Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

A Genetic Survey Of English Sole Populations In The Salish Sea, Elizabeth S. Gutierrez, Gary A. Winans, Jon Baker, Amanda Cope

STAR Program Research Presentations

This summer I interned at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA and participated in NOAA’s Salish Sea Project. The Salish Sea Project’s goal is to identify genetically distinctive groups of species in the Salish Sea that may have unique evolutionary and/or adaptive backgrounds. These findings will allow NOAA to promote and monitor the natural production of species in the Salish Sea, to select representative populations for experimental work regarding pollution, ocean acidification and climate change, to contribute to managing the ecosystem for intra- and inter-species diversity, and to help make informed decisions about adaptive management and marine protected …

Functional Response Of Protected Larval Stage Delta Smelt (Hypomesus Transpacificus), Jorge Ruiz, Lindsay Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer, Joan Lindberg

STAR Program Research Presentations

Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is a protected slender-bodied fish endemic to the San Francisco Estuary. Smelt prey upon various zooplankton including the copepods such as Pseudodiaptomus forbesi. This experiment studied the prey maximum feeding rate of 2 larval stages (21 DHP, 35 DPH) of Delta smelt on various concentrations of P. forbesi. The copepod prey was offered at 7 different concentrations (2No./L–120No./L). After feeding was terminated the free prey and ingested prey were counted and analyzed to find the feeding rate of Delta smelt. Maximum feeding rate was found to be at much higher prey densities …

Developing Monitoring Methods For Leptasterias Spp. As Sentinel Species In Detecting Local Environmental Changes, Zachary Sturbaum, Kathryn Nuessly, Riley J. Smith, C. Sarah Cohen

STAR Program Research Presentations

Leptasterias spp., a six-rayed sea star, is found in rocky intertidal habitats ranging from Alaska to central California. Leptasterias spp. can be monitored on a broad scale throughout their range by a variety of means using timed counts and random plot censusing in order to detect both large-scale and local-level changes in the environment due to climate change, land-based human activity, or other environmental events. Leptasterias brood their young externally until the embryos grow into fully developed juveniles. These juveniles disperse by crawling away, limiting their dispersal potential. This localized dispersal provides an opportunity to use Leptasterias spp …

Testing The Salinity Tolerance Levels Of Similar Invasive Species Found In The San Francisco Bay, Julia M. Smith, C. Sarah Cohen, Elizabeth Sheets

STAR Program Research Presentations

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay

Julia Smith^1,2, Elizabeth Sheets², and C. Sarah Cohen²

¹Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento ²Department of Biology and Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University

Three non-indigenous colonial ascidian species, Botrylloides violaceus, Botrylloides diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri, have become well established in San Francisco Bay. Two species, B. violaceous and B. schlosseri, are globally distributed, and understanding the salinity ranges and tolerances of these successful invaders in their introduced habitats is important for …

Size And Weight Changes Of Leatherback Hatchlings Among Emergence Groups, Shane Morales, Kelly Stewart

STAR Program Research Presentations

In ideal leatherback sea turtle nests, all the hatchlings move together as a single group through the sand to leave the nest. Often, though, hatchlings emerge in two separate groups hours or days apart while others remain stuck in the sand where they may die unless they are dug out (excavation). First emergence groups spend the shortest amount of time in the sand while excavated hatchlings spend the longest amount of time in the sand (typically three days longer than first emergence hatchlings). Individuals from each of the separate emergences were weighed and measured (carapace only) in order to compare …

Greater Galagos Near Mt. Kasigau, Kenya: Population Density Estimates, Andrea Falcetto

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined population density and habitat use of a species of greater galago, genus Otolemur, around Mt. Kasigau, Kenya. Mt. Kasigau has a unique regional microclimate, a cloud forest, which provides many different flora and fauna a home. To examine population density, two different methods were used. The first method was using line transects and analyzing results using Distance 6.0. These surveys were conducted during both dry and wet season and results were compared after the study. The second method was to trap individuals and use mark-recapture to determine population density. When caught in a trap, individuals were …

Next Generation Sequencing Reveals Gene Expression Patterns In The Zebrafish Inner Ear Following Growth Hormone Injection, Gopinath Rajadinakaran

