Matching Items (37)
Description
It is well known that deficiencies in key chemical elements (such as phosphorus, P) can reduce animal growth; however, recent empirical data have shown that high levels of dietary nutrients can also reduce animal growth. In ecological stoichiometry, this phenomenon is known as the "stoichiometric knife edge," but its underlying mechanisms are not well-known. Previous work has suggested that the crustacean zooplankter Daphnia reduces its feeding rates on phosphorus-rich food, causing low growth due to insufficient C (energy) intake. To test for this mechanism, feeding rates of Daphnia magna on algae (Scenedesmus acutus) differing in C:P ratio (P content) were determined. Overall, there was a significant difference among all treatments for feeding rate (p < 0.05) with generally higher feeding rates on P-rich algae. These data indicate that both high and low food C:P ratio do affect Daphnia feeding rate but are in contradiction with previous work that showed that P-rich food led to strong reductions in feeding rate. Additional experiments are needed to gain further insights.
ContributorsSchimpp, Sarah Ann (Author) / Elser, James (Thesis director) / Neuer, Susanne (Committee member) / Peace, Angela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Large quantities of sodic and alkaline bauxite residue are produced globally as a by-product from alumina refineries. Ecological stoichiometry of key elements [nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P)] plays a critical role in establishing vegetation cover in bauxite residue sand (BRS). Here we examined how changes in soil chemical properties over time in rehabilitated sodic and alkaline BRS affected leaf N to P stoichiometry of native species used for rehabilitation. Both Ca and soil pH influenced the shifts in leaf N:P ratios of the study species as supported by consistently significant positive relationships (P < 0.001) between these soil indices and leaf N:P ratios. Shifts from N to P limitation were evident for N-fixing species, while N limitation was consistently experienced by non-N-fixing plant species. In older rehabilitated BRS embankments, soil and plant indices (Ca, Na, pH, EC, ESP and leaf N:P ratios) tended to align with those of the natural ecosystem, suggesting improved rehabilitation performance. These findings highlight that leaf N:P stoichiometry can effectively provide a meaningful assessment on understanding nutrient limitation and productivity of native species used for vegetating highly sodic and alkaline BRS, and is a crucial indicator for assessing ecological rehabilitation performance.
ContributorsGoloran, Johnvie B. (Author) / Chen, Chengrong (Author) / Phillips, Ian R. (Author) / Elser, James (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-10-07
Description
It is the intent of this research to determine the feasibility of utilizing industrial byproducts in cementitious systems in lieu of Portland Cement to reduce global CO2 emissions. Class C and Class F Fly Ash (CFA and FFA, respectively) derived from industrial coal combustion were selected as the replacement materials for this study. Sodium sulfate and calcium oxide were used as activators. In Part 1 of this study, focus was placed on high volume replacement of OPC using sodium sulfate as the activator. Despite improvements in heat generation for both CFA and FFA systems in the presence of sulfate, sodium sulfate was found to have adverse effects on the compressive strength of CFA mortars. In the CFA mixes, strength improved significantly with sulfate addition, but began to decrease in strength around 14 days due to expansive ettringite formation. Conversely, the addition of sulfate led to improved strength for FFA mixes such that the 28 day strength was comparable to that of the CFA mixes with no observable strength loss. Maximum compressive strengths achieved for the high volume replacement mixes was around 40 MPa, which is considerably lower than the baseline OPC mix used for comparison. In Part 2 of the study, temperature dependency and calcium oxide addition were studied for sodium sulfate activated systems composed of 100% Class F fly ash. In the presence of sulfate, added calcium increased reactivity and compressive strength at early ages, particularly at elevated temperatures. It is believed that sulfate and calcium react with alumina from fly ash to form ettringite, while heat overcomes the activation energy barrier of fly ash. The greatest strengths were obtained for mixes containing the maximum allowed quantity of calcium oxide (5%) and sodium sulfate (3%), and were around 12 MPa. This is a very low compressive strength relative to OPC and would therefore be an inadequate substitute for OPC needs.
ContributorsTweedley, Shannon Elizabeth (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis director) / Mamlouk, Michael (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Did the amount of media attention to the H1N1 flu or the information that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) disseminates about the H1N1 flu, influence individuals' decisions to avoid public locations during the 2009-2010 H1N1 Influenza pandemic? I investigate this question using weekly-confirmed H1N1 cases from the CDC, the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), and the Google Trends weekly search volume index for certain key terms. I found that individuals did exhibit some avoidance behaviour during the flu pandemic in response to the CDC data, but not the measures of media attention. However, the magnitudes of these adjustments are small in comparison to other measures of avoidance behaviour, such as reduced time in public during extreme weather events.
