufrière Hills. In that half was the old capital, Plymouth, which has since been abandoned, and its old port. The old port was getting less reliable and accessible, so they decided to build a new port in Little Bay, closer to the seat of government in Brades. This study explored how the addition of the new port impacted the corals in that area. We explored several different bays and recorded the diversity and health of the …

Evaluating The Environmental Determinants Of Tadpole Mouthpart Deformities, Nicholas J. Canfield

Research from the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, 2025

Amphibians are among the most threatened group of animals on the planet, with over 40% of living species facing an extinction risk. These organisms are highly sensitive to environmental change due to their highly permeable skin and complex life cycle that exposes them to stressors in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Amphibian populations that are closely monitored can serve as valuable bioindicators of environmental health because they typically respond rapidly to habitat degradation, decreased water quality, and changes in climate. Tadpoles in particular may act as a “canary in a coal mine” for aquatic ecosystems because they easily develop anatomical …

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xliii. Lanzatus Fuscipalpis Sp. N. From Ethiopia (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

The rare Horn of Africa buthid genus Lanzatus Kovařík, 2001, known only from Somalia and Somaliland, is recorded for the first time from Ethiopia. We describe a new species Lanzatus fuscipalpis sp. n. fully illustrated with color photographs showing its morphology, habitus, hemispermatophore, and collection sites.

Three New Species Of Androctonus From Morocco (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

New data are presented on the taxonomy and distribution of the dark species of the genus Androctonus Ehrenberg, 1828 in Morocco and Western Sahara. Three new species, A. argoubi sp. n., A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n. from Morocco are described, characterized by having metasoma I–IV ventrally punctate, a character that is well developed in A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n., and weakly developed in A. argoubi sp. n. Dark species from Morocco are compared with A. sergenti Vachon, 1948, and A. bourdoni Vachon, 1948. We describe and compare their …

Nueva Metodología De Análisis Para Determinar El Delito Ambiental De Ecocidio Por Glifosato En Cultivos Permanentes De Coca En Colombia, Rosalina González Forero, Jerry H. Kavouras, Érika González Ruiz

Biology Department Faculty Articles

El crimen organizado transnacional ha sido nefasto para el territorio colombiano, en especial el asociado a la producción de coca en la última década, lo que ha generado impactos económicos y sociales debido al aumento del conflicto e inseguridad en las zonas de influencia del cultivo. Esto se debe a que en el 2023 se tenían 230 000 hectáreas sembradas, lo que representa el 20 % de la superficie del país, con un impacto ambiental no cuantificado en términos penales. Este requiere de acciones de entidades estatales, así como de cooperación internacional, para adaptar estrategias y poder judicializar estos delitos …

Isolation And Divergence Of Greater Earless Lizards (Phrynosomatidae: Cophosaurus) In Western North America Support Multiple Diversification Processes And A Complex Demographic History, Christopher Robert Blair, Carlos Joaquín Pavón-Vázquez, Qaantah Rana, Keaka Farleigh, Erika Crispo, Thomas Panzera, Felipe De Medeiros Magalhães, Britt White, Uri Omar Garcia-Vazquez

Publications and Research

The Southwestern US and northern Mexico continue to serve as ideal regions to elucidate the suite of ecological and evolutionary processes influencing lineage diversification. The complex geological history of arid North America, coupled with paleoclimate change during the Pleistocene and diverse ecoregions makes a multipronged approach to hypothesis testing necessary. We combine thousands of loci from a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach along with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from the Greater Earless Lizard (Cophosaurus texanus) to examine diversity and test for cryptic population structure. We also apply recently developed coalescent approaches in a Bayesian framework to estimate migration rates. Population …

Male Mating Preference For Larger Females Does Not Vary Among Age Classes In The Long-Lived Beetle Bolitotherus Cornutus, G. M. Jiron, C. A. Greene, E. D. Brodie Iii, Vincent A. Formica

Biology Faculty Works

Theory and past experimental work suggest that as males age, the strength of their mate preference should decrease. However, the empirical work investigating this question has primarily been conducted in insects that have very short life spans and often live for just a single mating season. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the relationship between male mate preference and age across taxa, as age can conflate with other ecological changes in a single mating season. In this study, we ask how the strength of preference for large female body size changes as males age in a long-lived insect, …

Gamete Size Is Essential For Understanding Sex And Sexual Selection In Humans, Animals, Plants, And Algae But Configurations Of Sex-Linked Traits Are Practically Important For Understanding Sex, David A. Frederick

