Population Biology Commons^™

Mixing It Up: The Impact Of Episodic Introgression On The Evolution Of High-Latitude Mesocarnivores, Jocelyn P. Colella

Biology ETDs

At high latitudes, climatic oscillations have triggered repeated episodes of organismal divergence by geographically isolating populations. For terrestrial species, extended isolation in glacial refugia – ice-free regions that enable terrestrial species persistence through glacial maxima – is hypothesized to stimulate allopatric divergence. Alternatively, upon glacial recession, divergent populations expanded from independent glacial refugia and often contacted other diverging populations. In the absence of reproductive isolating mechanisms, this biogeographic process may trigger hybridization and ultimately, gene flow between divergent taxa. My dissertation research aims to understand how these episodic periods of isolation and contact have impacted the evolution of high latitude …

Taxonomic Features And Comparison Of The Gut Microbiome From Two Edible Fungus-Farming Termites (Macrotermes Falciger, M. Natalensis) Harvested In The Vhembe District Of Limpopo, South Africa, Stephanie L. Schnorr, Courney A. Hofman, Shandukani R. Netschifhefhe, Frances D. Duncan, Tanvi P. Honap, Julie Lesnik, Cecil M. Lewis

Anthropology Faculty Research

Background Termites are an important food resource for many human populations around the world, and are a good supply of nutrients. The fungus-farming ‘higher’ termite members of Macrotermitinae are also consumed by modern great apes and are implicated as critical dietary resources for early hominins. While the chemical nutritional composition of edible termites is well known, their microbiomes are unexplored in the context of human health. Here we sequenced the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of gut microbiota extracted from the whole intestinal tract of two Macrotermes sp. soldiers collected from the Limpopo region of South Africa. Results …

Probability, Populations, Phylogenetics And Hominin Speciation, Niccolo Caldararo

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

A number of recent articles have appeared on the hominin Denisova fossil remains. Many of them focus on attempts to produce DNA sequences from the extracted samples. Often these project mtDNA sequences from the fossil remains of a number of Neandertal fossils and the Denisovans in an attempt to understand the evolution of Mid Pleistocene human ancestors. These papers, introduce a number of problems in the interpretation of speciation in hominins. One concerns the degradation of the ancient DNA and its interpretation as authentic genetic information. Another concerns the idea of “species” versus that of “population” and the use of …

Transmission Dynamics Of Toxoplasma Gondii In Arctic Foxes (Vulpes Lagopus): A Long-Term Mark-Recapture Serologic Study At Karrak Lake, Nunavut, Canada, Emilie Bouchard, Stacey A. Elmore, Ray T. Alisauskas, Gustaf Samelius, Alvin A. Gajadhar, Keaton Schmidt, Sasha Ross, Emily J. Jenkins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Transmission dynamics of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite of importance for wildlife and human health, are enigmatic in the Arctic tundra, where free-ranging wild and domestic felid definitive hosts are absent and rarely observed, respectively. Through a multiyear mark-recapture study (2011– 17), serosurveillance was conducted to investigate transmission of T. gondii in Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) in the Karrak Lake region, Nunavut, Canada. Sera from adult foxes and fox pups were tested for antibodies to T. gondii by using serologic methods, including the indirect fluorescent antibody test, direct agglutination test, and modified agglutination test. The overall seroprevalence was 39% in adults …

Not All Surveillance Data Are Created Equal—A Multi‐Method Dynamic Occupancy Approach To Determine Rabies Elimination From Wildlife, Amy J. Davis, Jordona D. Kirby, Richard B. Chipman, Kathleen M. Nelson, Tatiana Xifara, Colleen T. Webb, Ryan Wallace, Amy T. Gilbert, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. A necessary component of elimination programmes for wildlife disease is effective surveillance. The ability to distinguish between disease freedom and non‐detection can mean the difference between a successful elimination campaign and new epizootics. Understanding the contribution of different surveillance methods helps to optimize and better allocate effort and develop more effective surveillance programmes.

2. We evaluated the probability of rabies virus elimination (disease freedom) in an enzootic area with active management using dynamic occupancy modelling of 10 years of raccoon rabies virus (RABV) surveillance data (2006–2015) collected from three states in the eastern United States. We estimated detection probability …

Short Term Shifts In Soil Nematode Food Feb Structure And Nutrient Cycling Following Sustainable Soil Management In A California Vineyard, Holly M. Deniston-Sheets

Master's Theses

Evaluating soil health using bioindicator organisms has been suggested as a method of analyzing the long-term sustainability of agricultural management practices. The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of vineyard management strategies on soil food web structure and function, using nematodes as bioindicators by calculating established nematode ecological indices. Three field trials were conducted in a commercial Pinot Noir vineyard in San Luis Obispo, California; the effects of (i) fertilizer type (organic and inorganic), (ii) weed management (herbicide and tillage), and (iii) cover crops (high or low water requirements) on nematode community structure, soil nutrient content, …

