The southern portion of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), including the Des Moines Lobe of northwest and north-central Iowa, is predicted to become increasingly important to breeding waterfowl as climatic changes drive a southeastward shift in wetland distribution. The history o…
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The integration of genetic and environmental information can help wildlife managers better understand the factors affecting a species’ population structure and their response to disturbance. This thesis uses genetic techniques to assess the broad and fine scale population struct…
Coastal sharks represent a group of stocks for which observation, assessment, and management are particularly challenging. Large distributional ranges, complex migratory behavior, low economic value, and relatively few observations in fishery independent surveys hinder relative …
Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphrea) provides an interesting case for investigating such a conservation paradox that a critically endangered species introduced to a non-native area is likely to establish in the exotic location. The native population of Yellow-crested Cocka…
Marshbirds are difficult to survey due their secretive nature and association with dense wetland vegetation. Recently developed standardized survey protocols are used to monitor patterns of abundance, primarily at large spatial scales, but also can be used to assess marshbird re…
Fishers (Pekania pennanti) were reintroduced in West Virginia in 1969 with no population wide genetic analysis ever having been conducted. Genetic analysis of reintroduced populations is vital to assess genetic diversity as an indicative of population viability. My objective was…
Herbivory by wild and domestic ungulates influences tree recruitment and alters plant community composition in forests throughout the world. Herbivore-driven declines in tree recruitment have been widely observed for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a foundation tree species…
José W. PimentelThe Iglesia de Dios Comunidad de Esperanza in Cleveland, Tennessee is a Hispanic Pentecostal Church composed mainly of first-generation Spanish-speaking congregants. The congregation is an ethnically diverse Hispanic group represented by Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, …
Plants are foundational components of ecosystems that have large effects on the composition and abundance of animal communities. The objectives of this dissertation were to synthesize the literature demonstrating effects of plants on pond-breeding amphibians and test specific me…
Human activities play a large role in the threatened persistence of wildlife populations. Overhunting, overharvesting, and habitat loss are primary drivers in declines in abundance for many species. An additional risk comes from decreased connectivity between population fragment…
Many cod stocks have been described as metapopulations, each containing multiple semi-discrete spawning groups with limited connectivity between them. Reproductive isolation leads to independent and asynchronous demographics among sub-populations adapted to different habitats, w…
The reproductive phenology and habitat requirements of sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) are not well understood. Northern populations of sharp-tailed grouse (STGR) belonging to the Tympanuchus phasianellus caurus subspecies are particularly under-studied. Although …
In urban environments, the threats of habitat fragmentation and loss, barriers to dispersal, and anthropogenic causes of mortality affect the recolonization potential of extirpated species. One such species, the bobcat (Lynx rufus), historically occurred throughout the state of …
Rates of emerging infectious diseases are increasing globally. Impacts of emerging diseases on wildlife populations have been identified as major drivers to species declines and extinctions. Species loss due to disease has necessitated prioritizing disease mitigation in wild pop…
Diversification of life history strategy within a species is thought to produce more temporally stable populations because of the complementary or independent dynamics among population components in their response to environmental perturbation. The partitioning of risk amongst p…
Since the early 1900s, elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) populations throughout much of the Rocky Mountain west have expanded in size and geographic range. Simultaneously, humans and agriculture production have encroached into natural elk habitat, and human-elk conflicts have aris…
Investigating individual-based habitat settlement and space use decisions (i.e., how individuals distribute themselves across a landscape) is a central theme in ecology, with potential consequences for fitness (e.g., survival, reproduction). Among mammals, habitat selection and …
North American bat species face a range of environmental stressors which have negatively impacted recovery of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and led to inclusion of the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) as a federally threatened species. Historic thre…
Climate change is altering thermal regimes in aquatic systems worldwide, often impacting species on the southern edges of their ranges in the northern hemisphere. Yellow Perch, Perca flavescens, a cool water species, have a patchy distribution at the southern edge of their range…