Biological Sciences: Recent submissions
Now showing items 41-60 of 135
Expansion of the Range of the Introduced Greenhouse Frog, Eleutherodactylus planirostris, in Coastal Alabama
(2022-09-16)
Eleutherodactylus planirostris (Greenhouse Frog), originally from Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Florida Keys, has been introduced to mainland Florida and has spread across the southeastern US. We used automated recording ...
Are we underestimating the genetic variances of dimorphic traits?
(2022-09-16)
Populations often contain discrete classes or morphs (e.g., sexual dimorphisms, wing dimorphisms, trophic dimorphisms) characterized by distinct patterns of trait expression. In quantitative genetic analyses, the different ...
Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park
(2022-09-15)
Invasive species represent a significant threat to global biodiversity and a substantial economic burden. Burmese pythons, giant constricting snakes native to Asia, now are found throughout much of southern Florida, including ...
Bird assemblage response to restoration of fire‐suppressed longleaf pine sandhills
(2022-09-15)
The ecological restoration of fire‐suppressed habitats may require a multifaceted approach. Removal of hardwood trees together with reintroduction of fire has been suggested as a method of restoring fire‐suppressed longleaf ...
Long-Term Decrease in Coloration: A Consequence of Climate Change?
(2022-09-15)
Climate change has been shown to affect fitness-related traits in a wide range of taxa; for instance, warming leads to phenological advancements in many plant and animal species. The influence of climate change on social ...
Reproductive Value and the Stochastic Demography of Age-Structured Populations
(2022-09-15)
The dynamics of an age-structured population in a fluctuating environment is determined by the stochastic individual contributions from annual survival and fecundity to the total reproductive value of the population the ...
Frequency of Occurrence and Population-Dynamic Consequences of Different Forms of Density-Dependent Emigration
(2022-08-02)
Emigration is a fundamental process affecting species' local, regional, and large-scale dynamics. The paradigmatic view in ecology is that emigration is density independent (DIE) or positive density dependent (1DDE). ...
The demographic basis of population regulation in Columbian ground squirrels
(2022-07-29)
Environmental factors influence the dynamics and regulation of biological populations through their influences on demographic variables, but demographic mechanisms of population regulation have received little attention. ...
The evolution of signal design in manakin plumage ornaments
(2022-07-29)
Animal signals are characterized by two design components: efficacy (detectability) and content (message being conveyed). Selection for efficient signal perception should favor the evolution of traits that exhibit an optimal ...
An Overlooked Hotspot? Rapid Biodiversity Assessment Reveals a Region of Exceptional Herpetofaunal Richness in the Southeastern United States
(2022-07-29)
We conducted a competitive bioblitz survey in four Georgia counties to raise awareness of a unique and species rich herpetofauna in the Pine Mountain/ Fall Line Sandhills Region of Georgia, and compared documented species ...
Visitors to Southeastern Hawkmoth Flowers
(2022-07-29)
- Despite global concern for the status of animal pollinators, studies on
pollination systems in the southeastern United States are disproportionately low
compared to the diversity of this region. For example, sphingophilous, ...
Biomechanical factors influencing successful self-righting in the pleurodire turtle Emydura subglobosa
(2022-07-29)
Self-righting performance is a key ability for most terrestrial animals, and has been used as a metric of fitness, exhaustion and thermal limits in a variety of taxa. However, there is little understanding of the underlying ...
The Vitamin A-Redox Hypothesis: A Biochemical Basis for Honest Signaling via Carotenoid Pigmentation
(2022-07-29)
Trade-offs in resource allocation have been widely stated as the means by which the honesty of ornamental traits is maintained, but an alternative to this resource trade-off hypothesis is that production of ornamentation ...
An in vivo test of the biologically relevant roles of carotenoids as antioxidants in animals
(2022-03-13)
Carotenoids are well known for their contribution to the vibrant coloration of many animals and have been hypothesized to be important antioxidants. Surprisingly few examples of carotenoids acting as biologically relevant ...
Thermal spikes from the urban heat island increase mortality and alter physiology of lizard embryos
(2022-03-13)
Effects of global change (i.e. urbanization, climate change) on adult organisms are readily used to predict the persistence of populations. However, effects on embryo survival and patterns of development are less studied, ...
High activity before breeding improves reproductive performance by enhancing mitochondrial function and biogenesis
(2022-03-13)
Understanding of physiological responses of organisms is typically based on data collected during an isolated event. Although many fundamental insights have been gained from these studies, evaluating the response to a ...
A Call to Develop Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) for Nonmajors Courses
(2022-03-11)
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) for non-science majors (non-majors) are potentially distinct from CUREs for developing scientists in their goals, learning objectives, and assessment strategies. While ...
Discovery and Broad Relevance May Be Insignificant Components of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences [CUREs] for Non-Biology Majors
(2022-03-11)
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a type of laboratory learning environment associated with a science course, in which undergraduates participate in novel research. According to Auchincloss et al. ...
Development of endocytosis, degradative activity, and antigen processing capacity during GM-CSF driven differentiation of murine bone marrow
(2022-03-11)
Dendritic cells (DC) are sentinels of the immune system, alerting and enlisting T cells to clear pathogenic threats. As such, numerous studies have demonstrated their effective uptake and proteolytic activities coupled ...