ContributorsGunn, Quentin Lee (Author) / Kuminoff, Nicolai (Thesis director) / Abbott, Joshua (Committee member) / Fenichel, Eli (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Many studies have shown that as the calcium carbonate precipitates, it sequesters phosphate. Although the geochemical interactions between phosphate and calcium carbonate are known, only a few studies have considered calcium carbonate deposition's effect on stream ecology. Further, those studies considering decomposition have produced conflicting results. In this study, nutrient-diffusing cups with organic substrata were used to determine the nutrient limitation of decomposers in the travertine streams in the Huachuca Mountains. After processing a subset of the experiments, only one site (in Huachuca Canyon) from the four study streams was significantly nutrient-limited (NP co-limitation).
ContributorsNevarez, Nicole Michelle (Author) / Elser, James (Thesis director) / Sabo, John (Committee member) / Corman, Jessica (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Land management practices such as domestic animal grazing can alter plant communities via changes in soil structure and chemistry, species composition, and plant nutrient content. These changes can affect the abundance and quality of plants consumed by insect herbivores with consequent changes in population dynamics. These population changes can translate to massive crop damage and pest control costs. My dissertation focused on Oedaleus asiaticus, a dominant Asian locust, and had three main objectives. First, I identified morphological, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of the migratory ("brown") and non-migratory ("green") phenotypes. I found that brown morphs had longer wings, larger thoraxes and higher metabolic rates compared to green morphs, suggesting that developmental plasticity allows greater migratory capacity in the brown morph of this locust. Second, I tested the hypothesis of a causal link between livestock overgrazing and an increase in migratory swarms of O. asiaticus. Current paradigms generally assume that increased plant nitrogen (N) should enhance herbivore performance by relieving protein-limitation, increasing herbivorous insect populations. I showed, in contrast to this scenario, that host plant N-enrichment and high protein artificial diets decreased the size and viability of O. asiaticus. Plant N content was lowest and locust abundance highest in heavily livestock-grazed fields where soils were N-depleted, likely due to enhanced erosion and leaching. These results suggest that heavy livestock grazing promotes outbreaks of this locust by reducing plant protein content. Third, I tested for the influence of dietary imbalance, in conjunction with high population density, on migratory plasticity. While high population density has clearly been shown to induce the migratory morph in several locusts, the effect of diet has been unclear. I found that locusts reared at high population density and fed unfertilized plants (i.e. high quality plants for O. asiaticus) had the greatest migratory capacity, and maintained a high percent of brown locusts. These results did not support the hypothesis that poor-quality resources increased expression of migratory phenotypes. This highlights a need to develop new theoretical frameworks for predicting how environmental factors will regulate migratory plasticity in locusts and perhaps other insects.
ContributorsCease, Arianne (Author) / Harrison, Jon (Thesis advisor) / Elser, James (Thesis advisor) / DeNardo, Dale (Committee member) / Quinlan, Michael (Committee member) / Sabo, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) is listed as an endangered species throughout its range in the southwestern United States. Little is known about its sub-population spatial structure and how this impacts its population viability. In conjunction with being listed as endangered, a recovery plan was produced by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, with recovery units (sub-populations) roughly based on major river drainages. In the interest of examining this configuration of sub-populations and their impact on the measured population viability, I applied a multivariate auto-regressive state-space model to a spatially extensive time series of abundance data for the southwestern willow flycatcher over the period spanning 1995-2010 estimating critical growth parameters, correlation in environmental stochasticity or "synchronicity" between sub-populations (recovery units) and extinction risk of the sub-populations and the whole. The model estimates two parameters, the mean and variance of annual growth rate. Of the models I tested, I found the strongest support for a population model in which three of the recovery units were grouped (the Lower Colorado, Gila Basin, and Rio Grande recovery units) while keeping all others separate. This configuration has 6.6 times more support for the observed data than a configuration assigning each recovery unit to a separate sub-population, which is how they are circumscribed in the recovery plan. Given the best model, the mean growth rate is -0.0234 (CI95 -0.0939, 0.0412) with a variance of 0.0597 (CI95 0.0115, 0.1134). This growth rate is not significantly different from zero and this is reflected in the low potential for quasi-extinction. The cumulative probability of the population experiencing at least an 80% decline from current levels within 15 years for some sub-populations were much higher (range: 0.129-0.396 for an 80% decline). These results suggest that the rangewide population has a low risk of extinction in the next 15 years and that the formal recovery units specified by the original recovery plan do not correspond to proper sub-population units as defined by population synchrony.
