MEEC 2018 38th Annual Meeting
April 6-8, 2018 Kellogg Biological Station
Michigan State University Table of Contents
Welcome & Acknowledgements Guide to MEEC 2018 Open Call for Hosting MEEC 2019 Saturday Plenary: Dr. Jay Lennon Sunday Plenary: Dr. Jessica Hellmann Schedule Oral Presentations Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Poster Presentations Professional Development Panels Field Trips Kellogg Biological Station Grounds Map Directions: KBS to Kalamazoo Downtown Kalamazoo Map & Parking Things to Do in Kalamazoo KBS Code of Conduct
Welcome to MEEC 2018!
On behalf of Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, and the MEEC 2018 organizing committee, welcome to the 2018 Annual Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference! For 38 years, MEEC has provided a great opportunity for students in the Midwestern United States to present their research, network with peers, and grow as scientists. We hope that this year’s conference continues to inspire new ideas and collaborations.
This year, we are proud to host 185 attendees from 39 different Midwestern colleges and universities, as well as from research institutes and government agencies. We are honored to present two top scientists in ecology and evolution as plenary speakers this year: Dr. Jessica Hellmann (University of Minnesota) and Dr. Jay Lennon (Indiana University). The program also includes 43 oral presentations, 82 posters, 4 professional development panels geared towards scientists at various stages of their careers, and 3 field trips to showcase research in ecology and evolution at KBS.
We have many people and organizations to thank for helping make this conference possible. We would like to give special thanks to the KBS & Conference Center staff for their support during the planning processes. Finally, a huge thanks to all of our faculty advisors, the staff at Kellogg Biological Station, and our volunteers—this would not be possible without you!
Thank you for participating in MEEC 2018, and we hope you enjoy the conference and your stay at KBS!
Sincerely, Tayler Chicoine, Heather Kittredge, Robert Logan, Ravi Ranjan, Meredith Zettlemoyer MEEC 2018 Organizing Committee
Thanks to our MEEC 2018 Volunteers & PanelistsPanelists:::: Jim Allen, Dr. Todd Barkman, Dr. Ryan Bixenmann, Lana Bolin, Josh Bosier, Shelley Corralez, Annette Crum, Danae Cummins, Dr. Steve Denham, Andrew Dennhardt, Andy Fogiel, Ava Garrison, Kate Glanville, Steve Gougherty, Dr. Kay Gross, Sheril Kirschenbaum, Dr. Thomas Koffel, Kenneth Kettler, Caitlin Mack, Dr. Sandy Marquat-Pyatt, Dr. Gary Mittelbach, Daphne Kern, Dr. Bonnie McGill, Susan Magnoli, Stefan Ozminski, John G. Phillips, Sarah Reimer, Jennae Rozeboom, Dr. Shu Kin Zo, Jenny Smith, Sean Sultaire, Christopher Warneke, Andy Widner
GGGuideGuide to MEEC 2018 • If you need helphelp: MEEC volunteers will have on a blue MEEC shirt. If you need help or have a question, don’t hesitate to ask one of our volunteers. • Coffee/BreakfastCoffee/Breakfast: Breakfast will be served on both Saturday and Sunday from 7:30-9:00 am outside the KBS Auditorium. Coffee and snacks will be available outside session rooms. • WifiWifi: Free Wifi is available via the “MSUnet Guest 3.0” network (no password). • TTT-T---shirts:shirts: Pre-ordered t-shirts may be picked up during check-in on either Saturday or Sunday. Remaining t-shirts will be sold during at the registration desk outside the KBS Library on Saturday morning for $10 each (cash only, no change available). • Talk upuploads:loads: All talks must be uploaded to the MEEC Google Drive before your session. If you are giving a talk and have not uploaded your presentation, please arrive at the registration desk before 8:15 am so that you can upload your talk before concurrent oral sessions begin. • Poster dropdrop----offoffoffoff: Posters should be brought to registration with you; we will give you your poster number and location. You will be responsible for hanging your poster. Poster numbers in the 100s will be located outside the Auditorium; poster numbers in the 200s will be located in the Terrace Room. Please make sure your name is on the outside of your poster tube, and remember to take your poster with you on Sunday. • Dinner Friday: Dinner Friday night will be a pizza social at McCrary Dining Hall. Cost is $5, paid during online registration. There will be limited tickets available at Friday registration. • Lunch Saturday will be served outside the Auditorium and Terrace Room. • Dinner & Pub Crawl SaturdaySaturday: Dinner on Saturday is on your own. The “Things to Do in Kalamazoo” page lists some of our favorite restaurants in the Kalamazoo area. There will also be a pub crawl on Saturday evening for interested attendees: meet at 8 PM at Bell’s Brewery. We’ll be tweeting as we visit breweries in downtown Kalamazoo. (Note: transportation will not be provided.) • Lunch Sunday will be bagged lunches, bought during online registration. There are a few restaurants within a 20-minute drive of KBS. • Plenary Speaker Meet & Greet: There will be a meet & greet with both plenary speakers on Saturday evening from 4:15-5:30pm. Light refreshments will be served. • Book & Prize RaffleRaffle: During the Meet & Greet there will be a raffle with book prizes. Each attendee will receive 2 raffle tickets at registration. • BoBoBookBo ok SaleSale: There will be a book sale during the poster session on Saturday. Hardcovers are $5 each; paperbacks are $2 each. Cash only (and no/limited change available).
Saturday Plenary Speaker
Dr. Jay Lennon Indiana University
Dr. Lennon received his PhD from Dartmouth College and did his postdoctoral work at Brown University. He then went on to join the faculty at W. K. Kellogg Biological Station and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University in 2006. Following his time at Kellogg Biological Station, Dr. Lennon was a Visiting Professor at Montana State University in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology while working as a Whitman Center Associate with the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. In 2012, he joined the Department of Biology at Indiana University, where he is core faculty in the Evolution, Ecology & Behavior Section and affiliated with the Microbiology Section. Dr. Lennon’s work focuses broadly on the ecology and evolution of microbial communities, in particular on the factors that generate and maintain microbial diversity, which then influences ecosystem functioning and stability. His lab uses molecular biology, simulation modeling, laboratory experiments, field surveys, and whole ecosystem manipulations to examine patterns of microbial diversity. Current work focuses on microbial seed banks, or dormancy periods, that serve as a reservoir of biodiversity; the eco-evolutionary dynamics between microbial populations and ecosystem processes, particularly the feedbacks of starvation, stoichiometry, and seed banks; microbial community responses along environmental gradients of resources, moisture, and connectivity; the importance of constraints in microbial community structure; ecosystem processes at scales ranging from individuals to ecosystem fluxes; and how microbial traits evolve, shift along environmental gradients, structure communities, and influence ecosystem processes. Dr. Lennon has published extensively in journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Nature Ecology & Evolution, ISME: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology, and Frontiers in Microbiology, and has done editorial service with Environmental Microbiology, Frontiers in Terrestrial Microbiology, and Frontiers in Systems Microbiology. Dr. Lennon also served on the Biogeochemistry Environmental Research Initiative at Michigan State University, and now is a Science Advisor to the Shedd Aquarium’s Aquarium Microbiome Project in Chicago, IL.
Sunday Plenary Speaker
Dr. Jessica Hellmann University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment
Dr. Hellmann earned her Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University, and worked as a postdoc at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Biodiversity Research. She then joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 2003, where she served as research director of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index. She continues to collaborate with and mentor researchers assessing the vulnerability of nations across the globe to climate change. She also led the climate change adaptation program at Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative, directed GLOBES, an interdisciplinary graduate program in environment and society, and initiated Notre Dame’s undergraduate minor in sustainability. Following her time at Notre Dame, Dr. Hellmann arrived at the University of Minnesota in 2015, where currently she is the Russell M. & Elizabeth M. Bennett Chair in Excellence in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior as well as the Director of the Institute on the Environment. Dr. Hellmann’s work focuses on global change ecology and climate adaptation, focusing in particular on reducing climate change impacts through novel conservation management techniques. These include assisted migration of certain animal and plant species, the role of climate in hybrid zone movement, species’ capacity for adaptation to climate change, and using green and cool roofs to mitigate urban heat island effects in the Chicago area. In addition to regularly contributing to leading scientific journals ( Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , etc.) and serving in various editorial positions with Evolutionary Applications, Conservation Biology, and Elementa , Dr. Hellmann regularly communicates her science on global change impacts to leading global media outlets including CNN, NPR, Fox News, and the Chicago Tribune. She also counsels state and national governments on habitat management, restoration, and endangered species conservation. Recently, Dr. Hellmann has expanded her research on climate change adaptation to include adaptation in human systems, and she collaborates with climate assessment and adaptation planning efforts to help build investment in solutions to environmental change.
