The protein palmitoylation cycle has been shown to be important for protein signaling and synaptic plasticity. Data from our lab showed a change in the palmitoylation status of certain proteins with age. A greater percentage of the NMDA receptor subunits GluN2A and GluN2B, along with Fyn and PSD95 proteins, were...
Studies were conducted to assess glacial acetic acid (GAA) with various host plant volatiles (HPVs) and the sex pheromone, (E,E)-8, 10-dodecadien-1-ol, of codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L), as lures in traps for tortricid pests that often co-occur in tree fruits in the western United States. In addition to codling moth,...
Condors and vultures comprise the only group of terrestrial vertebrates in the world that are
obligate scavengers, and these species move widely to locate ephemeral, unpredictable, and patchily-distributed
food resources. In this study, we used high-resolution GPS location data to quantify
monthly home range size of the critically endangered California...
Recent reform initiatives in undergraduate biology call for curricula that prepare students for dealing with real-world issues and making important links between science and society. In response to this call, we have developed an issues-based laboratory module that uses guided inquiry to integrate the concepts of animal behavior and population...
SUMMARY:
1. Understanding how predators select their prey can provide important insights into community structure and dynamics. However, the suite of prey species available to a predator is often spatially and temporally variable. As a result, species-specific selectivity data are of limited use for predicting novel predator–prey interactions because they...
Concurrent measurements of predator and prey δ¹⁵N isotope values demonstrated that a cross-shelf
isotopic gradient can propagate through a marine food web from forage species to top-tier predators and
indicate foraging areas at a scale of tens of kilometers. We measured δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N in muscle tissues of
thick-billed murres...
Acoustic scattering layers are ubiquitous, horizontally extensive aggregations of both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms that play key roles in oceanic ecosystems. However, currently there are no conventions or widely adaptable automatic methods for identifying these often dynamic, spatially complex features, so it is difficult to consistently and efficiently describe and...
Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha returns to the Yukon River basin have declined dramatically since
the late 1990s, and detailed information on the spawning distribution, stock structure, and stock timing is needed to
better manage the run and facilitate conservation efforts. A total of 2,860 fish were radio-tagged in the lower...
Limbless organisms like snakes can navigate nearly all terrain. In particular, desert-dwelling sidewinder rattlesnakes (C. cerastes) operate effectively on inclined granular media (like sand dunes) that induce failure in field-tested limbless robots through slipping and pitching. Our laboratory experiments reveal that as granular incline angle increases, sidewinder rattlesnakes increase the...
Research on the ecology of top predators – upper trophic level consumers that are relatively free from predation once they reach adult size – has provided regular contributions to general ecology and is a rapidly expanding and increasingly experimental, multidisciplinary and technological endeavour. Yet, an exponentially expanding literature coupled with...