Survival, Fidelity, And Dispersal Of Double-Crested Cormorants On Two Lake Michigan Islands, Christopher R. Ayers, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, Ken Stromborg, Todd W. Arnold, Jacob S. Ivan, Brian S. Dorr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Colony fidelity and dispersal can have important consequences on the population dynamics of colonial-nesting birds. We studied survival and inter-colony movements of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus; cormorants) nesting at Spider and Pilot islands, located 9 km apart in western Lake Michigan, during 2008–2014. We used live resighting and dead recovery data from both colonies, plus dead recoveries from throughout North America, in a multistate live and dead encounter model to estimate annual survival, inter-colony movements, plus temporary and permanent emigration to unmonitored sites. Annual survival averaged 0.37 (annual process variation, ˆ = 0.07) for hatch-year, 0.78 (ˆ= 0.08) for secondyear, …

Use Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) And Multispectral Imagery For Quantifying Agricultural Areas Damaged By Wild Pigs, Justin W. Fischer, Kelsey Greiner, Mark W. Lutman, Bryson L. Webber, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause extensive damage to agricultural crops, resulting in lost production and income. A major challenge associated with assessing damage to crops is locating and quantifying damaged areas within agricultural fields. We evaluated a novel method using multispectral high-resolution aerial imagery, collected from sensors mounted on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and feature extraction techniques to detect and map areas of corn fields damaged by wild pigs in southern Missouri, USA. Damaged areas were extracted from orthomosaics using visible and near-infrared band combinations, an object-based classification approach, and hierarchical learning cycles. To validate estimates we also collected ground …

Sex-Specific Personalities In The Purple Marsh Crab, Jillian Sterman, Jessica Barton, Panagiota Delmedico, Samantha Sweeney

DePaul Discoveries

Animals are considered to possess personalities when individuals differ in behavior, and these differences are consistent between situations. Several studies have identified personalities in diverse groups but less is known about personality variation between the sexes. In this study, we examined variation in two key personality traits (boldness, activity) in female and male purple marsh crabs (Sesarma reticulatum) using a semi-field approach. Specifically, we measured boldness and activity on two consecutive days using the same behavioral assays during each time point. Consistency (personality) was determined using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance based on Spearman correlation coefficients for each behavior. …

Confronting Models With Data: The Challenges Of Estimating Disease Spillover, Paul C. Cross, Diann J. Prosser, Andrew M. Ramey, Ephraim M. Hanks, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

For pathogens known to transmit across host species, strategic investment in disease control requires knowledge about where and when spillover transmission is likely. One approach to estimating spillover is to directly correlate observed spillover events with covariates. An alternative is to mechanistically combine information on host density, distribution and pathogen prevalence to predict where and when spillover events are expected to occur. We use several case studies at the wildlife–livestock disease interface to highlight the challenges, and potential solutions, to estimating spatiotemporal variation in spillover risk. Datasets on multiple host species often do not align in space, time or resolution, …

Typha (Cattail) Invasion In North American Wetlands: Biology, Regional Problems, Impacts, Ecosystem Services, And Management, Sheel Bansal, Shane C. Lishawa, Sue Newman, Brian A. Tangen, Douglas Wilcox, Dennis Albert, Michael J. Anteau, Michael J. Chimney, Ryann L. Cressey, Edward Dekeyser, Kenneth J. Elgersma, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Joanna Freeland, Richard Grosshans, Page E. Klug, Daniel J. Larkin, Beth A. Lawrence, George Linz, Joy Marburger, Gregory Noe, Clint Otto, Nicholas Reo, Jennifer Richards, Curtis Richardson, Leroy Rodgers, Amy J. Schrank, Dan Svedarsky, Steven Travis, Nancy Tuchman, Lisamarie Windham-Myers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Typha is an iconic wetland plant found worldwide. Hybridization and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in large increases in Typha abundance in wetland ecosystems throughout North America at a cost to native floral and faunal biodiversity. As demonstrated by three regional case studies, Typha is capable of rapidly colonizing habitats and forming monodominant vegetation stands due to traits such as robust size, rapid growth rate, and rhizomatic expansion. Increased nutrient inputs into wetlands and altered hydrologic regimes are among the principal anthropogenic drivers of Typha invasion. Typha is associated with a wide range of negative ecological impacts to wetland and agricultural …

Predicting The Future: Parental Progeny Investment In Response To Environmental Stress Cues, Leah Gulyas, Jennifer R. Powell