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

"First, I briefly highlight recent discussions of sex and how they contrast with a gametic central understanding of sex in the executive order. I then provide some background on why gametes have been central to defining sex across species in evolutionary biological sciences. Understanding this perspective is important because it helps understand the competing frames people are using when they talk of sex as binary instead of as a spectrum or a multidimensional configuration of traits. The gametic central framing is essential for understanding sex and sexual selection across species, whereas the multidimensional configuration framing is practically useful in medical, …

Chemically Mediated Communication In Mound-Building Termites, Sree Subha Ramaswamy

Theses and Dissertations

Nest-building in social insects requires layered communication to coordinate complex, functional structures for housing, protection, storage, and homeostasis. This is especially striking in mound-building termites, which construct and repair large mounds collectively despite lacking image-forming eyes. This thesis investigates how Odontotermes obesus achieves such coordination through chemical communication embedded in soil.

Using controlled two-choice assays with manipulated soils, I separated airborne volatile signals from contact non-volatile signals by baking to remove volatiles, a mesh assay that presented volatile cues without contact, and solvent extraction with reapplication of contact cues. I quantified responses in major-only, minor-only, and mixed groups at two …

Northern Arizona Ecological Conservation: Assessing Quaking Aspen Health In Northern Arizona Using Earth Observations, Ikram Morso, Luke Collins, Margaret Cox, Melissa Schwan

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests in Northern Arizona provide critical habitat for endangered bird species and support regional tourism and recreation. However, aspen populations are declining due to a combination of abiotic and biotic stressors. In response, land managers implemented strategies, such as ungulate exclusion fencing, prescribed burns, and stand thinning, but efforts are constrained by limited data on where and when to intervene. This project worked in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, and Northern Arizona University School of Forestry. The team utilized Earth observations …

Investigating Food Web Dynamics Of Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Using A Novel Stable Isotope Approach, Alyssa M. Smith

Masters Theses

Coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes support abundant populations of fish, invertebrates, and vegetation, though the trophic linkages connecting primary production and lower consumers is not well understood in these systems. We implemented a multiple-tracer approach, pairing traditional food web isotope tracers like carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) with total mercury concentrations (THg). We predicted that filamentous algae would be the dominant energy resource in the diet of lower trophic-level invertebrates in the Grand River Estuary, a network of riverine coastal wetlands adjacent to lake Michigan. In addition, we predicted that adding THg as a tracer would improve the resolution …

Abundance, Distribution, And Shoaling Of Driftfishes And Allies (Scombriformes: Stromateoidei) In The Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico, Juliet Tretler

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The suborder Stromateoidei contains 80 species of mesopelagic fishes in five families distributed throughout temperate and tropical seas worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf hereafter). Mesopelagic fishes, especially those that spatially aggregate, serve as important forage items for commercially, recreationally, and ecologically important species of fish, marine mammals, and seabirds. However, knowledge of the ecology and trophic importance of stromateoid fishes in the Gulf is extremely limited. This study provides quantitative information on the species composition, abundance, distribution, and biomass contribution of the stromateoid species to the Gulf deep-pelagic fish assemblage, with comparison to “archetypal” mesopelagic fish families (e.g., …

First Report Of Fibropapillomatosis And Critical Habitat Use In Green Sea Turtles In Curaçao, M. Tripepi, I. J. R. Van Veghel, A. D. Vreugdenhil, E. Brunelli

College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers

Fibropapillomatosis, a disease affecting green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), has been documented in many regions of the world, including the Caribbean, but has not been scientifically reported in Curaçao until now. The present study utilized VHF telemetry in Caracas Bay, Curaçao, to track green sea turtles, both healthy and affected by fibropapillomatosis, with the objective of ascertaining their foraging locations. VHF telemetry proved to be a pivotal method for assessing habitat use in areas characterized by limited visibility and high boat traffic, conditions that present significant challenges for divers and snorkellers attempting to access the area. The results …

The Trophic Ecology Of The Snipe Eel Avocettina Infans (Anguilliformes: Nemichthyidae) In The Deep-Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico, Emma N. Schindler

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The Nemichthyidae (snipe eels) are ubiquitous in the deep-pelagic waters of tropical and temperate latitudes, and in some ecosystems are among the dominant fishes. In the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the nemichthyid species Avocettina infans is one of the dominant large predators. This prompted the current study, where an extensive sample set was utilized to characterize the abundance of the family in total, and the vertical distribution and trophic ecology of A. infans specifically. The nemichthyid abundance from 0 – 1500 m was estimated at 1,106.58 individuals per billion cubic meters, the largest portion of which was …

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xlii. Parabuthus Qaraaf Sp. N. From Ethiopia (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Hassan Sh A. Elmi

Euscorpius

No abstract provided.