Schedule Friday, April 6
555:305:30:30:30 --- 8:30 pm Registration, poster information, t-shirt pick-up McCrary Dining Hall 6:306:306:30 --- 8:30 pm Pizza mixer (RSVP’d and paid attendees only) McCrary Dining Hall
Saturday, April 7
7:30 ––– 9:00 am Registration, poster information, talk uploads, Outside KBS Library t-shirt pick-up Breakfast Outside KBS Auditorium 9:00 ––– 9:20 am Welcome (MEEC 2018 Organizing Committee & KBS Auditorium Dr. Kay Gross, KBS Director) 9:20 ––– 9:30 am Break 9:30 ––– 10:30 am Population & Community Ecology I Auditorium B (left side) Session 1 Conservation Biology & Invasion Ecology Auditorium A (right side) Disease Ecology Seminar Room 237 Agricultural Ecology Stack Classroom 139 10:30 ––– 10:45 am Break 10:45 ––– 11:45 am Genetics & Evolution I Auditorium B (left side) Session 2 Microbial Ecology & Evolution Auditorium A (right side) Eco-evolutionary Dynamics Seminar Room 237 Behavioral Ecology Stack Classroom 139 11:45 ––– 1:45 pm Lunch Outside KBS Auditorium & Terrace Room Poster Session: Outside KBS Auditorium & ODD Posters present from 12:00-12:45pm Terrace Room EVEN Posters present from 12:45-1:30pm 1:45 ––– 2:45 pm Interdisciplinary & Collaborative Science Auditorium B (left side) Panels Nonacademic Science Careers Auditorium A (right side) Science Communication Workshop Seminar Room 237 Getting Into & Succeeding in Graduate School Stack Classroom 139 2:452:452:45–2:45 ––– 3:00 pm Break 3:003:003:00–3:00 ––– 4:00 pm Plenary I: Dr. Jay Lennon KBS Auditorium 4:00 ––– 4:15 pm Break 4:15 ––– 5:30 pm Plenary Speakers Meet and Greet McCrary Dining Hall 888:008:00 pm --- Kalamazoo Pub Crawl Bell’s Brewery * **
* Follow the pub crawl on Twitter @meec2018kbs ** Transportation for the pub crawl is on your own
Sunday, April 8
7:30 ––– 9:00 am Registration, talk uploads, t-shirt pick-up Outside KBS Library Breakfast Outside KBS Auditorium 9:00 ––– 10:00 am Plenary II: Dr. Jessica Hellmann KBS Auditorium 10:00 ---10:15-10:15 am Break 10:15 ––– 11:11:11:3011: 303030 amamam Population & Community Ecology II Auditorium B (left side) Session 333 Genetics & Evolution II Auditorium A (right side) Ecosystem Ecology Seminar Room 237 111111:30:30 ––– 1:30 pm Lunch On your own * 1:1:1:301: 303030 ––– 3:00 pm Field Trips
* Pre-ordered bag lunches will be available outside the KBS Auditorium
Oral Presentations
Talks: Session 1 Saturday, April 7, 9:30 ––– 10:30 am
Population & Community Ecology I 9:30am Landscape connectivity and patch shape modify patternspatterns of plaplantnt recruitment Christopher Warneke*, Lars Brudvig
Habitat fragmentation modifies population dynamics, but understanding how this occurs demographically remains largely unknown, especially for plants. Understanding how fragmentation affects populations requires consideration of how landscape changes due to fragmentation influence important demographic rates, such as recruitment (addition of new individuals to populations). We focus on effects of three habitat fragmentation factors (edge effects, patch isolation, patch edge:area) on recruitment patterns for four perennial plant species. We worked within seven replicated, experimentally-fragmented landscapes. Within each landscape, each habitat patch has equal area and differs only in edge:area and isolation from a core habitat area. We outplanted individuals of each species at four distances from the patch edge, to test for edge effects. We counted the number of recruits around founder individuals of each species eight years post-introduction, to examine how fragmentation impacts long-term recruitment patterns. We asked: How is recruitment affected by: (1) edge proximity? (2) patch connectivity? (3) patch edge:area? We predicted less population growth near edges, in isolated patches, and in high edge:area patches. We found that: (1) There were no significant edge effects for any species. However, (2) All species had significantly more recruits in isolated patches. (3) For ¾ of species, there were significantly fewer recruits in low edge:area patches. Altogether, our results differed from expectations that more fragmented conditions should have fewer recruits. Our study shows that fragmentation factors do impact plant recruitment and underscores the need for further research into how and why plant population dynamics change due to landscape fragmentation. 9:45am Differential reproductive timing in two closely related species of Peromyscus Jeremy Papuga*, Susan Hoffman
Climate change is one of the major threats to biodiversity in this age. Species can adapt to a changing environment by migrating, which has the potential to establish novel communities, influencing mutualism, predation, and competition. Climate change may also influence community interactions through changes in phenology as the length and/or severity of winters decrease. A model to examine changing competitive interactions in relation to climate change is provided by two closely related species of Peromyscus in northern Michigan. Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis (PLN) has recently come in contact with populations of Peromyscus maniculatus gracilis (PMG) in the Upper Peninsula and has apparently driven PMG populations to extinction in most of the Lower Peninsula. I examined reproductive timing and overwinter survival in populations with varying community compositions over two years of varying winter severity. I found that PLN have higher rates of overwinter survival and reproduce earlier after less severe winters, which then leads to higher populations in the fall. PMG on the other hand do not shift their reproductive timing with winter severity and end their reproduction earlier than PLN. This difference in reproductive timing may facilitate ecological replacement of PMG by PLN in the region as winters become shorter and less severe, allowing for PLN to outcompete PMG. 10:00am Seed population, not ssoiloil microbial communities, affectsaffects plant response ttoo increased temperature Louis Jochems*, Emily Grman, Jen Lau, Lars Brudvig
Prairie restoration requires anticipating future climate warming. One strategy is assisted migration: translocating warm-adapted seed populations. Another strategy may be inoculation with remnant prairie soil microbes (either local or warm-adapted). Local adaptation between plants and soils may limit the effectiveness of these strategies. We sought to investigate the effects of seed population, soil inoculation, and temperature on the productivity and community composition of 10 native prairie plant species. In an experiment in pots, we investigated the effects of seed (three regions: local, southern, northern), soil inoculation (remnant prairies from the three regions plus Michigan old field and autoclaved), and temperature (ambient and +3°C) on the growth of the 10 species. We found that two dominant C4 grasses grew more under high temperatures, whereas forb response was variable. A subsequent growth chamber experiment examined individual (local and southern populations) forb response to increased temperature and soil inoculation. Results indicate that temperature affected forb response and species responded differentially to soil inoculations. Overall, we found no evidence of local adaptation between seed populations and soils from the same region. We conclude from these experiments that assisted migration may not be necessary for successful restoration of Michigan tallgrass prairies in response to climate warming. 10:15am Dung beetle functional traits related to restoration management practices in tallgrass prairie Sheryl Hosler*, Peyton Whiston, Holly P. Jones, Nicholas A. Barber
Degraded ecosystems can be restored via wide-scale management practices. While restoration work often focuses on reestablishing species diversity and abundance, functional trait analysis is emerging as a more holistic approach to evaluating restorations. We examined the species composition and functional traits of dung beetle communities across a chronosequence of restored tallgrass prairie in Illinois, including sites with and without bison and prescribed fire. Data were collected on behavioral guild, diel activity, and body measurements, and were analyzed using generalized linear models. We also performed a dung decomposition experiment to measure an ecosystem function driven by these insects. Pitfall trapping results seem to indicate no deleterious effects of management strategies at Nachusa on the overall abundance of dung beetles in the prairie. However, there may be some sort of selective pressure on dung beetle size as restored sites age. The oldest restored sites and remnant sites demonstrate larger populations of the smallest tunneler species, as well as smaller individuals of the most common tunneler species. We conclude that measures of functional diversity are more appropriate for evaluating the success of tallgrass prairie restorations because they indicate the restoration of ecosystem functions, rather than simply the presence or absence of species. Our research also reinforces the value of dung beetles in evaluating ecosystem restorations. We recommend that restoration managers consider the arthropod community and its functional characteristics when making management decisions.
