Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Predicting Critical Transitions In Spatially Distributed Populations With Cubical Homology, Laura Storch, Sarah Day

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Excess Food Nutrient On Producer-Grazer Model Under Stoichiometric And Toxicological Constraints, Md Nazmul Hassan, Kelsey Thompson, Gregory Mayer, Angela Peace

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modeling Allee Effects In A Transgenic Mosquito Population During Range Expansion, Lauren M. Childs

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic …

Projecting Shifts In Thermal Habitat For 686 Species On The North American Continental Shelf, J. W. Morley, R. L. Selden, Robert J. Latour, T. L. Frolicher, R. J. Seagraves, M. L. Pinsky

VIMS Articles

Recent shifts in the geographic distribution of marine species have been linked to shifts in preferred thermal habitats. These shifts in distribution have already posed challenges for living marine resource management, and there is a strong need for projections of how species might be impacted by future changes in ocean temperatures during the 21st century. We modeled thermal habitat for 686 marine species in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans using long-term ecological survey data from the North American continental shelves. These habitat models were coupled to output from sixteen general circulation models that were run under high (RCP 8.5) and …

Seabird Distribution And Oil & Gas Potential Along The Northern Sea Route, Russia: An Arctic Marine Conservation Case Study, Meghan Kelly

Sustainability and Social Justice

Seabirds are indicator species for the marine environment. Their populations are simultaneously affected by access to food resources and anthropogenic pressures including direct disturbance and habitat degradation associated with industrial development (Parsons et al. 2007). Therefore, using seabird distribution as a policy-relevant indicator for the Arctic marine environment supports an ecosystem based management approach aimed at protecting sensitive habitats from increased offshore oil and gas development.

This research identifies seabird habitat in the Russian Arctic utilizing in situ seabird observations from the Northern Sea Route to create a species distribution model. The spatial location of these areas will be compared …

Satellite Sensor Requirements For Monitoring Essential Biodiversity Variables Of Coastal Ecosystems, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Erin Hestir, Christiana Ade, Kevin Turpie, Dar A. Roberts, David Siegel, Robert J. Miller, David Humm, Noam Izenberg, Mary Keller, Frank Morgan, Robert Frouin, Arnold G. Dekker, Royal Gardner, James Goodman, Blake Schaeffer, Bryan A. Franz, Nima Pahlevan, Antonio G. Mannino, Javier A. Concha, Steven G. Ackleson, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Anastasia Romanou, Maria Tzortziou, Emmanuel S. Boss, Ryan Pavlick, Anthony Freeman, Cecile S. Rousseaux, John Dunne, Matthew C. Long, Eduardo Klein

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The biodiversity and high productivity of coastal terrestrial and aquatic habitats are the foundation for important benefits to human societies around the world. These globally distributed habitats need frequent and broad systematic assessments, but field surveys only cover a small fraction of these areas. Satellite-based sensors can repeatedly record the visible and near-infrared reflectance spectra that contain the absorption, scattering, and fluorescence signatures of functional phytoplankton groups, colored dissolved matter, and particulate matter near the surface ocean, and of biologically structured habitats (floating and emergent vegetation, benthic habitats like coral, seagrass, and algae). These measures can be incorporated into Essential …

The Planet, 2018, Spring, Keiko Betcher, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

The Planet, 2018, Winter, Keiko Betcher, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Animal Behaviour As A Bio-Indicator Of Restoration Quality, Floyd Holmes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Woodland restoration is a complex endeavour, and restoration ecology as a scientific discipline requires constant re-assessments and adjustments if it is to improve outcomes and better provide for biodiversity. The promise of effective restoration is often used to justify destructive processes that affect many of the world’s ecosystems. It is therefore imperative that those promises can be met, which comes down to restoration ecologists’ and land managers’ capacity to predict and facilitate desirable ecological changes in a timely and socio-economically responsible manner. As perspectives have changed, and knowledge has been gained over the past few decades there have been several …

Preliminary Multivariate Comparison Of Coral Assemblages On Carbonate Banks In The Western Gulf Of Mexico, Rebekah E. Rodriguez, Erin E. Easton, Thomas C. Shirley, John W. Tunnell, David Hicks

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hermatypic corals flourished on reefs in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Today, many of these relict reefs are mesophotic banks that have unique coral assemblages and provide critical habitat; however, the South Texas Banks (STB) lack quantitative surveys. Therefore, we used a remotely operated vehicle to conduct quantitative surveys of 5 banks: Baker, Aransas, Dream, Blackfish Ridge, and Harte. Coral communities, based on estimated coral densities (colonies/m2), significantly differed among banks for terraces, slopes, and overall (combined terrace and slope) communities for most banks examined. Within banks, terrace and slope communities significantly differed …

