Population Biology Commons^™

Biogeography Of Endemic Dragonflies Of The Ozark-Ouachita Interior Highlands, Wade Alexander Boys

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A common pattern across many taxonomic groups is that relatively few species are widespread while the majority are restricted in their geographic ranges. Such species distributions are used to inform conservation status, which poses unique challenges for rare or cryptic species. Further, priority status is often designated within geopolitical boundaries, which may include only a portion of a species range. This, coupled with lack of distributional data, has resulted in species being designated as apparently rare throughout some portions of their range, which may not accurately reflect their overall conservation need. The Interior Highlands region of the central United States …

Presence And Distribution Of Leptodactylus Guianensis Heyer And De Sa, 2011 In Colombia: Comparisons With Other Species In The L. Latrans Group., Mariela Osorno Muñoz, Doris L. Gutiérrez-Lamus, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Leptodactylus guianensis is reported for the first time for Colombia along with a distributional map of the species. The species is the fifth species of the L. latransspecies group documented in the country. Males possess a single, conical and slightly chisel-shaped thumb spine; only three species in the group have a single thumb spine. In collections, specimens of L. guianensis are misidentified as L. macrosternum, L. latrans or L. bolivianus. We provide morphological, colouration and habitat descriptions for where the species occurs in Colombia.

Board Invited Review: Prospects For Improving Management Of Animal Disease Introductions Using Disease-Dynamic Models, Ryan S. Miller, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Management and policy decisions are continually made to mitigate disease introductions in animal populations despite often limited surveillance data or knowledge of disease transmission processes. Science-based management is broadly recognized as leading to more effective decisions yet application of models to actively guide disease surveillance and mitigate risks remains limited. Disease-dynamic models are an efficient method of providing information for management decisions because of their ability to integrate and evaluate multiple, complex processes simultaneously while accounting for uncertainty common in animal diseases. Here we review disease introduction pathways and transmission processes crucial for informing disease management and models at the …

The Piping Plover Problem: A Review Of Management Issues For A Threatened Shorebird, Andrew Lydeard, Gerry Harris

Scholars Week

Andrew Lydeard and Gerry Harris

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) was federally listed in 1986. Since listing, Piping Plovers have been a focus of conservation and management efforts, particularly on their breeding grounds in the Northern Great Plains, Great Lakes, and northern Atlantic Coast. Despite management efforts that have resulted in range-wide population growth of the Piping Plover, growth in individual populations is often slow and reasons for this are poorly understood. A bias towards understanding drivers of declines on breeding sites compared to wintering and migratory stopover sites may be an underlying cause of this lack of …

Quantifying Atlantic Sea Scallop (Placopecten Magellanicus) Larval Abundance Throughout Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Hannah Haskell, Britney Evangelista, Alex Loftis

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

As markets for the Atlantic Sea scallop are growing, the need for sustainable and reliable harvesting methods such as aquaculture is more imperative than ever. Due to the difficulty of maintaining sea scallop hatcheries, scallop farmers typically collect larvae from the ocean and raise them until a marketable size on lease sites. In order to efficiently collect scallop larvae, being able to predict when the larvae are most abundant in the water column is crucial. The goal of our research was to learn when scallop larvae are most abundant in the water column and to determine if there is a …

Habitat Ecology, Species Presense, And Public Perception Of Three Declining Bat Species In Southeastern Missouri, Amy Hammesfahr, Christine Rega-Brodsky, Kathryn Womack-Bulliner

Posters

The populations of three bat species, the Northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), tricolored bat (Per­imyotis subflavus), and little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), have declined in southeastern Missouri since the in­troduction of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in 2012. The current maternity habitat of the remaining populations in the counties of Shannon, Carter, and Reynolds are unknown. In order to provide protection and conservation for the species, it is critical that their maternity roosts be identified. To achieve these goals, we will incorporate bat survey tools such as acoustic surveys, acoustic lures, and mist netting within the three counties to determine spe­cies occupancy …

Climate Change Impacts On Bird Communities Vary Throughout Cities In Kansas, Lindsey Williams, Christine Brodsky