Conservation Biology & Invasion Ecology 9:30am Bioaccumulation of polypoly---- and perfluoroalkyl substances in larval amphibians Sarah Abercrombie*, Michael Lacchetta, Brian J. Tornabene, Michael F. Chislock, Gary M. Hoover, Samuel C. Guffey, Chloe de Perre, Maria S. Sepulveda, Linda S. Lee, Jason T. Hoverman
Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are environmentally persistent compounds that are increasingly prevalent in the global environment. Because of this, there is a need to determine the ecotoxicity of PFASs on wildlife. Of particular concern are amphibians, because they are sensitive to environment contaminants and their populations are declining. Based on previous data, larval
amphibians exposed to PFASs reach steady state within 10 days of exposure (Hoover et al. 2017). To determine precisely how quick steady state could be reached, we conducted an experiment that exposed larval American Toads ( Anaxyrus americanus ) and Northern Leopard Frogs ( Lithobates pipiens ) for 10 days to our focal PFASs of perfluoroocatane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the most common PFASs detected in environmental samples. This experiment included 5 treatments of exposure via water: control (no exposure), 10 ppb PFOS, 1000 ppb PFOS, 10 ppb PFOA, and 1000 ppb PFOA. For each experimental unit and time point, we calculated body burden and bioconcentration factor (BCF). We found that body burdens often peaked around 2 days of exposure for both species with the exception of 10 ppb of PFOA, which was more variable. This data suggests that steady state is quickly reached in larval amphibians exposed to PFASs. Bioaccumulation data indicated that accumulation of the contaminants within individuals increased greatly in comparison to the environmental contamination. These BCFs suggest that there is a high potential for trophic transfer of PFASs within food webs because larval amphibians serve as prey for a diverse suite of predators. 9:45am Restoration of a spotted knapweedknapweed----infestedinfested site: competitive interactions and soil ninitrogentrogen relationships Steven Munson*, Neil W. MacDonald
Spotted knapweed ( Centaurea stoebe ) is a non-native invasive forb that has spread across a large portion of North America. Evaluating the effectiveness of knapweed control methods is important for restoration of the grassland ecosystems it has invaded. Research has suggested altering soil nitrogen may influence spotted knapweed’s dominance but few studies have examined available nitrogen in the context of restoration efforts for spotted knapweed control. Our research was conducted on experimental plots located at the Bass River Recreation Area, in Allendale Township, Michigan. These plots were established in 2008 using a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement of treatments for knapweed control. Plots were initially mowed and seeded, followed by treatment with clopyralid, glyphosate, or no herbicide. A subset of plots was annually hand-pulled of spotted knapweed, burned, both, or neither. In 2016, biomass was sampled based on plant groups (native graminoids, native forbs, non-native grasses, non-native forbs, and spotted knapweed) and soil from each plot was sampled and analyzed for available nitrogen. Our biomass data reinforces the importance of burning for maintaining native grassland communities and the effectiveness of hand-pulling for knapweed control. The initial seeding positively impacted native plant communities compared to untreated areas, suggesting low native species dispersal may enable knapweed persistence. We found soil nitrogen to be correlated positively with knapweed and negatively with native graminoids, with a negative correlation between spotted knapweed and native graminoids. Our results suggest native graminoid's ability to decrease soil nitrogen shifted the competitive advantage away from spotted knapweed. 10:00am Does functional group identity predict coco----occurringoccurring invasive plant interactions in a tallgrastallgrasss prairie system? Emma Oschrin*, H. L. Reynolds
Studies of single-species invasions dominate the literature, but plant communities typically experience simultaneous invasions of multiple plant species. Research on co-occurring invasive species is therefore critical to advance understanding of invasion mechanisms and their impacts on native communities. We addressed whether a plant functional group approach provides a useful framework for predicting the nature of invasive-invasive and invasive-native interactions. In a controlled greenhouse environment with tallgrass prairie species, we manipulated the number and identity of co-occurring functional groups of invasive legumes, grasses, and forbs. To examine invasive-invasive interactions, we established microcosms with single functional groups as well as pairwise and three-way functional group combinations. We measured the impacts of co-occurring invasive functional groups on natives by growing native communities with multiple invaders from the same or different functional groups. In
invasive -only pairwise c ombinations, invasive legumes tended to facilitate both grasses and forbs while invasive grasses and forbs tended to compete with each other. We observed non-additive impacts on the native community but they were less negative than expected based on the invasive-invasive facilitation documented in invasive-only microcosms. The invaders had relatively similar impacts on the native community regardless of invasion treatment. Invasive-invasive interactions within native communities did not demonstrate clear patterns of competition or facilitation, suggesting that in the presence of the native community, invasive-invasive interactions diminish in strength. A functional group approach is useful for predicting the interactions between co-occurring invasive species and establishing a general pattern of non-additivity observed in native-invasive interactions. 10:15am Of mice and management: small mammals and the impacts of herbicide at a restored prairie Nicholas Steijn*, Holly Jones, Kirstie Savage
Tallgrass prairie, one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth, is currently threatened with invasion by nonnative plants. Small mammals (e.g., mice, voles, and squirrels) affect plant community assembly at the seedling/establishment phase, when many invasive plants outcompete native plants. Thus, understanding small mammal populations may offer insight into the spread of invasive plants. Conversely, removing invasive plants may reduce food availability to small mammals, altering their abundance or diversity. The goals of this study were to characterize the small mammal community at a restored prairie and determine the impacts from herbicide control of red clover ( Trifolium pratense , a common invasive plant) on small mammal diversity. We used Sherman traps to capture and tag small mammals at 14 sites at Nachusa Grasslands, a 1,400 hectare restored prairie in Franklin Grove, IL. At half the sites T. pratense was removed by spot spraying with broadleaf herbicide. From 2013-2017, we caught 820 unique individuals comprising ten different species. Peromyscus maniculatus was the most abundant for all years except 2017, when Microtus ochrogaster abundance spiked, suggesting the start of a "boom" in population size. Site age (time since restoration began) had a weak positive effect on diversity. Removal of T. pratense did not significantly impact diversity. These findings suggest that small mammal populations are able to survive on other food sources, even during aggressive herbicide regimes. Given the magnitude of small mammal population fluctuations, it may be valuable to consider their population abundance when trying to anticipate plant invasions.
Disease Ecology 9:30am Wildlife host biodiversity influences maintenance ofof the Lyme disdiseaseease pathogen Samniqueka Halsey*, James R. Miller
The maintenance of vector-borne zoonotic diseases requires the interaction of a pathogen, vector and reservoir hosts, with the host community regulating the abundance and distribution of tick and pathogens. The Dilution Effect hypothesis posits that high biodiversity communities can reduce zoonotic disease risk. However, there are concerns about the applicability of due to limitations in the ability to perform manipulative experiments. Here, we use a spatially explicit individual-based modeling approach to experimentally test the underlying mechanisms of the dilution effect hypothesis as it relates to human Lyme disease risk. Our objective was to explore how changes in biodiversity regulate vector populations, encounters with wildlife host reservoirs and pathogen transmission. With our modeling approach, we identify the specific mechanisms in which wildlife hosts maintain the Lyme disease pathogen. We found that increases in functional diversity result in an overall decrease in the total number of infected nymphs; however, the proportion of ticks infected increased with species richness. By delineating the specific roles individual host species play in amplifying or diluting the pathogen B. burgdorferi , we now have a better understanding how biodiversity influences Lyme disease risk which will facilitate more informed decisions in the development of interventions for reducing human Lyme disease risk.
