Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons^™

Influence Of Abiotic Drivers And Plant Community Interactions On Bald Cypress (Taxodium Distichum) Seedlings: Implications For Restoration, Victoria Ellis

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Forested freshwater wetlands are valuable ecosystems that provide habitat for numerous species, sequester carbon, and act as sinks for excess water and nutrients. Historically, these ecosystems have been heavily degraded by anthropogenic activities leading to loss of ecosystem services and a desire to restore freshwater forested wetland habitat. Thus, science-backed approaches for the restoration of freshwater forested wetlands are necessary to ensure restoration goals are met. This body of research employed the Stress Gradient Hypothesis to test whether a multi-species planting approach using Juncus effusus (L.) (soft rush) could facilitate the survival of Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. (bald cypress) seedlings …

Leveraging Eco-Evolutionary Models For Gene Drive Risk Assessment, Matthew A. Combs, Andrew J. Golnar, Justin M. Overcash, Alun L. Lloyd, Keith R. Hayes, David A. O'Brochta, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Engineered gene drives create potential for both widespread benefits and irreversible harms to ecosystems. CRISPR-based systems of allelic conversion have rapidly accelerated gene drive research across diverse taxa, putting field trials and their necessary risk assessments on the horizon. Dynamic processbased models provide flexible quantitative platforms to predict gene drive outcomes in the context of system-specific ecological and evolutionary features. Here, we synthesize gene drive dynamic modeling studies to highlight research trends, knowledge gaps, and emergent principles, organized around their genetic, demographic, spatial, environmental, and implementation features. We identify the phenomena that most significantly influence model predictions, discuss limitations of …

An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt

Biology Theses

Amphibians are a unique class of organisms with a very long and storied evolutionary history of survival. Many modern amphibian clades occupy several vital ecological roles within their native freshwater environments. One of these roles, typically includes functioning as an ecological indicator species, whereby the presence of stable and diverse populations of many amphibian species, including salamanders, within a freshwater ecosystem have long been considered ecological indicators of good habitat quality and stable ecosystem health. Similarly, salamanders also function as important members of their local food webs and act as valuable mediators of complex trophic hierarchies to facilitate nutrient cycling …

Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker

Biology Theses

Freshwater is a vital resource that provides life and sustainability for almost all organisms on Earth. It is important to maintain its health and protect it from emerging pollutants that pose a threat to the organisms that use it. Pollution continues to threaten the well-being of the environment’s freshwater sources all around the world that could lead to damaging effects in the future. The Sabine River is a major freshwater resource in the east Texas and western Louisiana areas that provides a habitat for thousands of organisms as well as other domestic uses for humans. In 2019, a waste discharge …

Commercial Fishing Identification Guide 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Occasional Publications

Throughout this guide you will see all or some of the marine bioregion symbols with each fish illustration, indicating where the species is most likely to occur.

This guide has been developed to help you identify the more common species in Western Australia you may encounter. The purpose of this guide is to enhance consistent and accurate species identification.

If you are unsure about a particular species (or if it is not in this guide), please discuss it with a representative of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia.

Historical Trends Of Aquatic Invasive Species Introduction And Establishment In Illinois, Usa, Carter S. Cranberg, Reuben Keller

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Tracking the introduction and establishment of aquatic invasive species (AIS) is important for monitoring the biological and economic health of freshwater environments. The state of Illinois (USA) is a critical region for understanding the threats of AIS because it possesses the only continuous aquatic habitat connecting the Laurentian Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins. In this study, we update a previous effort to catalogue and evaluate historical AIS records from Illinois. Our updated database shows that there are now at least 92 nonindigenous aquatic species established in Illinois and a further 51 have been recorded as introduced but not established. …

Pronghorn Survival And Resource Selection In Western Nebraska's Agriculturally Dominated Landscape, Katie Piecora

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nebraska’s pronghorn population has been stable over the last decade, yet their presence on the landscape remains a contentious subject amongst private landowners. Conversion of grassland for crop production and increased anthropogenic activity has drastically altered pronghorn behavior throughout their current range, however basic ecology and resource use by pronghorn in Nebraska remains poorly understood. Establishing baseline population metrics and seasonal patterns of resource use for this population at the eastern periphery of the species range is critical to guide management actions. We deployed GPS collars on 110 adult pronghorn to quantify survival, mortality risk, and seasonal resource selection in …

