Five separate trials were conducted to test the feeding value
of Pacific Northwest grown soybeans for chickens and turkeys. Soybeans
were obtained from farms near Walla Walla, Washington and
incorporated into rations which were fed to replacement pullets,
laying pullets, broiler chickens, turkey poults and market turkeys.
These rations were...
There are a nearly unlimited number of situations in which the
status of time-varying processes must be updated. The monitoring of
these processes usually occurs at periodic intervals. Whether the
monitoring is performed by man or machine, a decision must be made
regarding the frequency of these activities, that is,...
Dans un marché de libre concurrence, certains paramètres tels que la saison de pêche et la taille des produits halieutiques ont une très grande importance sur la fixation des prix et la volonté à payer du consommateur. Afin de valider ces données, des échantillons de palourdes de l'Atlantique (Spisula solidissima),...
Published December 1977. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published October 1977. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Reoxidation and mobilization of previously reduced and immobilized uranium by dissolved-phase oxidants poses a significant challenge for remediating uranium-contaminated groundwater. Preferential oxidation of reduced sulfur-bearing species, as opposed to reduced uranium-bearing species, has been demonstrated to limit the mobility of uranium at the laboratory scale yet field-scale investigations are lacking....
Two broiler feeding experiments were carried out to determine the feeding value of Pacific Northwest-grown soybeans. In both experiments, solvent soybean meal (SBM) protein, when replaced one to one with extruded soybean (ESB) protein, produced no significant effects on body weight, feed conversion and mortality. Protein from raw soybean (RSB)...
An inextricable link exists between dams and human development in the Pacific Northwest, but they can fragment rivers and reduce genetic connectivity for freshwater and anadromous fishes. Since the early-twentieth century, a series of hydropower and irrigation dams on the mainstem Klamath River, California, has fragmented migratory corridors and eliminated...
The combined effects of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation pose a serious threat to Earth's biodiversity, imperiling even relatively common species. 'Habitat' is necessarily a species-specific concept, and investigations of bird diversity relationships and subsequent efforts to prioritize conservation areas, are challenged by the difficulty of estimating complex habitat gradients...
The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) is a dynamic marine ecosystem from which many socioeconomically important fisheries species are harvested. In this thesis, a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach was used to examine genomic variation in an early life stage of the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), which constitutes the most valuable single-species commercial...
The concept of the fundamental niche is frequently used in ecology to define the set of environmental conditions needed by a species to survive and reproduce (Hutchinson 1957). In contrast, the realized niche constitutes the locations where a species actually occurred, which is a function of both the environmental (abiotic)...
The distribution of mobile marine predators often reflects underlying dynamic ecological processes. The geographical focus of this PhD is the South Taranaki Bight (STB) of New Zealand, where wind-driven coastal upwelling generates productivity and prey to support a blue whale foraging ground. The STB is also New Zealand’s most industrial...
An interlaboratory study of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios in three commercially available carbonate reference
materials (BAM RS3, CMSI 1767, and ECRM 752-1) was performed with the participation of
25 laboratories that determine foraminiferal Mg/Ca ratios worldwide. These reference materials containing
Mg/Ca in the range of foraminiferal calcite (0.8 mmol/mol to...
Foliar fungi – pathogens, endophytes, epiphytes – form taxonomically diverse communities that affect plant health and productivity. The composition of foliar fungal communities is variable at spatial scales both small (e.g., individual plants) and large (e.g., continents). However, few studies have focused on how environmental factors and host plant traits...
Understanding connectivity among exploited populations is critical to their sustainable management and long-term viability. In the marine environment, estimates of connectivity often rely on the use of genetic markers, as dispersal primarily occurs during a planktonic larval phase which is difficult to track using direct methods. In this thesis, we...
Reintroduction programs are increasingly being used to save animals from extinction and aid in their recovery. The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), one of the most endangered birds in the world, is a remarkable example of how reintroduction programs can help rapidly increase a species' population numbers and range following a...
Biological invasions pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity, but many naturalized invaders coexist with the native community. Community ecology theory provides a framework for understanding the mechanisms by which invaders might coexist with native species or exclude them from the community, thus informing management practices to maximize...
Farmers in the high plateau region of Algeria are
assumed to exhibit risk averse behavior, particularly, due
to highly variable weather conditions inducing income
instability over time. This in turn directly affects their
production behavior. The Eastern High Plateau (Setif) is
not a homogeneous region. In the El-Eulma daira, for...