9:45am Predicting the spread of a vectorvector----borneborne disease with an ecological model Uzma Ain*
Viruses such as West Nile, Dengue, and Zika are spread by mosquito vectors and can cause severe health impacts. We thus developed a computer model to simulate how a mosquito-borne disease can spread within a population. Our simulation, made with the programmable modeling platform NetLogo, allows the user to set the numbers of human hosts and mosquito vectors, to control the chance of contact between mosquitoes and humans, and to set the infectious period. When the model is run, hosts advance from susceptible with the potential to be infected, to infected with the virus, and finally to a recovered stage in which they are no longer infectious. This follows the Susceptible-Infected- Recovered (SIR) model in ecology. The results show that population size and movement of people have the biggest impact upon the duration and extent of disease outbreak. However, when a low percentage of people in the population are initially infected, it is difficult to predict if an outbreak will occur. This suggests that ecological factors that affect vectors, such as temperature changes and rainfall, may play an important role during sudden epidemics. 10:00am Natural enemy ecology: assessing the individual and combined effects of predators and pathogens on communities Turner DeBlieux*, Jason T. Hoverman
Natural enemy ecology strives to integrate the fields of disease ecology and community ecology to forge a broader understanding of how pathogens and predators structure communities. To advance this field, we need a greater emphasis on: 1) quantifying pathogen-mediated effects on community structure and comparing these effects to those observed with predators and 2) determining the interactive effects of combined natural enemies on communities. We conducted a mesocosm experiment designed to assess the individual and combined effects of predators (dragonfly larvae and adult water bugs) and a pathogen (ranavirus) on a larval amphibian community. We found that the risk level of the predators largely explained effects on the community. For instance, high-risk dragonflies reduce overall survival to 30% whereas low-risk water bugs only reduced survival to 67%. Additionally, we found that virus reduce survival to 62%, which was comparable to effect of the low-risk predator. These results demonstrate that pathogens can have effects similar to predators on communities. When predators were combined with the virus, we found that mortality was relatively unchanged from predator treatments. Importantly, the presence of predators reduced overall infection prevalence in the community (from 30% to 7% in Anax treatments) providing evidence of the healthy herds effect. This data suggests that the less than additive effect of mortality on the community could have been driven by reductions in virus transmission caused by predators. Collectively our results demonstrate the importance of examining the individual and combined effects of natural enemies on ecological communities.
Agricultural Ecology 9:30am Potential of biochar to mitigate the effects of extremeextreme precipitation on soil greenhouse gas emissions and soybean growth Akane Ota*, Jeffrey S Dukes
Extreme precipitation, characterized by heavy rainfalls and prolonged drought, will likely alter soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes and have negative impacts on plant growth. Biochar has been observed to suppress soil GHG emissions and enhance plant growth, yet there have been no biochar studies to date under simulated extreme precipitation conditions. We studied the effects of biochar on soil GHG fluxes and soybean (Glycine max) growth in the field under manipulated extreme precipitation, as well as GHG responses to wetting in the laboratory. Both field and laboratory measurements of CO 2
emissions showed that biochar decreased cumulative emissions under a mbient precipitation, but increased them under extreme precipitation. In the field experiment, extreme precipitation reduced 2 cumulative CO 2 emission by 3.8±1.4 mol m (29%), and biochar lowered cumulative N 2O emissions by 2 1.4±3.2 mmol m (111%). In the laboratory, extreme precipitation decreased CH 4 emissions depending on time (precipitation × time). In addition, extreme precipitation increased soybean pod dry weight by 0.027±0.011g (11%) at premature stage. However, the harvest at full-maturity stage showed that the ambient precipitation treatment had 5.1±12.3mg (3%) heavier seeds. On average, biochar added 20±9 more seeds to every plant, which contributed soybean to a 3.3±1.5g (19%) increase in seed weight per plant. Our results indicate that extreme precipitation decreases CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes, and that biochar decreases N 2O emissions and has opposing effects on CO 2 emissions in different precipitation regimes. Also, extreme precipitation alters the seed formation process, and negatively affects yield, but biochar could mitigate these impacts. 9:45am Dissolved nutrient and the greenhouse gases in a Midwestern agricultural stream: the role of shallow groundwater inputs and hyporheic zone exchange Audrey Thellman*, Martha M. Dee, Jennifer L. Tank
Land use change and the associated application of synthetic fertilizers to agricultural fields in the Midwestern U.S. have altered the cycling of bioavailable nutrients in aquatic ecosystems. The subsequent biogeochemical processing of dissolved reactive nutrients make stream networks important sources of greenhouse gasses (GHG) that possess a high global warming potential in the modern atmosphere. To mitigate excess nutrient export from the agricultural landscape, best management practices (BMPs) have been developed to increase the physical retention or assimilation of nutrients on the terrestrial zone adjacent to streams. We compared dissolved nutrient and GHG concentrations from the shallow groundwater and hyporheic zones of a conventional trapezoidal agricultural channel to those of two BMP treatments (two-stage ditch and forested buffer strip) within the same watershed, seasonally. We found that the shallow groundwater and the hyporheic zones of + both the two-stage and forested sites were significant sources of methane (CH 4) and ammonium (NH 4 - N) to the stream. Further, we found that nitrous oxide (N 2O) concentration of tile drain efflux was significantly greater than that of stream and groundwater, suggesting that the primary source of N 2O in this watershed is production within soils of adjacent agricultural fields. Our study seeks to parse apart the relative contribution of groundwater and hyporheic zone to the dissolved nutrient and GHG budget of an agricultural stream in the context of active BMPs. By gaining a more accurate estimation of the role that these BMPs assume in surface-subsurface interactions, we can better understand reach-scale nutrient dynamics in these critical watersheds. 10:00am The green leaf volatile ciscis----3333----hexenyhexenyhexenyll acetate differentially influences fitness ofof fielfieldd-d ---growngrown Phaseoulus lunatus and Capsicum annuum Grace Freundlich*, Christ Frost
As sessile organisms, plants must remain constantly vigilant for the myriad potential stressors they may experience in their environment. To this end, some plants take advantage of environmental cues to anticipate and prepare for future attack, allowing them to prepare (or "prime") themselves for a potential impending attack, allowing them to defend themselves more quickly and aggressively upon attack. These cues range from recognition of insect eggs on the surface of a leaf or perception of volatiles released from damaged leaves from a neighboring plant. While Priming has been shown to be a widespread phenomenon, the fitness costs associated with response to an herbivore-associated cue are relatively unknown. To address this, we exposed Capsicum annuum and Phaseolus lunatus to a continuous exposure of cis-3-hexenyl acetate (z3HAC), a plant-derived volatile compound that is a reliable indicator of potential herbivory, in a randomized field trial. We measured growth and reproduction in both species. Relative to their respective controls, z3HAC-exposed C.annuum were shorter and produced fewer flowers and fruits while z3HAC-exposed P.lunatus had increased floral
production, grew taller, and produced more leaves. These results indicate species -specific fitness implications of exposure to a volatile signaling cue. Future management strategies utilizing plant volatiles must account for such species specificity.