Posters

It is important to study climate change’s impacts on biodiversity in order to find a solution before the effects on wildlife are irreversible. Our research objective for this project was to determine if climate change affected long-term bird trends in urban and rural areas throughout Kansas. Our hypothesis was that climate change will decrease bird abundance and species richness because altered climate patterns like storms, droughts, and heat waves, may cause a decrease in suitable habitat. We would expect these trends to be strongest in cities, due to the urban heat island effect. The methods used for this project included …

Mammals Of The Northern Andes: An Analysis Of Camera Trap Data And Observation In Angochagua, Ecuador, Risa Berman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The high Andes of Ecuador are home to a diverse community of mammals, many of which are threatened. These include the Andean bear, Andean fox, puma, and mountain tapir. This study used camera traps, direct observation, and indirect observation over three weeks to monitor the wildlife in the mountains of the Parroquia of Angochagua. The five species observed during this period were Andean bear, Andean fox, dog, mountain paca, and mouse. While this short study did not completely survey the mammalian community of the area, it confirmed the presence, diet, sociality, temporal habits, elevational range, and habitat preferences of the …

The Giant Rodents Of Sumak Allpa: A Preliminary Study Of The Ecological Niche Of Amazonian Capybaras In Ecuador, Brynn Furey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sumak Allpa is an island on the Napo River in the eastern rainforest of the Orellana Province of Ecuador that functions as a rehabilitation center for primates. The objective of this investigation is to conduct a preliminary study on the ecological niche of the Amazonian capybaras ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ) that inhabit Sumak Allpa and a small adjacent island known in this study as Island A. Very little information is known about jungle capybaras, especially in Ecuador, and this study aims to establish baseline information about their distribution, diet, and population dynamics. Research was conducted throughout the day, with mornings …

A Survey Of Beetle Diversity (Order Coleoptera) On Lizard Island, John Mccormack

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The beetles (order Coleoptera) of Lizard Island, a small granitic island on the mid shelf of the Great Barrier Reef, have never been assessed in the scientific literature. Prior to our work, only a single beetle genus had been documented on the island (Caryotrypes Decelle, 1968), based on a single specimen collected in 1993 (Reid & Beatson 2013). We conducted a survey of Lizard Island in April 2019 to determine which beetle families are present on the island and which families are the most diverse. The survey also assessed the beetle diversity in different habitats on the island and two …

Quantifying The Effects Of Trail Traffic On Nearby Plant Communities And Implications For Trail Users, Eli Robinson, Lein Turley

Achieve

Human activities, such as hiking and biking, have been shown to reduce the height, coverage, and species richness of vegetation along trail systems. Yet, research on the effects of such activities on Tennessee trail systems is limited. The goal of this study is twofold. First, it is to identify to what possible extent these activities along the White Oak Mountain trail system (Southern Adventist University) have on wildflower population abundance and diversity. Secondary, it is to discuss whether the mental health advantages of being outdoors outweigh possible adverse effects that human activity has on nature. Ten permanent quadrats were set …

Expanded Phenotypic Diagnoses For 24 Recently Named New Taxa Of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), Nick V. Grishin

The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey

Expanded diagnoses by phenotypic characters for the 24 new taxa named in the article "Genomes of skipper butterflies reveal extensive convergence of wing patterns" by Li, W., Cong, Q., Shen, J., Zhang, J., Hallwachs, W., Janzen, D.H. and Grishin, N.V., 2019 and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on March 15, 2019 are provided and illustrated. More detailed diagnoses will help identifying these phylogenetic groups by their wing patterns and shapes and other morphological characters including the structures of antennae and genitalia using this single publication, instead of obtaining the …

Population Characteristics Of Co-Managed White Bass And Hybrid Striped Bass In Lake Mcconaughy, Nebraska, Benjamin J. Schall, Casey W. Schoenebeck, Keith D. Koupal

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

White Bass (Morone chrysops) and Hybrid Striped Bass (M. saxatillis × M. chrysops) populations often coexist in the same waterbody and are known to achieve different lengths, have differing reproductive success, and provide different opportunities for anglers. However, comparative population dynamics from systems where Moronids are managed with the same regulation is often lacking. This study aimed to assess the recruitment, mortality, and growth of these species from seasonal samples collected at Lake McConaughy in 2015 and fall 2016. White Bass demonstrated highly variable recruitment in Lake McConaughy despite stocking efforts (mean recruitment variability index = …

Modelling Non-Linear Functional Responses In Competitive Biological Systems., Nickolas Goncharenko

