Do Heat Waves Drive Natural Selection In Damselflies?, 2024 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Do Heat Waves Drive Natural Selection In Damselflies?, Adam Baranyk
Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses
Climate change has led to changes in both mean temperatures and temperature extremes over the recent years. These changes have had differential effects on animals throughout the world. Ectotherms depend on their external environment for thermal regulation, making them especially susceptible to temperature extremes. It is not yet clear whether there is a relationship between physical traits in ectotherms, and survivorship throughout a heat wave. That is, whether or not temperature extremes driven survival selection. In this study, a heat wave was simulated artificially using thermally regulated mesocosms at different temperatures (18°C, 22° C, 26° C, 30° C) with a …
A Survey Of Mussels In Small Tributaries Of The Ouachita River Headwaters, 2024 Arkansas Tech University
A Survey Of Mussels In Small Tributaries Of The Ouachita River Headwaters, Aaron J. Huckeba, Seth Drake, Kendall Moles, Risa Mccollough, Nathan Mansor
ATU Research Symposium
Understanding species distributions is of utmost importance for effective conservation of aquatic resources. Freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled taxonomic groups as they are experiencing rapid declines in the southeastern United States. Standard mussel surveys are typically conducted on larger streams and rivers, leaving small headwater tributaries unsampled. Our study looked to document mussels in headwater tributaries of the Ouachita River watershed. We conducted standardized time-based surveys at 19 sites across nine tributaries using snorkeling, grubbing, and raking methodologies in the summer of 2023. Furthermore, we collected measurements on water quality (pH, conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, and temperature) …
Summer 2024 Research Proposal: Swanberg Sanctuary Prairie Plant Community Characterization And Management Testing, 2024 Olivet Nazarene University
Summer 2024 Research Proposal: Swanberg Sanctuary Prairie Plant Community Characterization And Management Testing, Jillian Becksfort
Scholar Week 2016 - present
Prairie management is an involved process that is focused on maintaining existing grassland plant and animal communities. Invasive species and the spread of woody shrubs and trees presents a real threat to the existing prairie. Woody stems can affect resources such as water access and nutrient availability, which may cause changes to the prairie’s unique plant communities. Management techniques like burning and mowing are commonly used to prevent woody stems from causing changes to the prairie ecosystem. The Sanctuary was restored to natural prairie habitat in 2008 and a list of planted species is available. However, no plant surveys have …
Water Lily Leaf Beetle Ecology On Hourglass Lake In Big Lake, Alaska, 2024 Olivet Nazarene University
Water Lily Leaf Beetle Ecology On Hourglass Lake In Big Lake, Alaska, Haley Lloyd, Grace Beatty
Scholar Week 2016 - present
The Water-Lily Leaf beetle, Galerucella nymphaeae, is a beetle commonly found on Western Pond Lily pads, Nuphar lutea, in Hourglass Lake. Hourglass Lake is located in Big Lake, Alaska. This area is surrounded by boreal forest and bogs and is situated roughly twenty miles North of Anchorage. Within this ecosystem, the Water-Lily Leaf Beetle and the Western Pond Lily are intrinsically linked, as the lily pads serve as a site of feeding and reproduction for the beetles. Dr. Derek Rosenberger of Olivet Nazarene University noticed an abundance of these beetles as he was kayaking through Hourglass Lake, and a project …
Rescape: Transforming Coral-Reefscape Images For Quantitative Analysis, 2024 Florida Institute of Technology
Rescape: Transforming Coral-Reefscape Images For Quantitative Analysis, Zachary Ferris, Eraldo Ribeiro, Tomofumi Nagata, Robert Van Woesik
Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications
Ever since the first image of a coral reef was captured in 1885, people worldwide have been accumulating images of coral reefscapes that document the historic conditions of reefs. However, these innumerable reefscape images suffer from perspective distortion, which reduces the apparent size of distant taxa, rendering the images unusable for quantitative analysis of reef conditions. Here we solve this century-long distortion problem by developing a novel computer-vision algorithm, ReScape, which removes the perspective distortion from reefscape images by transforming them into top-down views, making them usable for quantitative analysis of reef conditions. In doing so, we demonstrate the …
Spatial Mapping Of The Benthic Community And How It Is Used To Research Effects Of Dredging In Louisiana's Lake Borgne., 2024 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Spatial Mapping Of The Benthic Community And How It Is Used To Research Effects Of Dredging In Louisiana's Lake Borgne., Meghan Johnson
LSU Master's Theses
Benthic communities are vitally important for healthy aquatic ecosystems across Louisiana’s coast. Specifically in Lake Borgne, ecologically important species of fish like the Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi) rely on benthic macrofauna as their main food source. The purpose of this study was to determine the spatial landscape of biodiversity and abundance of the benthic macrofauna community in Lake Borgne. Environmental conditions played a key role in community structure during the study period (fall 2021 through summer 2023) with a major drought occurring in 2023. In 2023, the decline in the abundance of most benthic invertebrates and in …
Climate Change-Associated Declines In Water Clarity Impair Feeding By Common Loons, 2024 Chapman University
Climate Change-Associated Declines In Water Clarity Impair Feeding By Common Loons, Walter H. Piper, Max R. Glines, Kevin C. Rose
Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research
Climate change has myriad impacts on ecosystems, but the mechanisms by which it affects individual species can be difficult to pinpoint. One strategy to discover such mechanisms is to identify a specific ecological factor related to survival or reproduction and determine how that factor is affected by climate. Here we used Landsat imagery to calculate water clarity for 127 lakes in northern Wisconsin from 1995 to 2021 and thus investigate the effect of clarity on the body condition of an aquatic visual predator, the common loon (Gavia immer). In addition, we examined rainfall and temperature as potential predictors …
Use Of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (Drones) Based Remote Sensing To Model Platform Topography And Identify Human-Made Earthen Barriers In Salt Marshes, 2024 University of Massachusetts Amherst
Use Of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (Drones) Based Remote Sensing To Model Platform Topography And Identify Human-Made Earthen Barriers In Salt Marshes, Joshua J. Ward
Masters Theses