Talks: Session 2 Saturday, April 7, 10:45 ––– 11:45 am
Genetics & Evolution I 10:45am The previously underappreciated importance of postzygotic isolation in darters and its implications for reinforcement Rachel Moran*, Muchu Zhou, Rebecca C. Fuller
The observation that behavioral isolation is frequently stronger than F1 hybrid inviability in recently diverged lineages has been interpreted as evidence that sexual selection causes prezygotic isolation to evolve faster than postzygotic isolation. However, the total strength of postzygotic isolation is likely underestimated when only the early life stages in first-generation hybrids are considered. Here, we examine whether such a scenario is true for darters, a highly diverse group of freshwater fishes. Many have hypothesized that female preferences for male coloration drives speciation in darters, because behavioral isolation evolves before F1 inviability. However, our recent work has revealed that (1) male coloration functions in male-male competition rather than female preference, and (2) male preference for conspecific females is high in sympatry but absent in allopatry between multiple species pairs, a pattern consistent with reinforcement. As reinforcement increases behavioral isolation in response to maladaptive hybridization, this suggests that prior studies may have underestimated the strength of postzygotic isolation in darters. We examined multiple extrinsic and intrinsic postzygotic barriers in two naturally hybridizing species of darters: Etheostoma spectabile and Etheostoma caeruleum . These species were previously shown to have heightened male-driven behavioral isolation in sympatry compared to allopatry, but to lack any measurable postzygotic isolation in the laboratory through the F1 larval stage. We found surprisingly high levels of postzygotic isolation in the form of F1 sex ratio distortion and backcross inviability. This suggests that reinforcement of male mating preferences has evolved in response to unfit hybrids, which contradicts the widely-accepted paradigm that female choice causes prezygotic isolation to evolve before postzygotic isolation in species where males exhibit elaborate secondary sex traits. Additionally, these results expose a potentially wide-spread issue: the strength of postzygotic isolation can be dramatically underestimated when the fitness of later hybrid life stages and generations are not considered. 11:00am Dynamic of LTR retrotransposons in plant genome evolution Shujun Ou*, Ning Jiang
Plant genome varies more than three magnitudes in size. The vastly different DNA content but the similar evolutionary complexity of plant genomes results in the well-known C-value paradox, which could be largely explained by the varying amounts of transposable elements, especially the long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons. LTR retrotransposons are prevalent in plant genomes, the identification of which is efficient based on its well-conserved structure. Out of many available programs, we developed a much more accurate but also sensitive program, LTR retriever, to achieve high-quality LTR annotation. In addition to finding canonical LTR-RTs with 5'-TG…CA-3' termini, LTR retriever also identifies non-canonical LTR-RTs (non-TGCA), which have been largely ignored in
genome -wide studies. We identified seven types of non -ca nonical LTRs from 50 plant genomes. The majority of non-canonical LTRs are Copia elements, with which the LTR is four times shorter than that of canonical Copia elements, which may be a result of their target specificity. Strikingly, non- TGCA Copia elements are often located in genic regions and preferentially insert nearby or within genes, indicating their impact on the evolution of genes and potential as mutagenesis tools. Further, we show that small genomes may be able to remove LTR retrotransposons efficiently, providing insights about mechanisms guard against genome obesity. 11:15am Rearrangement and inverted repeats in the mitogenomes of crayfishes and lobsters Jacob Rosenthal*, Angela Roles
An inverted repeat, also known as a palindrome, is a sequence accompanied by its reverse complement downstream on the same strand. Base pairing can occur between the complementary sequences, forming stable secondary hairpin or cruciform structures. These structures have biological functions including signaling, regulation of gene expression, and initiation of replication. Additionally, inverted repeats have been shown to interfere with DNA replication due to the formation of hairpins on the Okazaki fragments of the lagging strand. Using a set of mitogenomes from 55 species of crayfishes and lobsters, I characterize the distribution of inverted repeats and investigate their relationship to the variation in mitogenome rearrangement rates observed between the Northern hemisphere, Southern hemisphere, and lobster clades. 11:30am Evidence of gene variation within a polymorphic supergene of Zonotrichia sparrows Jennifer Smith*, Rusty Gonser, Elaina Tuttle
The Zonotrichia genus is a diverse group of sparrows, comprising five extant species. One unique feature of the genus is a polymorphic supergene within Zonotrichia albicollis . This supergene is located on chromosome 2 and leads to white and tan morphological types in both sexes, which differ in appearance, behavior, and physiology. Little is known about the evolution of the supergene, but it is hypothesized to have entered the Zonotrichia genus before Z. albicollis diverged. Our goal was to identify genomic variants present in the Zonotrichia species as the first step towards understanding variant evolution and differing phenotypes. We focused on fifteen genes, including eleven genes located within the Z. albicollis supergene. We hypothesized that there would be more variants within chromosome 2 genes than within genes on chromosomes 3 or 4, because chromosome 2 has high divergence within Z. albicollis . Additionally, we expected to see the fewest variants in Zonotrichia querula and the most in Zonotrichia capensis , due to phylogenetic hypotheses. Each species was aligned to the Z. albicollis reference genome and variants were identified. We located 13,757 structural variants and 221,171 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Z. capensis had the most variants in these genes, but Z. querula did not have the fewest. Fourteen of the fifteen genes contained variants within the protein coding region of at least one species. Multispecies comparisons of the supergene may shed light on functional differences and evolutionary pathways. Understanding these differences may additionally help understand the evolution of the Z. albicollis supergene.
Microbial Ecology & Evolution 10:45am MMMicrobialMicrobial regulators of methanogenesis in temperate lake sediments Brittni Bertolet*, William E. West, David W. Armitage, Stuart E. Jones
Freshwater lakes are increasingly recognized for their contribution to atmospheric methane (CH 4) concentrations, but the processes that drive variation in lake CH 4 emissions are still uncertain. One approach for understanding this variation is to consider the differences in sediment microbial communities and their effects on lake methanogenesis potential. To date, much of our knowledge
of methanogenic communities comes from so -called ‘extreme’ environments, and few studies have characterized the widespread, comparatively benign sediments of temperate lakes. Therefore, using data from two lake surveys conducted in the US Midwest, we identified environmental drivers of methanogen community composition in 32 temperate lake sediments and determined how community structure influences CH 4 production. Methanogen community composition was significantly different across lake pH. Low pH lakes had the highest relative abundance but lowest diversity of methanogens, and specific methanogen genera significantly co-varied with pH. Interestingly, however, lake pH was not a predictor of CH 4 production rates. Instead, a model that considered chlorophyll a concentration and the abundance of a candidate homoacetogenic bacteria was the best predictor of CH 4 production, explaining 69% of the variation. We conclude that lake pH is a strong environmental determinant of methanogen community composition across a regional scale, but that interactions between methanogens and syntrophic bacteria are the key for linking microbial community composition to lake CH 4 production. 11:00am Influence of nitrogen fertilization on mycorrhizal relationships and soil biogeochemistry in hybrid poplar ( Populus nirga xxx P. maximowiczii ) stands Steven Gougherty*
The vast majority of land plants form mycorrhizal relationships between their roots and fungi. Plants provide the fungi an energy source in the form of non-structural carbon, whereas the fungi provide the plant increased access to water and soil derived nutrients. Within deciduous tree species there are two major functional types of mycorrhizae that roots can associate with - endomycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae. While many tree species are hypothesized to form relationships with only one functional type of mycorrhizal fungi, some tree species, including those in the ecologically and economically important Populus genus are known to associate with both functional types. Despite the importance of the Populus genus, little is known about what environmental factors influence the relative abundance and diversity of endomycorrhizae vs. ectomycorrhizae and how these relationships differ across multiple field sites for species in this genus. In this study I aim to better understand how fertilization impacts soil biogeochemistry and relative abundances of endomycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae fungi in hybrid poplar (Populus nirga x P. maximowiczii ) stands across multiple field locations and seasons while controlling for host genotype. 11:15am Do arbuscular mycorrhizal ffungiungi (AMF) provide any growthgrowth benefits and herbivorherbivoryy resistance against plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) in Panicum virgatum during drought? Binod Basyal*
Plants are frequently exposed to many biotic and abiotic factors that are detrimental to their growth and performance, such as drought and herbivory. However, many plants also form associations with belowground organisms like arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) which can protect plants from such stresses. We investigated the effects of AMF associations on growth of two varieties of Panicum virgatum , switchgrass, under drought and plant parasitic nematode (PPN) stresses. We conducted a three-factor growth chamber experiment manipulating drought (absence/presence), AMF (+/- Claroideoglomus etunicatum ), and plant variety (Cave-in-Rock or Alamo), and assessed responses of plant biomass, root architectural traits and root herbivory by Pratylenchus penetrans , a common PPN species. The two plant varieties differed in aboveground traits. AMF suppressed PPN populations, as plants grown in the absence of AMF had 69.5% more PPN than those grown in the presence of AMF. AMF also had significant interactive effects with drought on the root biomass of the plants, with AMF plants having more roots than non-AMF plants in drought conditions. Similarly, AMF had interactive effects with plant identity on root length, where AMF reduced root growth in Cave-in-Rock but not in Alamo. The results from this experiment indicate that AMF provide some protection to plants against belowground herbivory and may differentially provide belowground
benefits to the plant varieties. Switchgrass is a leading candidate bioenergy crop and results fro m this work suggest that AMF may provide real benefits to this crop when grown in marginal lands. 11:30am Maintenance of antibiotic resistance traits during relaxed selection in a longlong----termterm experiment with E. coli Kyle Card*, Thomas LaBar, Jasper Gomez, Richard E. Lenski
Populations often encounter environmental changes that remove selection for the maintenance of previously essential traits. Adaptation to a new environment can thus affect an organism’s fitness in its prior environment. How evolutionary processes drive these correlated responses is still not well-understood. We used E. coli strains from the long-term evolution experiment (LTEE) to study this question. LTEE populations have been evolving for 30 years and over 60,000 generations in a medium without antibiotics. Thus, we addressed how this prolonged period of relaxed selection affects the maintenance of antibiotic resistance traits. To that end, we performed extensive resistance measurements on the ancestral and evolved strains from the LTEE. On balance, resistance traits have tended to decay in the absence of drugs, such that the evolved strains are more susceptible than their common ancestor. Evolution in the drug-free environment of the LTEE thus trades off with fitness in drug-containing environments. We used microbial experimental evolution to improve our understanding of how the removal of selection affects trait evolution, a process that has generally gone understudied because of the reliance on retrospective observations, and thus historical inferences.
