Browsing by Author "Dobson, F. Stephen"

Now showing items 1-19 of 19

Carotenoid-Based Dewlap Color as a Visual Signal in Social Communication of Brown Anoles (Norops sagrei)

Steffen, John (2007-12-15)

Carotenoids have been shown to be important integumentary coloring agents in many birds and fishes. The role of carotenoids as a prominent integumentary coloring agent of the dewlap has been noted in many Anoline lizards, ...

Effects of hydrologic variation on dynamics of channel catfish and flathead catfish populations in regulated and unregulated rivers in the southeast USA

Sakaris, Peter (2006-12-15)

Altered flow regimes resulting from dam construction can have negative impacts on growth and recruitment of fishes in regulated river systems. The effects of hydrologic variation on channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus and ...

The evolution of female polymorphism in a Neotropical radiation of lizards

Paemelaere, Evi (2010-08-04)

Color pattern polymorphism – the occurrence of multiple color patterns within populations – has provided excellent opportunities for the study of evolution. Recently, a renewed interest in polymorphism was sparked by the ...

The evolution of sexual size dimorphism in squirrels

Rajamani-Robin, Nandini (2011-08-16)

Difference between the sizes of the sexes in a species (sexual size dimorphism SSD) is a common phenomenon, and most mammals are male-biased in size. Female-biased size dimorphism (FBSD) is uncommon in mammals. Flying ...

Exploring the role of carotenoid pigments in physiological function and color signals

Koch, Rebecca (2017-04-26)

The study of carotenoid-based coloration, particularly in bird species, is a large and growing literature that is increasingly defined by the framework of a single overarching concept, the resource tradeoff hypothesis. ...

Maternal effects in Columbian ground squirrels

Skibiel, Amy (2007-05-15)

The phenotype of an organism is the physical expression of its genotype and is a result of both the genetic makeup of an organism and the environment it experiences. An individual’s phenotype can also be affected by the ...

Mating Tactics and Reproductive Success in Male Columbian Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus)

Balmer, Adele (2010-12-06)

The widespread discovery of multiple mating tactics, particularly among males, highlights the diverse ways sexual selection may operate within a population. In polygynandrous populations, multiple paternity may arise from ...

Modeling Complex Climate Change Effects on Fluctuating Populations of Fish Communities in the Northern Pacific Ocean

Correia, Hannah Elizabeth (2019-07-23)

The main purpose of this study was to bring new mathematical and statistical methods to the ecological community and highlight novel application of these methods to practical scientific questions. Deepwater marine systems ...

Molecular Ecology of Peromyscus polionotus

Van Zant, Jeffrey L. (2006-08-15)

Lowe et al. (2004) describes ecological genetics as “the investigation of the origin and maintenance of genetic variation within and between populations, which ultimately leads to adaptation and speciation.” Thus, to gain ...

Plumage coloration and morphology in Chiroxiphia manakins: interacting effects of natural and sexual selection

Doucet, Stephanie (2006-05-15)

I examined how natural and sexual selection may have influenced the morphology and coloration of Chiroxiphia manakins (Aves: Pipridae). In the first chapter, I investigated age and sexrelated patterns of plumage coloration ...

Population dynamics of clownfish sea anemones: Patterns of decline, symbiosis with anemonefish, and management for sustainability

McVay, Matthew J. (2015-12-10)

Giant sea anemones on Indo-Pacific coral reefs are important ecologically as hosts to obligate clownfish (anemonefish) and cleanershrimp symbionts, and also economically as major components of the global trade in reef ...

Rank-Based Estimation for Generalized Additive Models

Correia, Hannah Elizabeth (2016-07-08)

This thesis focuses on the improvement of generalized additive models (GAMs) using rank estimators. We introduce estimation of the smoothing functions in GAMs via backfitting in a local scoring algorithm using maximization ...

Seasonal variation in sex ratios and survival rates of white-tailed deer fawns

Saalfeld, Sarah (2006-05-15)

The ability of a female to adjust the sex ratio of her offspring has been well documented in numerous mammalian species. However, few studies have deviated from focusing on maternal condition as the driving factor concerning ...

Spatial Analysis of Plateau Pika Habitat Use

Paruchuri, Spurthi (2017-07-27)

The habitat occupied by animals during their normal activities is referred to as their home range. This physical space contains limited resources that are necessary for reproduction and survival. Using spatial analysis ...

Spatiotemporal Breeding Strategies within a High Density, Male-skewed White-tailed Deer Population

Karns, Gabriel (2014-05-12)

Animal movement is an integral part of most ecological, behavioral, or evolutionary processes observed in nature, and it has wide implications to numerous broad issues ranging from dispersal and migration to habitat ...

Studying the Effects of Mutations on the Structures and Binding of Therapeutic Proteins Towards Improving the Engineering of Protein Functions

Islam, Sumaiya (2022-05-03)

The high effectiveness of proteins in biological systems is a result of their mutational histories. A single amino acid substitution, the most frequent of changes in proteins, can alter their physiochemical properties and ...