Elevation is a foundational driver of salt marsh morphology. Elevation governs inundation and hydrological patterns, vegetation distribution, and soil health. Anthropogenic impacts at grand scales (e.g., rising sea levels) and local scales (e.g., infrastructure) have altered the elevation of the salt marsh surface, changing the topography and morphology of these ecosystems. This study establishes and assesses means to document and analyze these impacts using Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based remote sensing to model platform topography. This thesis’s first and primary study presents and compares methods of producing high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) with UAV-based Digital Aerial Photogrammetry (DAP) and Light …
Drone Imagery Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Effects On Coastal Primary Productivity On Coral Reefs In Maunalua Bay, Hawai'i, 2024 Pepperdine University
Drone Imagery Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Effects On Coastal Primary Productivity On Coral Reefs In Maunalua Bay, Hawai'i, Lulu Wang, Florybeth Flores La Valle, Grace Kim
Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) plays a crucial role in coastal ecosystems, especially coral reefs, by introducing terrestrial nutrients and freshwater, significantly affecting the primary productivity of coastal ecosystems and potentially altering ecological balances. La Valle et al. (2023) emphasized the importance of SGD in nutrient distribution and algal productivity, highlighting the need for comprehensive understanding and management strategies in the face of increasing nutrient runoff due to land use changes due to increased population. To better understand the impact, our experiments utilize remote sensing and data science by using a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drone with a thermal imaging camera …
Effectiveness Of Frog Skin Secretions Against Uv-B Radiation, 2024 Pepperdine University
Effectiveness Of Frog Skin Secretions Against Uv-B Radiation, Connor Mcgaha, Kinkade Mcmurray, Lee B. Kats
Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium
As an increasing number of their species face possible extinction, amphibian populations have been steadily declining over the past decades (IUCN). While various factors have been suggested or proven to be partially responsible for this reduction, increased ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR) appears to be one of the more prominent explanations, especially when considering the continual thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer due to anthropogenic climate change. However, it has also been discovered that skin secretions, which are reported to function as a component of amphibians’ innate immune systems, may have an effect on UVBR (Cramp and Franklin). With this in …
Assessing Biological Condition Of Restored Streams In An Agriculturally Impaired Chesapeake Bay Sub-Watershed, 2024 James Madison University
Assessing Biological Condition Of Restored Streams In An Agriculturally Impaired Chesapeake Bay Sub-Watershed, Julia M. Portmann, Bruce Wiggins
Department of Biology - Faculty Scholarship
Intensive agricultural practices can be detrimental to aquatic biological conditions; however, restoration such as removing livestock and creating in-stream habitat can strengthen biotic communities. Smith Creek, a sub-watershed of the Chesa- peake Bay, was designated a showcase watershed in 2010 by the United States Department of Agriculture to demonstrate the efficacy of widespread restoration. Our study sought to follow up on these efforts by assessing the individual and combined impacts of restoration, habitat, and land cover on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in Smith Creek. We predicted that longer-restored sites, sites with less surrounding pasture, and streams with larger substrate size would …
Fisheries Occasional Publication No.146 - Yabbie Aquaculture In Western Australia, March 2024, 2024 Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia
Fisheries Occasional Publication No.146 - Yabbie Aquaculture In Western Australia, March 2024, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia
Fisheries occasional publications
Policy relating to the assessment of yabbie aquaculture proposals and principles for assessment
Lichen Ecosystem Services And A Study From The Nj Pine Barrens, 2024 West Chester University
Lichen Ecosystem Services And A Study From The Nj Pine Barrens, Gregory Turner
Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations
Professor Greg Turner of the WCU Biology Department presents Lichen Ecosystem Services and a Study from the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Taxonomic Advances Driven By The Genomic Analysis Of Butterflies, 2024 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Taxonomic Advances Driven By The Genomic Analysis Of Butterflies, Jing Zhang, Qian Cong, Jinhui Shen, Leina Song, Nick V. Grishin
The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey
This study presents new findings based on a large-scale analysis of butterfly genomic sequences. Focusing on species identification through comparative genomics, we define subspecies as populations differentiated to a lesser extent than distinct species ("species in the making"). Additionally, we propose further adjustments to the current butterfly classification. As a result, 3 subgenera, 12 species, and 4 subspecies are described as new. New subgenera are (type species in parenthesis): Hyalaus Grishin, subgen. n. (Papilio epidaus E. Doubleday, 1846) of Eurytides Hübner, [1821] (Papilionidae Latreille, [1802]) and Astria Grishin, subgen. n. (Lycaena astraea Freyer, 1851) of Glaucopsyche Scudder, 1872 …
Animal Conservation In St. Louis, 2024 University of Missouri, St. Louis
Animal Conservation In St. Louis, Kate O'Sullivan
Undergraduate Research Symposium
St. Louis has a multitude of organizations involved in the natural sciences. But how many of them actually contribute towards animal conservation? The St. Louis Zoo is an organization that focuses a lot of its effort on presentation, so how does that impact the funds that go towards actually saving the animals? I plan to dive into the different animal-based organizations in St. Louis and its surrounding areas, as well as discuss the positives and negatives of each organization. Furthermore, I will provide examples from several sources that I have been reviewing all year to support my claims. I plan …
Fauna, Flora, And Land Cover Changes Over The Last Two Decades In The Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, 2024 University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL
Fauna, Flora, And Land Cover Changes Over The Last Two Decades In The Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Gabriel De Oliveria, Steven R. Schultze, Guilherme Mataveli
Technical Reports
A technical report documenting ecosystem changes to the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta region due to urban expansion over approximately two decades (2001-2019).