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Loss of hair cells due to acoustic trauma results in the loss of hearing. In humans, unlike other vertebrates, the mechanism of hair cell regeneration is not possible. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this regeneration in nonmammalian vertebrates remain elusive. To understand the gene regulation during hair cell regeneration, our previous microarray study on zebrafish inner ears found that growth hormone (GH) was significantly upregulated after noise exposure. In this current study, we utilized Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to examine the genes and pathways that are significantly regulated in the zebrafish inner ear following sound exposure and GH injection. Four …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of September Hunting Seasons On Canada Geese In Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper, Mark P. Vrtiska, Larkin A. Powell, Scott E. Hygnstrom

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Populations of temperate-nesting Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have increased in Nebraska, USA, resulting in an increased number of nuisance and damage complaints. September hunting seasons were initiated in southeastern Nebraska in 2004 to reduce populations of Canada geese. We analyzed band recoveries from Canada geese banded in southeastern Nebraska during their hatch-year (HY) or after-hatch-year (AHY) to determine whether September hunting seasons affected survival, harvest, and recovery rates. Survival analyses revealed that HY geese had higher survival than AHY geese (SAHY = 0.696, 95% CI = 0.679–0.713; SHY = 0.896, 95% CI = 0.786–0.953) and September seasons did …

Discovering The Light Bulb Tunicate, James F. Reinhardt Phd, Margaret (Peg) A. Van_Patten (Editor) Ms.

Wrack Lines

An article by a former UCONN marine sciences graduate student about a new invasive tunicate in Long Island Sound, the light bulb tunicate.

Modeling And Mathematical Analysis Of Plant Models In Ecology, Eric A. Eager

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Population dynamics tries to explain in a simple mechanistic way the variations of the size and structure of biological populations. In this dissertation we use mathematical modeling and analysis to study the various aspects of the dynamics of plant populations and their seed banks.

In Chapter 2 we investigate the impact of structural model uncertainty by considering different nonlinear recruitment functions in an integral projection model for Cirsium canescens. We show that, while having identical equilibrium populations, these two models can elicit drastically different transient dynamics. We then derive a formula for the sensitivity of the equilibrium population to …

Phylogenetic Relationships Within Columnea Section Angustiflorae: Insights Into Forces Driving Speciation, Lacie Janelle Schulte

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Determining the specific factors that played a role in speciation previously took extensive resources that made such studies nearly intractable. Despite the difficulties presented by speciation studies, we are still interested in determining what forces drive the process of evolution to gain a better understanding of divergence among species. Advances in technology allow for a new approach to speciation studies, beginning with molecular phylogenetic analyses that identify the species within a monophyletic clade and generate a species-level phylogeny. Molecular data are an independent source of data and provide a phylogeny to map both morphological characters and ecological parameters. Identifying patterns …

Resilience Limitations And Resistance Of Hyporheic Microbial Communities From Chronic Heavy Metal Contamination Environments: Analysis With The Novel Resazurin Resorufin Smart Tracer, Daniel Joseph Stanaway

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

River ecosystems are among the most threatened and rapidly altering systems in the world because of anthropogenic disturbance. Chronic heavy metal contamination of lotic environments is a global concern and a widespread environmental and human health threat. This persistent stressor can shape microbial community structure and function, often selecting for the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics that increase fitness in toxic environments and may encumber the microbial community hosting metal resistance mechanisms with additional energetic costs. This cost should be expressed in heterotrophic aerobic microbial metabolism, a primary ecological process variable and can be estimated through respiration measurements. Hyporheic respiration is …

Foraging Challenges: Unsuitable Prey And Limited Information, Travis M. Hinkelman

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Food acquisition is a complicated task. The profitability of potential food items depends on numerous factors, including the spatial distribution, probability of detection and capture, and suitability of the food. Animals faced with such challenges can use relatively simple mechanisms to maximize foraging efficiency. However, mechanisms that maximize foraging efficiency under some ecological conditions (e.g., prey scarcity) may produce ostensibly suboptimal behavior under different ecological conditions (e.g., prey abundance). In the work presented here, we explore two facets of foraging: (1) consuming unsuitable prey, and (2) searching for resources with limited information about resource location. To explore the consequences of …

Scorpion Phylogeography In The North American Aridlands, Matthew Ryan Graham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Understanding the geographic, geologic, and climatic forces responsible for generating current patterns of biodiversity has been a central objective of phylogeography. To develop a better understanding of these processes in the North American arid lands, I used DNA sequence data and species distribution modeling to conduct three phylogeographic assessments incorporating four species of arid-adapted scorpions:Hadrurus arizonensis, H. jedediah, H. spadix,and Paruroctonus becki. In an assessment of H. arizonensis, phylogeographic patterns indicate that Pleistocene climate cycles and associated glacial refugia played a central role in structuring the genetic diversity of this species in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, mostly supporting predictions …