Dynamic marine environments can shape complex spatial and temporal patterns in the population connectivity of marine species, and this is often exemplified in species with long larval phases. Here, we used a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach to examine fine-scale spatial and temporal genomic variation among Dungeness crab Cancer magister larval recruits...
BACKGROUND: Parents play a significant role in shaping youth physical activity (PA). However, interventions targeting PA
parenting have been ineffective. Methodological inconsistencies related to the measurement of parental influences may be a
contributing factor. The purpose of this article is to review the extant peer-reviewed literature related to the measurement...
Herbs have been used for many centuries in diverse civilizations for the treatment of heart disease. Only a few natural supplements claim to have direct cardiovascular actions including hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) and berberine derived from the Berberidaceae family. Several different studies indicate important cardiovascular effects of hawthorn and berberine. For...
Questions: Mountain systems have high abiotic heterogeneity over local spatial scales, offering natural experiments for examining plant species invasions. We ask whether functional groupings explain non-native species spread into native vegetation and up elevation gradients.We examine whether non-native species distribution patterns are related to environmental variables after controlling for elevation...
The rates of biological introductions and invasions are increasing, driving up the associated harms to ecosystems and economies. The spread and effects of invasive organisms depend on the specifics of the introduction, the character of the invaded ecosystem, and multiple traits of the invasive organism itself. One mechanism by which...
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Appendix G Chapter 4: Initial shoot number comparisons for each treatment
and comparison of
The copepod Tigriopus californicus shows extensive population divergence and is becoming a model for understanding allopatric differentiation and the early stages of speciation. Here, we report a high-quality reference genome for one population (similar to 190 megabases across 12 scaffolds, and similar to 15,500 protein-coding genes). Comparison with other arthropods...
Anadromous Oncorhynchus mykiss (steelhead) express diverse migratory behaviors and life history strategies. Adult migration timing diversity within steelhead is often categorized into divergent early- and late-migration phenotypes. On the Rogue River in Oregon, adult steelhead return from the ocean during distinct early-summer, late-summer, and winter runs. Additionally, some juvenile steelhead...
The dynamic Quaternary geology of the Pacific Ring of Fire created substantial challenges for biogeography. Fish life history and population genetic variation were shaped by climate change, repeated formation and subsidence of ice sheets, sea-level change, volcanism and tectonics, isostatic rebound, and now human activities. It is widely recognized in...
Total US lumber production in 2011 was 77.9 million cubic meters. Its primary use was for housing and construction. There is a growing concern that the structural properties for wood are being reduced as trees are harvested at much younger ages as the wood supply shifts from older to younger...
Here we present a phylogeny of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) based on DNA sequence data from eight nuclear genes, including six single-copy nuclear protein-coding genes, for 367 species representing 172 of 183 extant families. Our results refine existing knowledge of relationships among major groups of beetles. Strepsiptera was confirmed as sister...
Many microbial, fungal, or oomcyete populations violate assumptions for population
genetic analysis because these populations are clonal, admixed, partially
clonal, and/or sexual. Furthermore, few tools exist that are specifically designed for
analyzing data from clonal populations, making analysis difficult and haphazard.
We developed the R package poppr providing unique tools...
This study explores No Child Left Behind's required timetable for English language learners (ELLs) to reach English language proficiency within five years, as outlined in the Annual Measurable Achievement Outcomes (AMAOs), despite the lack of research evidence to support this as a reasonable expectation. Analysis was conducted on the archived...
Adult onset progressive alopecia and leukotrichia developed in 2 registered black Angus cows, aged 6 and 7
years. Histopathologic findings in skin were prominent melanin clumping and degeneration of matrix cells with formation
of giant multinucleate cells within hair bulbs, accompanied by peribulbar melanin incontinence and fibrosis and dystrophic
hair...
The hemlock woolly adelgid (Hemiptera: Adelgidae: Adelges tsugae; HWA) is an invasive and damaging pest on hemlock in eastern North America. HWA is native to the Pacific Northwest, where it does not damage hemlock. In support of classical biological control of HWA in eastern North America, abundances of native predators...
Hypogymnia imshaugii is one of the most common, conspicuous and morphologically variable epiphytic lichens of the Pacific coastal states and provinces. The species varies greatly in morphology and chemistry, suggesting multiple closely related species or one or more phenotypically plastic species. We sought to determine whether additional ecologically meaningful species...