ContributorsDockens, Patrick E. T. (Author) / Sabo, John (Thesis advisor) / Stromberg, Juliet (Committee member) / Fenichel, Eli (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Consideration of both biological and human-use dynamics in coupled social-ecological systems is essential for the success of interventions such as marine reserves. As purely human institutions, marine reserves have no direct effects on ecological systems. Consequently, the success of a marine reserve depends on managers` ability to alter human behavior in the direction and magnitude that supports reserve objectives. Further, a marine reserve is just one component in a larger coupled social-ecological system. The social, economic, political, and biological landscape all determine the social acceptability of a reserve, conflicts that arise, how the reserve interacts with existing fisheries management, accuracy of reserve monitoring, and whether the reserve is ultimately able to meet conservation and fishery enhancement goals. Just as the social-ecological landscape is critical at all stages for marine reserve, from initial establishment to maintenance, the reserve in turn interacts with biological and human use dynamics beyond its borders. Those interactions can lead to the failure of a reserve to meet management goals, or compromise management goals outside the reserve. I use a bio-economic model of a fishery in a spatially patchy environment to demonstrate how the pre-reserve fisheries management strategy determines the pattern of fishing effort displacement once the reserve is established, and discuss the social, political, and biological consequences of different patterns for the reserve and the fishery. Using a stochastic bio-economic model, I demonstrate how biological and human use connectivity can confound the accurate detection of reserve effects by violating assumptions in the quasi-experimental framework. Finally, I examine data on recreational fishing site selection to investigate changes in response to the announcement of enforcement of a marine reserve in the Gulf of California, Mexico. I generate a scale of fines that would fully or partially protect the reserve, providing a data-driven way for managers to balance biological and socio-economic goals. I suggest that natural resource managers consider human use dynamics with the same frequency, rigor, and tools as they do biological stocks.
ContributorsFujitani, Marie (Author) / Abbott, Joshua (Thesis advisor) / Fenichel, Eli (Thesis advisor) / Gerber, Leah (Committee member) / Anderies, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Many studies over the past two decades examined the link between climate patterns and discharge, but few have attempted to study the effects of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on localized and watershed specific processes such as nutrient loading in the Southwestern United States. The Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) is used to describe the state of the ENSO, with positive (negative) values referring to an El Niño condition (La Niña condition). This study examined the connection between the MEI and precipitation, discharge, and total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in the Upper Salt River Watershed in Arizona. Unrestricted regression models (UMs) and restricted regression models (RMs) were used to investigate the relationship between the discharges in Tonto Creek and the Salt River as functions of the magnitude of the MEI, precipitation, and season (winter/summer). The results suggest that in addition to precipitation, the MEI/season relationship is an important factor for predicting discharge. Additionally, high discharge events were associated with high magnitude ENSO events, both El Niño and La Niña. An UM including discharge and season, and a RM (restricting the seasonal factor to zero), were applied to TN and TP concentrations in the Salt River. Discharge and seasonality were significant factors describing the variability in TN in the Salt River while discharge alone was the significant factor describing TP. TN and TP in Roosevelt Lake were evaluated as functions of both discharge and MEI. Some significant correlations were found but internal nutrient cycling as well as seasonal stratification of the water column of the lake likely masks the true relationships. Based on these results, the MEI is a useful predictor of discharge, as well as nutrient loading in the Salt River Watershed through the Salt River and Tonto Creek. A predictive model investigating the effect of ENSO on nutrient loading through discharge can illustrate the effects of large scale climate patterns on smaller systems.
ContributorsSversvold, Darren (Author) / Neuer, Susanne (Thesis advisor) / Elser, James (Committee member) / Fenichel, Eli (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Like individual organisms, complex social groups are able to maintain predictable trajectories of growth, from initial colony foundation to mature reproductively capable units. They do so while simultaneously responding flexibly to variation in nutrient availability and intake. Leafcutter ant colonies function as tri-trophic systems, in which the ants harvest vegetation to grow a fungus that, in turn, serves as food for the colony. Fungal growth rates and colony worker production are interdependent, regulated by nutritional and behavioral feedbacks. Fungal growth and quality are directly affected by worker foraging decisions, while worker production is, in turn, dependent on the amount and condition of the fungus. In this dissertation, I first characterized the growth relationship between the workers and the fungus of the desert leafcutter ant Acromyrmex versicolor during early stages of colony development, from colony foundation by groups of queens through the beginnings of exponential growth. I found that this relationship undergoes a period of slow growth and instability when workers first emerge, and then becomes allometrically positive. I then evaluated how mass and element ratios of resources collected by the ants are translated into fungus and worker population growth, and refuse, finding that colony digestive efficiency is comparable to digestive efficiencies of other herbivorous insects and ruminants. To test how colonies behaviorally respond to perturbations of the fungus garden, I quantified activity levels and task performance of workers in colonies with either supplemented or diminished fungus gardens, and found that colonies adjusted activity and task allocation in response to the fungus garden size. Finally, to identify possible forms of nutrient limitation, I measured how colony performance was affected by changes in the relative amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and phosphorus available in the resources used to grow the fungus garden. From this experiment, I concluded that colony growth is primarily carbohydrate-limited.
ContributorsClark, Rebecca, 1981- (Author) / Fewell, Jennifer H (Thesis advisor) / Mueller, Ulrich (Committee member) / Liebig, Juergen (Committee member) / Elser, James (Committee member) / Harrison, Jon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011