Interactions Between Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ovis Canadensis Canadensis And Domestic Sheep Ovis Aries And The Biological, Social, Economic, And Legal Implications Of These Interactions On Usda Forest Service Lands In The Evanston/Mt. View Ranger District, Ashly Nicole Herrera

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Strong evidence exists indicating domestic sheep (Ovis aries) can infect Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis), a United States Forest Service (USFS) Region 4 sensitive species, with pneumonia (Callan 1991; Foreyt 1989, 1992, 1994; Foreyt and Lagerquist 1996; George et al 2008; Wehausen et al. 2011). Since the transmission of the pneumonic bacteria between the domestic and wild sheep is a result of bighorn sheep coming into contact with the bacteria carried in the mucous membranes of the domestic sheep, bighorn sheep at risk of initially contracting the bacteria are those individuals that enter areas currently being grazed or …

How Sanak Aleut Fit Into The Intertidal Food Web, Jennifer A. Dunne, Spencer Wood, Roly Russell, Nancy Huntly, Matthew Betts, Herbert Maschner

Biology Faculty Publications

Almost everyone learns about the concept of ecological "food chains" in grade school. An example of a marine food chain is shown on the left-hand side of the chart to the left: phytoplankton are eaten by mussels, which are eaten by octopus, which are eaten by sea otters, which are eaten by humans. These feeding interactions can be abstractly represented as five "nodes" connected in a single chain by four links, as shown on the right-hand side of the diagram to the left. The food chain shown is one of the thousands of interlinked food chains that make up the …

The Ecological Interactions Of Sanak, Nancy Huntly, Spencer Wood, Roly Russell

Biology Faculty Publications

Ecology is not only about the interesting biology of organisms, as described for Sanak Island in the last chapter, but also about interactions: interactions between animals (including people), plants, microbes, the habitats that they live in, and the environments that surround them. The ecology of Sanak Island today reflects not only today's conditions, but also shows the imprint of the distant history of interactions of the island, especially, as we will see below, the imprint of the Aleut people that have made this island their home.

Nature's Perfect Food, Geoffrey D. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Nature's Perfect Food is an article that describes the history of local beekeeper Jack Hartman and the benefit of local honey bees to agriculture and honey consumers.

The Breeding Biology Of The Northern Pygmy Owl: Do The Smallest Of The Small Have An Advantage?, John F. Deshler, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We explored the breeding biology of the Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma) from 2007 to 2009 in a forested reserve in Portland, Oregon. Large body size is often assumed to give animals reproductive advantages, and we tested whether body size affected timing of breeding and examined variation in diet, breeding date, clutch size, and reproductive success to explore whether the presumed benefits of large body size are evident in this species. The average size of 13 clutches was 5.8, and nest success was high (92%); 22 successful nests fledged an average of 5.2 young. Dates of first laying varied …

Trophy Hunting And Trophy Size In Ugalla Game Reserve, Western Tanzania, P Wilfred

Tanzania Journal of Science

The present paper explores trends and variations in trophy size among wildlife species hunted in the Ugalla Game Reserve (UGR) of western Tanzania, in relation to hunting success (animals shot species-1 quota-1). Data on trophy hunting from 2006 – 2010 were obtained from the UGR office in Tabora Region. Forty-seven species were targeted by trophy hunters. Hunting success differed significantly across the species (Generalised Linear Model [GLM] with a binomial error structure: deviance chi-square [X2] = 9.64, d.f. = 44, p<0.001). Twenty-eight species had trophy size measurements, but only 6 species had measurements taken consistently throughout the data period. Although most of the shot animals were above their minimum trophy size limits (official trophy limits below which animals could not be removed) there was significant variation among species (GLM with normal errors: F5,201 = 509.12, p<0.001). Time (years) had no significant effect on trophy size, but the trend over time in trophy size differed significantly among species (F5,194 = 5.42, p<0.001). Of the trophy species, greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) had the largest mean trophy size, whereas warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) had  the lowest trophy size and showed a considerable decline. The majority of the animals had trophy sizes hovering just above their minimum limits. This should be monitored rigorously to avoid removing large numbers of actively breeding animals.