Western Research Forum

One of the most versatile and well understood models in mathematical biology is the Competitive Lotka Volterra (CLV) model, which describes the behaviour of any number of exclusively competitive species (that is each species competes directly with every other species). Despite it's success in describing many phenomenon in biology, chemistry and physics the CLV model cannot describe any non-linear environmental effects (including resource limitation and immune response of a host due to infection). The reason for this is the theory monotone dynamical systems, which was codeveloped with the CLV model, does not apply when this non-linear effect is introduced. For …

The Accelerating Influence Of Humans On Mammalian Macroecological Patterns Over The Late Quaternary, Felisa A. Smith, Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jonathan L. Payne, Amelia Villaseñor

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The transition of hominins to a largely meat-based diet ~1.8 million years ago led to the exploitation of other mammals for food and resources. As hominins, particularly archaic and modern humans, became increasingly abundant and dispersed across the globe, a temporally and spatially transgressive extinction of large-bodied mammals followed; the degree of selectivity was unprecedented in the Cenozoic fossil record. Today, most remaining large-bodied mammal species are confined to Africa, where they coevolved with hominins. Here, using a comprehensive global dataset of mammal distribution, life history and ecology, we examine the consequences of “body size downgrading” of mammals over the …

Improving Risk Assessment Of The Emergence Of Novel Influenza A Viruses By Incorporating Environmental Surveillance, Kim M. Pepin, Matthew W. Hopken, Susan A. Shriner, Erica Spackman, Zaid Abdo, Colin Parrish, Steven Steven, James O. Lloyd-Smith, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Reassortment is an evolutionary mechanism by which influenza A viruses (IAV) generate genetic novelty. Reassortment is an important driver of host jumps and is widespread according to retrospective surveillance studies.However, predicting the epidemiological risk of reassortant emergence in novel hosts from surveillance data remains challenging. IAV strains persist and cooccur in the environment, promoting co-infection during environmental transmission. These conditions offer opportunity to understand reassortant emergence in reservoir and spillover hosts. Specifically, environmental RNA could provide rich information for understanding the evolutionary ecology of segmented viruses, and transform our ability to quantify epidemiological risk to spillover hosts. However, significant challenges …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 87 March 2019 Number 1

Nebraska Bird Review

NOU Annual Treasurer's Report for 2018, by Jan Johnson … 2

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2018 - Feb. 2019, by W. Ross Silcock …3

2018 - 2019 Christmas Bird Counts, by Don Paseka …15-16 & 25-38

Annual Color Photo Section …17-24

Subscription and Organization Information … 39

2018-2019 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Eighteen counts were held during the 2018-19 Christmas Bird Count season. This is two more than were done last season, which was the first time that as many as sixteen counts were held. This year no counts were postponed or cancelled, and the Beaver Valley Count was revived after a four year hiatus. Twelve of the counts were done during the first week of the count period. While the conditions for these early counts were mild and dry, heavy precipitation in late fall coupled with an early onset of cold weather in the first part of December resulted in little …

Annual Color Photo Section (2019)

Nebraska Bird Review

LeConte's Sparrow, Little Salt Fork Marsh, Lancaster Co., 22 Oct. 2018. Photo by Ruth Stearns.

Harris's Sparrow and Whitecrowned Sparrow, Polk Co., 29 Oct. 2018. Photo by Jan Johnson.

Vesper Sparrow, Chimney Rock Road, Morrill Co., 18 Sept. 2017. Photo by Clem Klaphake.

Fox Sparrow, Mahoney State Park, Cass Co., 25 Feb 2019. Photo by Elizabeth Winter.

Adult Bald Eagle, Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Sarpy Co., 25 Jan. 2019. Photo by Mike Schilmoeller.

White-winged Dove, photographer's yard,Wahoo, Saunders Co., 19 May 2019. Photo by Joe Freeborn.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk, midtown Omaha, Douglas Co,. 18 Aug. 2014. Photo by Craig Crews. …

An Interactive Application For Tracking The Movement Of The Limulus Polyphemus Throughout Long Island Sound (Lis), Ismael Youssef, Samah Senbel, Jennifer Mattei

Biology Faculty Publications

Poster presented at the Long Island Sound Research Conference held March 15, 2019 in Port Jefferson, New York.