Biology Faculty Publications

Environmental stressors can severely limit the ability of an organism to reproduce as lifespan is decreased and resources are shifted away from reproduction to survival. Although this is often detrimental to the organism’s reproductive fitness, certain other reproductive stress responses may mitigate this effect by increasing the likelihood of progeny survival in the F1 and subsequent generations. Here we review three means by which these progeny may be conferred a competitive edge as a result of stress encountered in the parental generation: heritable epigenetic modifications to nucleotides and histones, simple maternal investments of cytosolic components, and the partially overlapping phenomenon …

Hawk On Wire: Ecopoems By Scott T. Starbuck, Vivian M. Hansen

The Goose

Review of Scott T. Starbuck’s Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems

Heterogeneity In Surface Sensing Suggests A Division Of Labor In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Populations, Catherine R. Armbuster, Calvin K. Lee, Jessica Parker-Gilham, Jaime De Anda, Aiguo Xia, Kun Zhao, Keiji Murakami, Boo Shan Tseng, Lucas R. Hoffman, Fan Jin, Caroline S. Harwood, Gerard Cl Wong, Matthew R. Parsek

Life Sciences Faculty Research

The second messenger signaling molecule cyclic diguanylate monophosphate (c-di-GMP) drives the transition between planktonic and biofilm growth in many bacterial species. Pseudomonas aeruginosa has two surface sensing systems that produce c-di-GMP in response to surface adherence. Current thinking in the field is that once cells attach to a surface, they uniformly respond by producing c-di-GMP. Here, we describe how the Wsp system generates heterogeneity in surface sensing, resulting in two physiologically distinct subpopulations of cells. One subpopulation has elevated c-di-GMP and produces biofilm matrix, serving as the founders of initial microcolonies. The other subpopulation has low c-di-GMP and engages in …

Extreme Site Fidelity As An Optimal Strategy In An Unpredictable And Homogeneous Environment, Brian D. Gerber, Mevin B. Hooten, Christopher P. Peck, Mindy B. Rice, James H. Gammonley, Anthony D. Apa, Amy J. Davis

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Animal site fidelity structures space use, population demography and ultimately gene flow. Understanding the adaptive selection for site fidelity patterns provides a mechanistic understanding to both spatial and population processes. This can be achieved by linking space use with environmental variability (spatial and temporal) and demographic parameters. However, rarely is the environmental context that drives the selection for site fidelity behaviour fully considered.

2. We use ecological theory to understand whether the spatial and temporal variability in breeding site quality can explain the site fidelity behaviour and demographic patterns of Gunnison sage‐grouse (Centrocercus minimus). We examined female site fidelity …

Spring Field Report, March - May 2019, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

There were many significant reports, including high and low numbers, early and late dates, out-of-range sightings including nesting, and, of course, rarities. High numbers were led by geese; an amazing 1.7 million Snows were estimated by acreage (!) and counts of 10,000 Greater White-fronted and 100,000 Canada Geese were near-record high counts for spring. A bit surprising as record spring counts were 3000 European Starlings and 3000 American White Pelicans. Nightjar surveys by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and others yielded an amazing 40+ Chuck-will’s-widows in the southeast; Ruddy Turnstones put on a show with 85 in Platte Co; 127 …

Book Review: Sparrows Of North America By Rick Wright, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This book is a tour de force.

Not only is it a comprehensive summary of field identification, range, and taxonomy of species of the New World family Passerellidae, but the introductory paragraphs for each species, which describe the provenance of the English and Latin species names we know today, read like a historical novel that is a perfect vehicle for Wright to display his well-known erudition and could quite justifiably stand alone. Wright’s extensive research into often obscure places and sources that may be penetrated and interpreted only by one with his classical literary background is clear in these historical …

Nou Spring Field Days And Annual Meeting, Fairbury, May 17-19, 2019, Janis Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

The NOU Annual Meeting and Spring Field Days, organized by Jan Johnson, was held in Fairbury on May 17-19, 2019, with 64 in attendance. Our meetings and meals took place in the 4-H building at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Despite the forecast for rain, the weather was perfect on Saturday morning, with rain arriving only in the late afternoon. Wind made listening for nightjars difficult on both evenings and it continued to be a problem on Sunday, but the total species list for the meeting was 165. Field trips were led by Shari Schwartz, John Carlini, Bill Flack, and Ross …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 87 June 2019 Number 2

Nebraska Bird Review

Spring Field Report, March - May 2019, by W. Ross Silcock …42-61

Book Review: Sparrows of North America by Rick Wright, reviewed by W. Ross Silcock …62-65

NOU Spring Field Days and Annual Meeting in Fairbury, May 17-19, 2019, by Janis Paseka … 65

Subscription and Organization Information …71

Law Library Blog (June 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.