Identifying the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that determine biological diversity is a central question in ecology. In microbial ecology, phylogenetic diversity is an increasingly common and relevant means of quantifying community diversity, particularly given the challenges in defining unambiguous species units from environmental sequence data. We explore patterns of phylogenetic...
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alignment.py QIIME (settings: -g 0.5 -s).
Quality controlled alignments were then subject to various
Published October 1979. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
The study of the infra-specific ranks (i.e., subspecies and variety) can be considered
the study of the process of speciation. Astragalus lentiginosus Douglas ex Hooker
(Fabaceae) is the most taxon rich species in the U.S. flora currently including 40
taxonomic varieties. These varieties were described using traditional taxonomic
methods primarily...
Sudden oak death caused by the oomycete Phytophthora ramorum was first discovered in California toward the end of the 20th century and subsequently emerged on tanoak forests in Oregon before its first detection in 2001 by aerial surveys. The Oregon Department of Forestry has since monitored the epidemic and sampled...
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Nepusz 2006; Kahle and Wickham
2013; Kamvar et al. 2014b; Paradis et al. 2004; Wickham 2009).
Within
Proteinaceous compounds are abundant forms of organic nitrogen in soil and aquatic ecosystems, and the rate of protein depolymerization, which is accomplished by a diverse range of microbial secreted peptidases, often limits nitrogen turnover in the environment. To determine if the distribution of secreted peptidases reflects the ecological and evolutionary...
Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are one of the most important global plant pathogens. Recent innovations in molecular techniques have allowed increased study of this important pest, including the ability to investigate associated microbiomes. This study used 16S rDNA metagenomic sequencing to characterize the microbiome of Meloidogyne hapla, the northern root-knot...
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(compare_categories.py) (Paradis, 2004; Team, R.C., 2014). Similar QIIME and R workflows
were followed for analyses of
Large scale disruption of natural habitats worldwide has led to concern over the
effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife populations. Small scale experiments may be
a useful tool for discovering effects of fragmentation over larger landscape scales. I
sought to explore the potential for using voles as an experimental model...
Research on the population genetics of microbial organisms requires the use of specialized analyses designed for clonal organisms to avoid violating the assumptions of traditional population genetic models. The tools necessary for performing these analyses existed as a set of unrelated software with non-overlapping capabilities and did not cover all...
Modern plant pathology benefits from integrating methods and concepts from evolutionary biology. For example, evolutionary concepts are used to identify and examine species boundaries of plant pathogens, recognize processes underlying pathogen biogeography, identify traits that characterize emerging species, and discover new molecular interactions that originate under processes of selection. In...
Accessions of common wheat (Triticum aestivum
L. subsp. aestivum) from the USDA–ARS
National Small Grains Collection (NSGC) are a
resource for wheat scientists worldwide. The
genetic diversity of the wheat core subset, representing
approximately 10% of the collection’s
42,138 T. aestivum accessions, was examined
using 390 diversity arrays technology (DArT)...
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Grains Collection
Bonman, J. M., Babiker, E. M., Cuesta-Marcos, A., Esvelt-Klos, K.,
Brown-Guedira, G
Despite knowledge that concerted evolution of high-copy loci is often imperfect,
studies that investigate the extent of intragenomic polymorphisms and comparisons
across a large number of species are rarely made. We present a bioinformatic pipeline
for characterizing polymorphisms within an individual among copies of a high-copy
locus. Results are presented...
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7 reads with a
G in that position and 3 with a C. In this case the consensus would have called a G
Plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora are known to cause disease on field crops, nursery plants, and forest trees. The best known example probably is Phytophthora infestans, which triggered the infamous Irish potato famine. Other important Phytophthora species include: P. ramorum (sudden oak death pathogen), P. sojae (soybean root rot...
Soil nitrogen exists largely as organic matter, including plant liter, dead animal matter, and microbial necromass. About 90% of soil organic nitrogen is proteinaceous material that is too large for plants and microorganisms to assimilate directly. Protein depolymerization therefore plays a critical role in mobilizing this organic source of nitrogen,...
A study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary protein on
performance of commercial New Zealand White rabbits.
In Part I of this study, three levels of crude protein (17.5, 19
and 20.5%) were fed to lactating does and their offspring during a 12
month period. Total rabbits born...