EcoEcoEco-Eco ---evolutionaryevolutionary Dynamics 10:45am ColdColdCold-Cold ---HardinessHardiness in North American tiger beetles McKenna Burns*, Tierney Brosius, Daniel Hererra, Tim Muir
Insects in temperate or polar climates utilize behaviors or physiological mechanisms to cope with low winter temperatures. Tiger beetles ( Cicindelinae ) range throughout North America, and although their ecological role as insect predators has been studied, almost nothing is known about their winter cold tolerance. For this reason, we measured three key indicators of cold tolerance— chill tolerance, freeze tolerance and supercooling points—of adult Cicindela repanda and C. limbalis during acclimation to winter. Both species overwinter as larvae and again as adults. Our findings provide insight into overwintering mechanisms employed by the spring-fall active clade of tiger beetles. We also measured whole-body glycerol content and hemolymph osmolality. Our preliminary results suggest that both species are chill tolerant, but that they are not freeze tolerant. Significant lowering of the supercooling point was evident for C. repanda . Both species did accumulate modest glycerol. This initial assessment of winter cold tolerance suggests that adult tiger beetles can survive low temperature in the absence of internal ice formation and that the capacity of C. repanda to remain unfrozen increases in winter. The modest increase in glycerol content found in both species is too little for colligative cryoprotection, but it may protect the beetles from low-temperature injury in other ways. 11:00am Evolutionary ecology of Great Lakes alewives ( Alosa pseudoharengus ): an analysis of phenotypic patterns and rates of change Shelby Smith*, Eric Palkovacs, Devin D. Bloom
Invasive species cause enormous environmental and economic tolls on aquatic ecosystems, particularly in the Great Lakes. However, invasive species also pose exciting opportunities for studying rates and patterns of evolutionary change. Alewives, Alosa pseudoharengus , are anadromous fishes native to the east coast of North America. Multiple native east coast populations have become landlocked in inland lakes within the past several thousand years. More recently,
alewives have been introduced in the Great Lak es via shipping canals or stocking. In this study, we compared phenotypic traits of Great Lakes alewives to native anadromous and landlocked populations to determine the rate and patterns of phenotypic evolution. Our results show parallel evolution of phenotypic traits associated with swimming and trophic niche between Great Lakes and landlocked East Coast populations, including gill raker spacing, gape width, body shape and body size. We suggest that the cessation of migration can result in rapid local adaptation, and that Great Lakes landlocked alewife populations are an excellent opportunity to study rates of adaptation to a novel environment. 11:15am Evolutionary divergence of water relations and seed germination in winter annuals suggests tradetrade----offsoffs bebetweentween drought adaptations Anastasia Pulak*, Vince Eckhart
Trade-offs between traits may shape evolutionary change in environmental tolerances and geographic ranges. We investigated tissue water relations and seed germination in an arid-land annual plant native to California, Clarkia xantiana . We compared two recently diverged subspecies and used F5 and F6 recombinant inbred lines between them to characterize genetic variation and possible constraints on drought adaptation. In field and greenhouse studies, the subspecies with the less arid geographic range had a lower osmotic potential at the point of turgor loss, suggesting superior drought tolerance. That the subspecies with the more arid range matures several weeks earlier (i.e., it has adapted to drought partly by escaping it) makes this result less surprising, and it suggests a tolerance versus escape trade-off. In a common greenhouse environment, the subspecies did not differ on average in leaf osmotic potential, but there was significant genetic variation in this trait among recombinant inbred lines. Seed germination experiments revealed a positive genetic correlation between the fraction of dormant seeds and time to germination, suggesting a trade-off between forms of drought avoidance (dormancy) and drought escape (rapid germination). In regions that are becoming increasingly warm and dry, such patterns and trade-offs may constrain adaptation.
Behavioral Ecology 10:45am Good vibrations: Female response to signal components in Schizocosa wolf spiders Madeline M. Lallo*, George W. Uetz
Communication signals have evolved to convey accurate information from a sender to a receiver through different sensory modalities. These signals may vary in their complexity to ensure successful transmission through the environment and enable receiver discrimination. Sibling wolf spider species, Schizocosa ocreata and S. rovneri , have recently diverged and are reproductively isolated by their behavior. Males of both species court females using multicomponent vibratory signals that vary in their complexity. The vibratory signal of male S. ocreata represents a complex pattern compared to that of S. rovneri , which produce components rapidly in succession. We examined the role of signal complexity in species recognition and mate preference using vibratory playback via piezoelectric disc benders of separate individual components (percussion and stridulation) from each male signal. Female S. ocreata and S. rovneri were exposed to either conspecific or heterospecific signals within four treatment groups: complete signal, percussion only, stridulation only, or white noise. The number of female receptivity displays varied significantly among treatment groups for both S. ocreata and S. rovneri males. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the number of female receptivity displays for both S. ocreata and S. rovneri when presented with playback of complete conspecific vs. heterospecific vibrations. However, each species responded differently to individual vibration components of conspecifics: S. ocreata was more receptive to isolated stridulation signals of conspecifics; S. rovneri showed more receptivity
to isolated conspecific percussion signals. Our results show that females of these two ethospecies recognize isolated vibratory signaling components of conspecifics and heterospecifics. 11:00am DevelopmentDevelopment----relatedrelated modification of intermediate host behavior and the pattern of occurrence in definitive hosts of the acanthocephalan parasite Acanthocephalus dirus : field datadatadata Sara Teemer*, Timothy Sparkes
The acanthocephalan parasite Acanthocephalus dirus occurs in streams throughout Illinois where it infects crustacean isopods as intermediate hosts and green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus ) and creek chub ( Semotilus atromaculatus ) as definitive hosts. Several studies have shown that mature A. dirus modify isopod behavior but little is known about the relationship between this modification and transmission to definitive hosts. We examined the relationships among parasite development, timing of modification, and occurrence in the definitive host, using a field survey (June 2016-May 2017). Both fish species were collected and dissected in the laboratory to determine infection status. The pattern of occurrence of the parasites in the definitive hosts was then compared to the development-related pattern of modification of host behavior (hiding behavior). The results showed that the timing of host modification (decreased hiding behavior) was initiated in October and November and reached a plateau by February during which time approximately 95% of the parasites present had reached the mature stage. This plateau in development-related behavior modification was also correlated with a drastic increase in the occurrence of A. dirus in the definitive hosts. In this case, the increase in parasite occurrence changed from close to zero in July and August to around 95% by February. The results demonstrate that the pattern of development was correlated with the timing of host modification and parasite occurrence in the definitive hosts. The results support the hypothesis that the parasites are inducing the behavioral changes and that these changes are facilitating transmission to final hosts. 11:15am Bold or Shy? Behavioral syndromes in the BrushBrush----LeggedLegged Wolf Spider, Schizocosa ocreaocreatatatata Trinity Walls*, George W. Uetz
Contrary to behavioral plasticity, invertebrate personality demonstrates behavioral variation at the individual level that persists across life stages and contexts. “Bold” individuals may be more likely to challenge predators or seek potentially dangerous prey, while “shy” individuals may gain increased self-preservation but forego foraging or mating opportunities. While behavioral syndromes exist in social animals, advantages of differing personality traits in solitary species are less apparent. We examined behavioral syndromes in the brush-legged wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata , with both lab-reared and field-caught spiders repeatedly given open field tests and later exposed to simulated predator stimuli. All spiders were tested as juveniles and adults. Results of open field tests showed individual S. ocreata exhibit consistent behavioral patterns associated with either bold (exploratory) or shy (freeze) behavioral syndromes. These differences persisted across contexts, as well as life stages (juvenile, adult). Bold spiders showed more variation in behavior but exhibited shorter latencies to explore in a novel environment and to resume exploration after a simulated predator stimulus than their shy counterparts. In addition, field-caught (experienced) spiders exhibited bolder tendencies with shorter latencies than lab-reared spiders in both tests. Mature females were then given a two-choice test using video playback of male courtship to analyze differences in mate choice, while males were exposed to female cues to assess courtship vigor. While males did not show differences in courtship based on bold-shy personality traits, bold females showed greater activity when choosing mates than shy females. Future studies will explore whether these syndromes affect overall mating success. 11:30am Climate change and forest fire: the effect of vegetationvegetation structure on behavior of the whitewhite---- footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus , in a postpost----firefire habitat Abigale Bristol*, Ben Dantzer, Dave Karowe
Climate change will alter forest fire regimes globally, striking the northern hemisphere with hotter and drier conditions and longer fire seasons. The inevitable change in vegetation due to fire disturbance will have the capacity to alter an ecosystem’s abundance and characteristics of the resident species. This study investigates the effect of vegetation differences on abundance and behavior of the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus , based on time since fire. Using a tag- recapture method, abundance and behavior of P. leucopus was assessed within five burn plots at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Burn plots were logged and burned between 19 and 105 years ago and at least 18 years apart, making the site ideal for assessing differences in mice and vegetation structure. We found that time since fire significantly differs in distribution of mice, and patterns of vegetation structure exist within individual burn plots. However, evidence to support that this change in vegetation structure affects mouse abundance or behavior was not strong, leading to the conclusion that such characteristics of a P. leucopus population in a post-fire habitat cannot be predicted by vegetation structure.