River Biofilm Structure And Function In A Resource Landscape Modified By Agriculture: Implications For Primary Consumers, Hannah M. Fazekas

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic alterations to nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus bioavailability have increased the flux of these resources into the biosphere and altered stream ecosystem function. Streams modify the transport of these resources to receiving ecosystems through uptake, transformation, and mineralization. Understanding how streams process carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus can provide insight about how stream ecosystems function in landscapes where human modification is inescapable. I investigated how land use in agricultural regions affect resource availability to primary producers and consumers and the subsequent impact on stream processes. I surveyed headwater streams in three Lake Erie watersheds to determine spatiotemporal nutrient limitation of attached …

Postglacial Fire, Vegetation, And Environmental Change In The Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, Okanogan County, Washington (Usa), Kevin Haydon

All Master's Theses

Historically fire has played a key disturbance role in many ecosystems of the western United States. One of the most affected landscapes is the dry ponderosa pine-dominated forests of eastern Washington. Over the past decade, these forests have experienced a dramatic increase in large, high-severity wildfires, resulting in significant damage to natural resources, property, and habitat. Public land managers are now faced with the increasing challenge of maintaining these fire-dependent ecosystems in tandem with the projected impacts of future climate change. To do this, land managers need to make informed, adaptive decisions based on what it known in terms of …

Ecology And Virulence Capabilities Of Vibrios Isolated From The Pristine North Inlet Estuary, Savannah Leigh Klein

Theses and Dissertations

Vibrio bacteria are Gram negative, motile organisms that occur naturally in most coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Some vibrios are important human pathogens, including Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus. The CDC estimates that vibrios cause 80,000 cases of disease each year in the United States alone. Most cases are caused by V. parahaemolyticus, which infects humans after the consumption of contaminated raw or undercooked seafood, primarily oysters. V. parahaemolyticus causes mild gastroenteritis that is self-limiting unless the patient is immunocompromised. V. vulnificus has a much lower incidence of disease (100 cases in the USA yr-1); however, this organism causes much more …

Rethinking Holocene Ecological Relationships Among Caribou, Muskoxen, And Human Hunters On Banks Island, Nwt, Canada: A Stable Isotope Approach, Jordon S. Munizzi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the ecology of caribou (Rangifer tarandus spp.) and muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus), and its relevance to human hunters on Banks Island, NWT, Canada, over the last 4000 years, primarily through the isotopic analysis of modern and archaeological faunal remains.

First, we establish baseline carbon and nitrogen isotope relationships between modern vegetation and caribou and muskox bone collagen using Bayesian mixing models. The models indicate that dwarf shrub (Salix arctica) does not contribute significantly to bone collagen isotopic compositions in either species, while sedges and yellow lichen (Cetraria tilesii) do. These findings …

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and legally feasible option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed MAR harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services modeling; and …

The Planet, 2017, Fall, Keiko Betcher, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Desert Pool {If Every Desert Was Once A Sea}, Karen Miranda Abel

The Goose

Desert Pool {If every desert was once a sea} is a site-specific art project by Canadian artist Karen Miranda Abel completed in 2016 while artist-in-residence at Joya: arte + ecología, an arts-led research centre situated in an alpine desert within a national park in southern Spain. The elemental installation represents an envisioning of the ancient sea that occupied the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park millions of years before the current desert ecology, a time when its highest mountain peaks may have been islands.

A Hemimysis Driven Novel Ecosystem At A Modified Boulder Breakwall, Eric John Geisthardt

Theses and Dissertations

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is mandated to maintain and repair aging breakwall structures in all commercial ports on the Great Lakes. In May of 2014, the construction of Milwaukee Harbor USACE “green” breakwall (GBW) reconciliation created complex rocky aquatic habitat by depositing cobble-sized stone as a veneer over standard 6-10 ton boulders, thus creating “control” (boulder) and “treatment” (cobble) habitats. The breakwall is home to a prolific population of Hemimysis anomala, the introduced Ponto-Caspian mysid, which is significantly more abundant on cobble versus boulders (p<0.05, using a novel trap for Hemimysis). Fish and forage communities were sampled in 2015 and 2016 using a combination of experimental and micromesh gill nets, night scuba diving surveys, and a novel Hemimysis trap. This nearshore lithophilic mysid appears to provide a significant new seasonal food resource in the Milwaukee Harbor for pelagic prey fishes during inshore spawning migrations and upwelling events. Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) fed heavily on Hemimysis with some individuals consuming hundreds of mysids. Night scuba diving surveys and gill netting confirmed that rainbow smelt preferred to forage on the cobble section (p<0.05), and also consumed more Hemimysis there than they did at the control breakwall site (p<0.05). Hemimysis were also the primary food item consumed by nearshore game fishes such as YOY yellow perch (Perca flavescens), YOY largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), and juvenile rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) caught at the breakwall. This study provides the first documented evidence that where abundant in the Laurentian Great Lakes, Hemimysis do have the ability to significantly impact local food webs and drive the feeding ecology of both pelagic transient and nearshore resident fishes.