Within the Pacific Northwest, USA, root diseases of conifers are a major forest health concern. These diseases are primarily caused by basidiomycete fungi. These fungal associates play a vital role in carbon sequestration but also have a significant negative economic impact within the timber industry. As a result, research on...
Effective and sustainable fisheries management not only depends on identifying and defining stocks (fundamental unit of management), but also on having knowledge of factors influencing the abundance, distribution and connectivity of stocks. Population structure of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) in the southeastern Bering Sea (EBS) remains unresolved although genetic data...
The purpose of this thesis is to aid in qualitative improvements to technical support documents on the Internet. By using a generic criticism this analysis will make substantive suggestions towards the improvement of this type of document by engaging the rhetoric employed by their authors. It will discuss the history...
The objective of this thesis is to provide a predictive model for the archaeological investigation of the first farmsteads in the Pacific Northwest, established in the early- and mid-nineteenth century by Canadien and Métis families retiring from their service in the fur trade. Past studies of this population have either...
Our paper aims to study the image of the European fisheries sector, as perceived by European citizens. To
our knowledge, no approach has focused on the perceived impact of fishing on the halieutic resources. More precisely, we seek to analyze the perceived impact on the marine environment of fishing activities...
Differences in the chemical composition of calcified skeletal structures (e.g. shells, otoliths) have proven useful for reconstructing the environmental history of many marine species. However, the extent to which ambient environmental conditions can be inferred from the elemental signatures within the vertebrae of elasmobranchs (sharks, skates, rays) has not been...
Although climate acts as a fundamental constraint on the distribution of
organisms, understanding how this relationship between climate and distribution varies over a
species’ range is critical for addressing the potential impacts of accelerated climate change on
biodiversity. Bioclimatic niche models provide compelling evidence that many species will
experience range...
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that...
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Dumont76, Simon G. Dures4,77, Mats Dynesius78, Lars Edenius79,
Zolt�an Elek80, Martin H. Entling81, Nina
The modern world has presented many threats to the health and stability of ecosystems worldwide. One of the most biodiverse ecosystems, coral reefs, faces particularly strong pressures, and is already declining rapidly in complexity and area. Although the stressors that affect reefs are diverse, ranging from nutrient pollution to overfishing,...
Over the last ten years, clinical, pre-clinical and animal studies have shown associations between the microbiota and neurological functions. Recent work by the scientific community on the gut-microbiome-brain axis have revealed that gut dysbiosis and specific microbial taxa are associated with a myriad of neurological conditions, such as autism spectrum...
Pythium species are important soilborne pathogens occurring in the forest nursery industry of the Pacific Northwest. However, little is known about their genetic diversity or population structure and it is suspected that isolates are moved among forest nurseries on seedling stock and shared field equipment. In order to address these...
Background:
In the SOD1^G93A mutant rat model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), neuronal death and rapid paralysis progression are associated with the emergence of activated aberrant glial cells that proliferate in the degenerating spinal cord. Whether pharmacological downregulation of such aberrant glial cells will decrease motor neuron death and prolong...
Illuminated contour lines, where line width and color are varied based on an angle of illumination, date back to the mid-nineteenth century, but their effectiveness compared to conventional contour lines has not been fully examined. Currently, illuminated contour lines are not widely used in computer-based cartography because they are not...
Human activity has been shown to considerably affect the spread of dangerous pests and pathogens worldwide. Therefore,
strict regulations of international trade exist for particularly harmful pathogenic organisms. Phytophthora plurivora, which is
not subject to regulations, is a plant pathogen frequently found on a broad range of host species, both...
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binomial distribution [45]. Moreover,
the inter-locus g-test [46] was used to compare observed versus
Differences in the chemical composition of calcified structures can be used to reveal natal origins, connectivity, metapopulation structure, and reconstruct the environmental history or movement patterns of many marine organisms. Sharks, skates, and rays (elasmobranchs) lack the calcified structures, known as otoliths, that are typically used for geochemical studies of...
Irrigated agricultural production in sandy soils presents several unique challenges to growers, including naturally high permeability, low native water retention, as well as high rates of water drainage losses and leaching of chemicals to the shallow aquifers. This study is an initial investigation into water motion in the sandy agricultural...