Talks: Session 3 Sunday, April 8, 10:15 ––– 11:30am
Population & Community Ecology II 10:15am Examining the relationship between macroinvertebrate community structure and habitat conditions in Great Lakes interdunal wetlands Christopher Frazier*, Tiffany Schriever
Determining how environmental conditions dictate community structure in a habitat is a fundamental question in community ecology. Great Lakes interdunal wetlands are coastal wetlands between sand dunes that follow a successional gradient from young, open-dune wetlands to older, wooded-dune wetlands. We investigated how habitat conditions dictate macroinvertebrate community structure (taxonomic composition, diversity, and feeding guild structure) in 13 interdunal wetlands in northern Michigan. We tested the hypothesis that if environmental conditions determine community structure, then interdunal wetlands with similar conditions will have similar community structure. We identified 82 taxa, with individual wetland species richness ranging from 5 to 24 and Shannon-Weaver diversity ranging from 0.46 to 2.42. An NMDS analysis showed separation between tightly clustered open-dune wetlands and a larger cluster of wooded- dune wetlands based on temperature, pH, distance from the lakeshore, and successional stage. Major feeding guilds differ between the habitat types, with open-dune wetlands characterized by predators and collector-gatherers and an absence of parasites and collector-filterers, while wetlands in wooded habitat have high proportions of collector-filterers. This study highlights the importance of small differences in environmental conditions in shaping community structure across a successional gradient. 10:30am Effects of management on functional diversity in restored tallgrass prairie plant communities Anna Farrell*, Nicholas Barber, Holly Jones
Traditional methods of studying communities through species diversity and abundance struggles to identify general patterns across many ecosystems; however, recent focus on studying communities through functional traits has clarified how species respond to environmental conditions that result from different restoration management strategies. Functional traits are responsible for driving
ecosystem functions, such as primary productivity and nutrient cycling, so sh ifts in management may alter ecosystem functions through changes in functional traits. This study examines the diversity of functional traits in restored tallgrass prairie plant communities under different combinations of age, bison grazing, and prescribed fire. Functional diversity was then compared to net primary productivity, a critical ecosystem function, in each community. Functional evenness, a measure of the abundance of species through niche space, significantly decreased with bison grazing and age, while the interaction of bison grazing and prescribed fire significantly increased functional evenness. Net primary productivity increased with functional evenness with marginal significance. The results of this study help to elucidate the environment-trait-function relationship, and provide a better understanding of how restoration management strategies affect ecosystem functions. 10:45am Seasonal variation in processes affecting community structure of Notonecta species in fishless ponds Mitra Asgari*, Christopher F. Steiner
Metacommunity theory, by considering the role of environmental and spatial processes, provides an effective framework to study ecological community organization in patchy landscapes. The relative importance of environmental and spatial processes in metacommunity organization could be affected by factors such as dispersal mode of organisms, temporal variation in abiotic conditions, spatial scale, and patch connectivity, but these elements are rarely considered in general metacommunity models. Here, we used variation partitioning to study the relative contribution of environmental and spatial processes to the structure of Notonecta communities (Hemiptera: Notonectidae) in fishless ponds during two consecutive growing seasons. We used Moran's eigenvector maps to create spatial variables which represent different spatial scales. We also assessed the effects of seasonal (month to month) variation on the relative effects of environmental versus spatial processes on community organization. Our result showed that notonectid community composition was affected by environmental, spatial, and spatially structured environmental processes. Notonectid metacommunity structure was affected by several ponds’ environmental factors (including temperature and Dissolved Oxygen) and fine to intermediate spatial scales (compositional similarity of notonectid communities showed a unimodal relationship with distance between ponds). We also found significant seasonal changes in the relative contribution of environmental and spatial processes to notonectid community structure; the relative importance of local environmental factors or spatially structured environmental factors increased later in the growing season. 11:00am Floristic quality of a reclaimed mining site in Grand Mere State ParkParkPark Andrea Wallace*, Ranessa L. Cooper
A 40-acre dune region of Grand Mere State Park was mined extensively until possession transferred to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) about 15 years ago. MDNR proposed a novel and extensive reclamation plan by planting local genotypes of 115 native plant species among seven microhabitats. In 2011, a baseline assessment was done, and results indicated that the reclamation effort was successful. Almost 60% of the originally planted species were still persisting at the site, and several native taxa had established separately too. It was suggested that the site be re-assessed every five years, and this was done in 2016. Documenting species richness was a primary objective of the follow-up study, and thus, floristic quality could be evaluated for the site overall, as well as in five (of the seven) microhabitats. The site had a species richness of 186 and a total FQI value of 45.6. Species richness increased in each microhabitat compared to 2011, except in the wetland shelf (WS) microhabitat. Among the adventive taxa documented in 2016 , Phragmites australis subsp. australis and Typha x glauca were new colonizers of the WS. No adventive taxa were reported for the WS in 2011 and its total FQI was 16.1, but in this study, FQI was lower at 10.9.
Implications of our floristic quality assessments will be addressed, especially with regard to recent management decisions of MDNR and long-term monitoring of this reclamation site. 11:15am Footage from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey reveal longlong----termterm stability of woody vegetation in the hyperarid Namib Desert 50 years later J. Robert Logan*, Gregory Golando, Nina Pallett
Long-term ecological monitoring is an important tool for understanding how landscapes change over multi-decadal timescales, but access to archival data on ecosystem states is often limiting. We made use of a unique data source—still photographs from the opening scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey —to examine the dynamics of woody vegetation in the hyperarid Namib Desert of western Namibia. Linking the results of a vegetation survey in 2018 with observations of plants from the opening scenes of the 1968 film reveal the strikingly long- term persistence of woody vegetation in a landscape that receives <100 mm mean annual precipitation. Of the 130 plants visible in the 1968 photo, 68% were present and alive over 50 years later. Acacia reficiens , a shrub-like thorn tree dominated the landscape, representing over 80% of the plants found growing 2018. All individuals that persisted during the ~50 year period grew in low-lying ephemeral washes that provided increased water following rain events. We discuss the possibilities of using films as non-traditional sources of ecological data for long-term monitoring studies.