Microbial Community Richness Distinguishes Shark Species Microbiomes In South Florida, Rachael Cassandra Karns

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The microbiome (microbial community) of individuals is crucial when characterizing and understanding processes that are required for organism function and survival. Microbial organisms, which make up an individual’s microbiome, can be linked to disease or function of the host organism. In humans, individuals differ substantially in their microbiome compositions in various areas of the body. The cause of much of the composition diversity is yet unexplained, however, it is speculated that habitat, diet, and early exposure to microbes could be altering the microbiomes of individuals (Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012b, 2012a). To date, only one study has reported on microbiome …

Middle Miocene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Of The Central Great Plains From Stable Carbon Isotopes In Large Mammals, Willow H. Nguy

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Middle Miocene (18-12 Mya) mammalian faunas of the North American Great Plains contained a much higher diversity of apparent browsers than any modern biome. This has been attributed to greater primary productivity, which may have supported greater browser diversity that commonly corresponds with densely vegetated habitats. However, several lines of proxy evidence suggest that open woodlands or savannas dominated middle Miocene biomes; neither of which support many browsers today. Stable carbon isotopes in mammalian herbivore tooth enamel were used to reconstruct vegetation structure of middle Miocene biomes.

Stable carbon isotopes in C₃ dominated environments reflect vegetation density and herbivores …

Fish And Macroinvertebrate Response To Restored Off Channel Habitats On The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Caleb Uerling

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

Anthropogenic alterations to large rivers ranging from impoundments to levees have caused many rivers to no longer access the floodplain. The ecological integrity of floodplain rivers depends on the interaction between main-channel and floodplain habitats. Fish communities inhabiting floodplain habitats are often dictated by the type of habitat and conditions within that habitat. As restoration projects are undertaken it is imperative that managers understand how fish and macroinvertebrates respond to these events. We collected fish, macroinvertebrates, and habitat parameters on two restored floodplain habitats on the lower Platte River, Nebraska to answer questions about aquatic community response to floodplain restoration …

The Off Season: Masculinities, Rurality, And Family Ties In Alaska Commercial Fishing, Cruz Morey

Senior Theses

This study explores the intersections of masculinity, rurality, the family, and ecology through the experiences of commercial fishermen in Alaska. By understanding the plurality of masculinities and how men operate within a rural space, this study investigates the relationship between the masculine rural and the rural masculine and how that relationship pertains to commercial fishermen. This study examines existing discourse about Alaska and the masculinity of commercial fishermen in light of the concepts of cultural and economic capital, as well as local ecological knowledge (LEK). It further examines how fishermen describe their experiences in the industry as ones that are …

Adaptive Therapy: Modeling Evolutionary Principles In Anticancer Therapy, Jeffrey B. West

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Simulating Within-Vector Generation Of The Malaria Parasite Diversity, Lauren M. Childs

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

The Dynamic Consequences Of Evolution In Response To Environmental Disturbances, Amy Veprauskas

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Experimental Design For Parameter Estimation In An Allometric Food Web Model, Amanda Laubmeier

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Species-Specific Negative Density Dependence And Disturbance Interactions On Biodiversity, David Chan, Ben Ramage

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Bacteriophage Lifestyles: Capsid Size Matters, Diana Y. Lee

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

A Global Synthesis Of Managing Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Under Sustainable Groundwater Policy, Melissa M. Rohde, Raymond H. Froend, Jeanette Howard

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Groundwater is a vital water supply worldwide for people and nature. However, species and ecosystems that depend on groundwater for some or all of their water needs, known as groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs), are increasingly becoming threatened worldwide due to growing human water demands. Over the past two decades, the protection and management of GDEs have been incorporated into several water management policy initiatives worldwide including jurisdictions within Australia, the European Union, South Africa, and the United States. Among these, Australia has implemented the most comprehensive framework to manage and protect GDEs through its water policy initiatives. Using a science-based …