Indigenous management and coordinated co-management of natural resources is an emotionally filled topic, especially for those within the Puget Sound region of Washington, but has yet to be studied in depth from the emotional perspective of residents. This research used sentiment analysis to find the overarching sentiment of indigenous fisheries,...
The Quotient Method (QM), a laboratory-based risk assessment methodology used by the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate pesticides for registration and use, has not been thoroughly field-tested and its performance has not always been reliable. My objective was to determine if variation in vegetation structure or diet of exposed animals...
Fidelity to migratory destinations is an important driver of connectivity in marine and avian species. Here we assess the role of maternally directed learning of migratory habitats, or migratory culture, on the population structure of the endangered Australian and New Zealand southern right whale. Using DNA profiles, comprising mitochondrial DNA...
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v4.039 and the exact G test
was used in the same program to test for significant differences in allele
To address patterns of genetic connectivity in a mass-aggregating marine fish, we analyzed genetic variation in
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), microsatellites, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for Nassau grouper (Epinephelus
striatus). We expected Nassau grouper to exhibit genetic differentiation among its subpopulations due to its reproductive
behavior and retentive oceanographic conditions...
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, Richard S. Nemeth4,
Scott A. Heppell5, Phillippe G. Bush6, Alfonso Aguilar-Perera7, John A. B. Claydon8
Desert springs are sensitive aquatic ecosystems that pose unique challenges to natural resource managers and researchers. Among the most important of these is the need to accurately quantify population parameters for resident fish, particularly when the species are of special conservation concern. We evaluated the efficiency of baited minnow traps...
Climate change represents an increasing threat to northeastern temperate forests. Nearly all forest communities have been affected by climate change and require climate-adaptation management (Jandl et al. 2018). Climate-adaptation management (CAM) promotes the viability of forested systems and the ecosystem services they provide under current and future climatic conditions (Bolte...
Survival of marine fishes during their early life history stage is tightly related to prey availability and predation pressure. Yet, our understanding of how individual larvae to entire assemblages are constrained by these factors is limited. We integrated biological sampling of larval fishes with fine-scale in situ imaging to relate...
A static-renewal, seven day test was developed and
utilized to study the effects of nutrition on the sensitivity
of Mysidopsis intii Holmquist to zinc. It was found that
juvenile growth was the most reliable and sensitive endpoint
that could also reflect the subtle effects of low zinc
concentrations and diet...
Fungi play critical roles in ecosystem processes and interact with plant communities in mutualistic, pathogenic, and commensal ways. Fungal communities are thought to be influenced by both associated tree communities and soil properties. However, the relative importance of the biotic and abiotic drivers of soil fungal community structure and diversity...
U.S. incarceration rates have soared over the past three decades and the demographic characteristics of those who end up in prison are a reflection of the nation's structural inequality. Incarcerated fathers are a socially disadvantaged group and spending time in prison compounds already significant risk factors that these men experienced...
Animal weapons are thought to have evolved to compete for reproductive opportunities within a species. Across the diverse weapon-bearing taxa, several evolutionary trends have emerged: (1) increasing complexity and relative size across ontogeny, (2) sexual dimorphism, and (3) higher levels of random deviations from symmetry (i.e., fluctuating asymmetry) than non-weaponized...
This thesis mainly consists of two parts: (1) comparing statistical modeling methods based on the area-based approach (ABA) for predicting forest inventory attributes using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data (Chapter 2), and (2) suggesting a new methodology fusing the individual tree detection (ITD) approach and the ABA for...
This study applied a virtual rendition of the Morris water maze, which is commonly used for assessing spatial memory in rodents, to an examination of age-related differences in spatial learning among 42 younger (18-30 years) and older (>60 years) male human participants. Virtual Morris water maze performance was measured by...
Bone is much more than a simple, static organ. While its classical functions of mineral storage, organ protection, and locomotion still hold true, further studies into the skeleton have revealed a dynamic system capable of signaling, communication, remodeling, and responding to various stimuli. Overall skeletal health is critically important to...
Humans and viral disease are inextricably intertwined. Viral disease plays an immeasurable role in human life, from the disease and economic burden associated with every facet of contending with human viral disease, to managing the consequences of viral disease in organisms important to our food supply, economy, and entertainment. The...
We investigated the response of hyporheic exchange flow (HEF) to wood removal in a small, low-gradient, gravel bed stream in southeast Alaska using a series of groundwater models built to simulate HEF for the initial conditions immediately after wood removal and 1 month, 2 years, 4 years, and 16 years...