Wave Attenuation Through Mangrove Forest Using Lidar Representation, Elizabeth Bogan

LSU Master's Theses

Mangrove forests can be found along the world’s intertidal tropical and sub-tropical coastlines. These forested wetlands provide many ecosystem services, including supporting coastal food chains, trapping sediment, and shoreline stabilization. Mangroves are also known for flood damage mitigation by dissipating waves and surge during flooding events. Thus, coastal communities declare a vested interest in the performance of the forest to mitigate flood damage. Physical models using artificial mangrove structures have shown that red mangrove-dominated fringe forests can protect built infrastructure by reducing wave height due to increased drag. One way to estimate the contribution of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) prop …

The Impact Of Road Crossings On Karst Headwater Streams In Northwest Arkansas, Anthony M. Zenga

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

The karst region of NW Arkansas is home to many headwater endemic Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). This includes many species of darters, such as Etheostoma cragini, E. microperca, and E. mihileze, as well as crayfish such as Faxonious meeki brevis and F. nana. NW Arkansas is rapidly urbanizing, increasing the need to construct structures like culverts, bridges, and fords. These man-made road crossings can cause stream habitat degradation and fragmentation, as well as impair overall stream connectivity. To evaluate the impact that road crossings have on aquatic SGCN species and their habitat, 30 headwater streams were sampled throughout …

Skeletal Anatomy Of The Pectoral Fin In Mudskipper Species From Terrestrial And Aquatic Habitats, Haodong Zhou, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Odette Laneuville, Emily M. Standen

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Mudskippers are a group of amphibious fishes in the family Oxudercidae, whose species inhabit a range of habitats from mostly aquatic to mostly terrestrial. Most of our understanding about habitat preference comes from natural history observations, particularly where they are collected (i.e., low intertidal vs. high intertidal regions). Mudskippers have undergone several morphological changes to accommodate a terrestrial life, including major changes to the pectoral and pelvic girdles. These changes result in a novel crutching gait, which mudskippers use to move over land. Though the appendicular morphology and crutching gait of mudskippers have been described in some species, few …

2023 Summer Newsletter, Plaster Creek Stewards

Newsletters

Highlights:

A Summer of Growth

Plaster Creek Has Mussels

Growing with the Green Team

Come See the Plaster Creek Mural

Lot 16: Calvin's New Bioswale

Welcome, Matt!

Student Research

Summer Reflections

Incorporating Metapopulation Dynamics To Inform Invasive Species Management: Evaluating Bighead And Silver Carp Control Strategies In The Illinois River, Jahn Kallis, Richard Erickson, D. P. Coulter, Alison A. Coulter, Marybeth K. Brey, Matt Catalano, John Dettmers, James Garvey, Kevin Irons, Elizabeth Marschall, Kenneth Rose, Mark Wildhaber, David Glover

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

1. Invasive species management can benefit from predictive models that incorporate spatially explicit demographics and dispersal to guide resource allocation decisions.
2. We used invasive bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) in the Illinois River, USA as a case study to create a spatially explicit model to evaluate the allocation of future management efforts. Specifically, we compared additional harvest (e.g. near the invasion front vs. source populations) and enhanced movement deterrents to meet the management goal of reducing abundance at the invasion front.
3. We found additional harvest in lower river pools (i.e. targeting source populations) more effectively limited population sizes upriver …

Cadmium And Salinity Stressor Antagonism On Vallisneria Neotropicalis, Christopher P. Mikolaitis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Submerged macrophytes form the foundation of freshwater ecosystems. These organisms are sessile and are very susceptible to shifts in their environment. Heavy metals are of particular concern as they can be sequestered indefinitely in sediments and are readily taken up by rooted vegetation. In the presence of saltwater intrusions, these metals can interact with salt ions potentially changing their availability to submerged vegetation. In this study a freshwater macrophyte, Vallisneria neotropicalis, was used as a test species for interactive effects between Cd, a non-essential heavy metal, and salt stress. The metrics used to establish the individual as well as …