Lycosidae Abundance And Diversity Across Lawn And Leaf Litter Substrate, 2024 Virginia Commonwealth University
Lycosidae Abundance And Diversity Across Lawn And Leaf Litter Substrate, Sage O. Lockett, Dan Albrecht-Mallinger
Undergraduate Research Posters
Significant knowledge gaps exist in how land-cover impacts ground-hunting spider populations. To fill these gaps, this study investigates a common family of ground-hunting spiders, Lycosidae, to determine differences in their abundance and diversity in deciduous leaf litter and managed turfgrass (lawn). The study was conducted within a forested ecosystem at Virginia Commonwealth University's Rice Rivers Center in Charles City County, Virginia. I placed 10 belt transects (1m x 20m) on lawn substrate and 10 identical transects in deciduous forest leaf litter substrate. I performed repeated visual census via eyeshine and manual capture of up to three individuals per transect …
Quantifying The Ecological Effects Of Salix Fragilis On Riparian Habitat In Kittitas County, Washington, 2024 Central Washington University
Quantifying The Ecological Effects Of Salix Fragilis On Riparian Habitat In Kittitas County, Washington, Landon Shaffer
All Master's Theses
Invasive species threaten plant community structure and function globally. Riparian areas, the zone near streams where water influences vegetation, are especially sensitive to invasive species colonization, suffering large-scale shifts in community composition. Salix fragilis (crack willow) is a nonnative riparian species abundant in the lower elevation tributaries of central Washington. Some speculate whether this willow should be listed as invasive in Washington, despite a lack of regional supporting evidence. I studied riparian communities dominated by either S. fragilis or native species in the Kittitas Valley and measured biodiversity, quantified differences in solar attenuation, and compared leaf decomposition rates to learn …
Lake Water Chemistry And Local Adaptation Shape Nacl Toxicity In Daphnia Ambigua, 2024 Bowdoin College
Lake Water Chemistry And Local Adaptation Shape Nacl Toxicity In Daphnia Ambigua, Mary Alta Rogalski, Elizabeth S. Baker, Clara M. Benadon
Biology Faculty Publications
Increasing application of road deicing agents (e.g., NaCl) has caused widespread salinization of freshwater environments. Chronic exposure to toxic NaCl levels can impact freshwater biota at genome to ecosystem scales, yet the degree of harm caused by road salt pollution is likely to vary among habitats and populations. The background ion chemistry of freshwater environments may strongly impact NaCl toxicity, with greater harm occurring in ion-poor, soft water conditions. In addition, populations exposed to salinization may evolve increased NaCl tolerance. Notably, if organisms are adapted to their natal lake water chemistry, toxicity responses may also vary among populations in a …
Site-Specific Space Use And Resource Selection By Black Vultures (Coragyps Atratus) In The Southeastern Usa, 2024 USDA APHIS WS NWRC Florida
Site-Specific Space Use And Resource Selection By Black Vultures (Coragyps Atratus) In The Southeastern Usa, Betsy Evans, John S. Humphrey, Eric A. Tillman, Michael L. Avery, Bryan M. Kluever
USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
North American populations of Black Vultures Coragyps atratus have increased and expanded their distribution in the southern and eastern USA. In conjunction with these patterns has been a rise in human–vulture conflicts. To improve our understanding of space use patterns and better inform management, we evaluated the movements of Black Vultures (n = 23) in the southeastern USA using a long-term GPS tracking database. Our specific objectives were to: (1) quantify home-range sizes in relation to season and geographical study location and (2) examine within-home-range resource selection to identify landscape and anthropogenic factors influencing roost and diurnal space use. …