The Bureau of Land Managements (BLM) Emergency Fire Rehabilitation (EFR) policy was developed in 1985 to encourage protection of sites from soil erosion and to minimize potential changes in vegetation communities that may result from the dominance of weedy species. To achieve the goals of EFR policy, managers often used...
Background: Scientists rarely reuse expert knowledge of phylogeny, in spite of years of effort to assemble a great
“Tree of Life” (ToL). A notable exception involves the use of Phylomatic, which provides tools to generate custom
phylogenies from a large, pre-computed, expert phylogeny of plant taxa. This suggests great potential...
Climate change is a global phenomenon, but natural selection occurs within landscapes. A central tenet of landscape ecology is that mobile species depend on complementary habitats, which are insufficient in isolation, but combine to support animals through the full annual cycle. For coldwater fishes, it is widely assumed that maximum...
Sudden oak death is caused by the clonally reproducing generalist oomycete Phytophthora ramorum. The pathogen can infect more than 130 different plant hosts including Quercus spp., Larix kaempferi, and Notholithocarpus densiflorus, as well as common nursery genera such as Rhododendron and Camelia, where it causes symptoms ranging from bleeding cankers...
Contemporary fire effects are raising concerns about the resistance and resilience of dry mixed-conifer forests to large wildfires. Fire refugia – unburned or low-severity patches within fire perimeters – are understudied components of post-fire mosaics that may be key drivers of forest recovery following high-severity fire. Little is known about...
Gall-associated phytopathogens have unique evolutionary histories that haveshaped both their modes of infection and genomic structures. Pathogenicity of the gall-associated plant pathogens of the Rhodococcus, Agrobacterium, and Rathayibactergenera is mediated by horizontally acquired virulence loci. The relative ease of gainand loss of the virulence loci has confounded accurate characterization of...
Oomycetes are an important group of organisms with a variety of ecological roles similar to fungi. Although many are well-studied plant pathogens known for their devastating effects on agricultural systems, most are little-studied saprobes and parasites of plants and animals in nearly every ecosystem on earth. The advent of affordable...
Most benthic marine organisms have a bipartite life with an early pelagic stage that enables dispersal of offspring, connecting spatially separated populations, and a late stage where individuals reside in a benthic habitat. Settlement of pelagic offspring to bottom associated substrates is the process that connects the two life history...
Variations in ocean conditions influenced by climate fluctuations may impact fish populations by changing their spatial distribution, physiology, survival, and other ecological features. Somatic growth is a crucial aspect of the biology of fishes and an important contributor to biomass fluctuations. Climate variability also affects somatic growth rates along the...
Students with disabilities are not being afforded the same access to sporting opportunities as their peers without disabilities. The purpose of this dissertation was to build on a foundation of information regarding collegiate adaptive sports through a Critical Disabilities Studies lens. Specific aims included: (1) identifying and describing intercollegiate, adaptive...
Most benthic marine fishes have a biphasic life cycle with a dispersive pelagic larval stage that spends weeks to months in the plankton before metamorphosing into juveniles and settling to benthic habitats. The magnitude of mortality during the early life stages of marine fishes typically drives variability in year-class strength....
Accumulating human impacts on freshwater ecosystems have created a biodiversity crisis for freshwater fishes while conservation efficacy remains hampered by the Linnaean shortfall, the ignorance of many species that have yet to be discovered and described. The past discovery of most freshwater fish species was simply a matter of collecting...
Biologists have long been fascinated with reproductive traits, in part because they are frequently exaggerated or showy, and they commonly vary among closely related species. Exaggerated sexual traits, in particular, have been the focus of intense empirical and theoretical research, but most of this work has focused on traits involved...
Whether microevolutionary processes can explain macroevolutionary patterns has long been a matter of contentious debate. The debate has persisted largely because of the challenging task of connecting microevolutionary theory, which examines population-level phenomena on the generation scale, to data collected across larger spatial and temporal scales. My dissertation research broadly...
Neotropical characiform fishes form one of the most diverse freshwater ichthyofauna in the world. Knowledge of evolutionary processes that generated and maintain the immense characiform lineage and morphological diversity is still poorly understood. When did characiform lineages diversify? How have major geological and environmental changes affected diversification? Why are some...