Impact Of Sediment Diversion For Coastal Restoration On Nitrogen And Phosphorus Biogeochemical Cycling In Coastal Louisiana, Usa, Mercedes M. Pinzon Delgado

LSU Master's Theses

Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services and functions, including improving surface water quality through nutrient removal. Louisiana experienced ~4,800 km² of coastal wetland loss between 1932 and 2016 due to high relative sea level rise and reduced sediment input from the Mississippi River (MR). The 2023 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan aims to restore Louisiana's degraded coastline through restoration projects, including sediment diversions. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project will reconnect MR sediment-laden water with Barataria Basin degrading marshes. The diversion will also deliver nitrate (NO₃^-) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) to this basin, potentially negatively impacting water quality. …

Development Of A 16s Reference Library For Edna Metabarcoding The Freshwater Fishes Of Western Ecuador., Hannah M. Willis, Olivia G. Schweikart, Windsor E. Aguirre

DePaul Discoveries

This project examines the use of the 16S locus to amplify neotropical freshwater fishes native to Western Ecuador in a newly created 16S reference library for DNA barcoding and eDNA metabarcoding applications. Among the orders Characiformes, Siluriformes, Cichliformes, Gobiiformes, Cryprinodontiformes, Gymnotiformes, and Perciformes, a compendium of 105 specimens were sequenced, with 43 representing new 16S sequences previously unavailable on Genbank.

Tracing Energy Pathways Through Coastal Wetland Food Webs, Katherine Loesser

LSU Master's Theses

Southeastern Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are important habitat for aquatic species, yet the spatial heterogeneity in habitat types and abundance of many basal energy sources makes it challenging to elucidate patterns of energy flow across the landscape mosaic. This ecosystem is experiencing substantial changes, both through anthropogenically-accelerated climate change and anthropogenic landscape modifications. Therefore, the overall goal of this thesis was to trace patterns of energy flow across coastal wetland landscapes to determine which basal energy pathways support aquatic food webs and if patterns of energy pathway dependence are altered by changes to the landscape. In the first part of this …

An Analysis Of Lichen Presence On Quercus And Non-Quercus In Chicagoland Area, Shelby Johnson

DePaul Discoveries

Both anthropogenic change and the spread of invasive species have led to changes in urban and forest tree diversity. Oak rust, acute oak decline, and emerald ash borer have all had a detrimental effect on tree species in the Chicagoland area. Quercus species are well known habitats for lichen species including Physcia millegrana, Physcia stellaris, Punctelia rudecta, Flavoparmelia caperata, Xanthomendosa, and Candeleria concolor. Due to the decrease in the traditional Quercus habitats for lichen and the increase in nonnative and nontraditional tree species being introduced, particularly in cities, this study aimed to compare the number and diversity of …

Diversity And Dispersal Among Eastern Continental Divide Headwater Stream Fishes In Gwinnett County, Georgia., James E. Russell, Molly M. Botting, Ryan M. Davenport, Emilee J. Story, Mark Patterson

Georgia Journal of Science

The eastern continental divide that bisects Georgia runs through Gwinnett County, separating headwater streams of the western Chattahoochee River watershed from headwater streams of the eastern Ocmulgee and Oconee River watersheds. This landscape feature was used to test hypotheses regarding headwater habitat, fish diversity and gene flow. Headwater habitats are dominant components of river network ecosystems delivering vital ecosystem services and biodiversity. Three headwater streams, one in the Chattahoochee watershed and two in the Oconee watershed, on Gwinnett County Park property, were sampled for differences in physical and chemical properties and fish inter- and intraspecific diversity. Our results suggest the …

A Review Of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals, Nadia G. Dresscher-Lambertus

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

The Digitization Of Eatonia, Peter M. Grant

Faculty Articles & Research

The June 2023 issue of The Mayfly Newsletter features this article written by Dr. Peter Grant about the digitization of Eatonia by SWOSU University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Phillip Fitzsimmons, and Digitization Technician, Ben Dressler.