Genetics & Evolution II 10:15am Expanding knowledge of freshwater sponge taxonomy through mathematical analyses of megasclere spicules Nureen Ansari*, Jennifer Slate
Sponges, common in many Midwestern lakes, rivers, and wetlands, were one of the first animals to evolve. These simple animals lack organ systems or other complex distinguishing structures, which makes species identification challenging. Freshwater sponge species are distinguished through features of microscopic, glass-like spicules around which sponges organize their tissues. Currently, microsclere and gemmosclere spicules are primarily used to identify species, but these smaller spicules are absent in some species or present during only part of the year. Thus, we aimed to determine the taxonomic potential of megasclere spicules, which are more common. We collected sponges from a protected wetland, Volo Bog Nature Preserve, and an urban stream, the Chicago River. Megascleres of Ephydatia fluviatilis (Chicago River) were significantly longer, wider, and had greater curvature than megascleres of Heteromeyenia baileyi (Volo Bog). Our results also demonstrate the benefit of mathematically calculating curvature rather than simply making qualitative judgements about shape. As filter feeders, freshwater sponges play an important ecological role by removing excess nutrients, suspended organic matter, and bacteria. Thus, better distinction of sponge species will aid in their use as biological indicators of water quality. 10:30am Using DNA to determine the species and geographic origins of elephant ivory discovered in a 1116th16th century Portuguese shipwreck Alida De Flamingh*, Ashley Coutu, Ripan S. Malhi, Alfred L. Roca
Namibia has rich diamond deposits and has been subjected to offshore mining for more than a century. It was during a routine dredging of the seabed that the Oranjemund shipwreck was discovered. Excavation of the shipwreck revealed a rich cargo that included more than 100 unworked elephant tusks. The cargo also included Portuguese coins that allowed determination that the ship sank between 1525 and the 1530s. The geographic origins of the ivory remain unknown. We used molecular methods to determine the species and geographic origin of the
elephants from which these tusks were harvested. DNA from the ancient ivory samples matched nuclear DNA reported for African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis ), while mitochondrial DNA established that they were from western Africa and from many different herds. This shows that ancient DNA techniques can be successfully employed to analyze ancient ivory, to compare genetic characteristics of ancient and modern populations, and to corroborate historical accounts of maritime trade routes. 10:45am Marine turtle genetics reflect shared demographic responses to past climate change and areas of relative climatic stability Brendan Reid*, Eugenia Naro-Maciel, Anelise Torres-Hahn, Nancy FitzSimmons, Marcelo Gehara
Investigating demographic responses to past environmental change can help us to understand how species and communities have changed in the past and predict how they might change in the future. Assemblage- and community-level responses to Quaternary climate cycles have been highly varied, with some groups displaying synchronous demographic expansion across most or all species and others displaying mostly individualistic responses. We compared demographic histories inferred from genetic data (23 lineages and 3,955 mitochondrial COI sequences total) across seven marine turtle species to identify patterns of concurrent or asynchronous demographic responses across taxa, and examined potential drivers of demographic change at the global scale. Approximately 60% of marine turtle lineages showed evidence of demographic expansion, with the rest exhibiting long- term stability. For expanding lineages, there was a strong signal of highly synchronous expansion occurring after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Demographic expansion and genetic diversity were best explained by ocean basin and the degree of endemism for a given lineage. These results indicate that demographic expansion was not uniform across marine turtles, but lineages that expanded did so in a highly synchronous fashion likely driven by warming after the LGM. Range- restricted lineages were more likely to show evidence of expansion, suggesting the existence of historically stable refugia available to broadly-distributed lineages. These geographic differences in sensitivity to past climate change have implications for prioritizing conservation actions in these species as well as other broadly distributed marine taxa, and may be key to predicting community responses to ongoing climate change. 11:00am Drift robustness and the evolution of genome architecture in small populations Thomas LaBar*, Christoph Adami
Adaptation is constrained in small populations by weakened natural selection and the increased loss of small-effect beneficial mutations through genetic drift. In other words, small populations can only undergo sustained adaptation if they are able to maintain the fixation of beneficial mutations. Therefore, small populations will either 1) undergo reduced adaptation compared to large populations, or 2) undergo adaptation through different genetic mechanisms than large populations that allow them to avoid the constraints of weakened selection. Here, we will discuss work on this second trajectory using the digital experimental evolution system Avida. We show that the population-genetic environment caused by small population size leads to the evolution of drift robustness, or a decreased likelihood of fitness loss due to drift, in small populations. Small populations evolve drift robustness by adapting to fitness peaks with a deficit of slightly-deleterious mutations and an excess of neutral and strongly-deleterious mutations. We will also show that this evolutionary drive towards drift robustness shapes genomic architecture in small populations beyond the distribution of fitness effects. Small populations adapt to drift-robust fitness peaks by fixing epistatic beneficial mutations. Additionally, small populations evolve greater genetic complexity than large populations as a mechanism to encode drift robustness. Our findings suggest a novel adaptive mechanism by which small populations can overcome weakened selection and may explain the trend towards certain genomic architectures in populations experiencing strong genetic drift across life.
11:15am Somatic selection in Arabidopsis thaliana Emma Bergh*, Angie Roles
In animals, a sequestered germline (1) reduces the conflict between the best interests of a cell and that of the organism and (2) increases genetic drift within that germline. This leads to the common view that most mutations are harmful for fitness. However, work with Arabidopsis thaliana has suggested that up to half of new mutations may be beneficial for fitness. To reconcile the latter conclusion with the common view, we note that plants lack a separate germline, instead possessing a population of meristematic cells. We hypothesize that in plants, somatic mutation and selection processes may bias which mutations are transmitted to offspring. To test this idea, we grew several generations of A. thaliana and compared the fitness of offspring from seeds from lower (less selection) and upper (more selection) parts of the parent’s stem. We predicted that upper seeds will display greater fitness compared to lower seeds, due to a greater opportunity for somatic selection. Contrary to our expectations, we found a trend (P=0.079) for fewer fruits in offspring from upper seeds compared to lower seeds, and offspring from lower seeds were also found to be significantly taller. Possible explanations for this result include: (1) perhaps A. thaliana has a more structured meristem than expected; (2) physiologically, position of a fruit along the stem may influence traits such as seed size, which then influences characteristics of the resulting plant; (3) the number of cell divisions between lower and upper fruits may be insufficient to produce a detectable impact on offspring fitness.
Ecosystem Ecology 10:15am Wood nutrients impact wood decay more than soil nutrients Jennifer Jones*, Astrid Ferrer, Katy D. Heath, Paul-Camilo Zalamea, James W. Dalling
Nutrient availability can impact wood decay rate, because fungi and other decomposers need nutrients to produce wood decay enzymes. Wood nutrient concentrations are known to impact fungal decay of wood, yet fungi can also access nutrients from surrounding soil to aid in wood decomposition. We designed an experiment to address two main questions: 1. Do wood or soil nutrients have a greater impact on wood decay rate? 2. Which nutrients are most important for determining wood decay rate? Unfortunately, species-specific structural wood characteristics and nutrient concentrations often co-vary, making it difficult to separate the impact of nutrients on decay. Therefore, we grew four species of trees in different nutrient treatments to create wood with different nutrient concentrations and similar structural characteristics. Our wood nutrient treatments created wood with differing wood nutrient concentrations, diameter, and density. After growing the wood, we examined the relative importance of wood and soil nutrients by decaying the wood we grew in a long-term soil nutrient fertilization experiment. We found that wood nutrient treatment and tree species had a greater effect on wood mass loss than soil nutrient treatment. Additionally, wood mass loss increased with increasing wood phosphorus concentration and decreasing density. These results indicate that wood characteristics are more important than soil characteristics for influencing mass loss and that both wood nutrient concentrations and structural characteristics are important for influencing mass loss. 10:30am Hydrologic residence time interacts with nutrient supply to dictate lake ecosystem stoichiometry Carly R. Olson*, Stuart E. Jones
A considerable effort has been allocated to quantifying inland lake’s contribution to the global carbon (C) cycle. However, stoichiometric demands of biota link C biogeochemistry with other nutrient cycles, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Therefore, consideration of coupled
biogeochemical cycles may improve understanding of the fate and flux of C, N, and P in inland lakes. We used an ecosystem stoichiometry approach and a simple process model to evaluate how hydrologic residence time (HRT) and C and P loads may interact to determine the fate and transport of C and P in lakes. Our model predicts that in low HRT lakes the C and P cycles are relatively decoupled, but the dominance of transport processes ensures that output stoichiometry closely matches that of inputs. In lakes with longer HRT, respiration of dissolved organic C dramatically exceeds burial of P and the C:P of exports is much lower than inputs. However, elevated primary production at high P inputs recoupled the C and P cycles by fixing as much or more C than lost via respiration of organic C and drove a shift from dissolved to particulate organic C. Interestingly, the inclusion of plasticity in algal stoichiometry alters the strength of some of these compensatory mechanisms. Our findings remind us that the availability of a single element regulates the fate of another through biotic-mediated processes. This work highlights the value of an ecosystem stoichiometric approach when considering the fate and transport of matter in lakes at local and global scales. 10:45am Soil enzyme activity indicates microbial P limitation in northern hardwood forests Shan Shan*, Melany Fisk
Studies showing the prevalence of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) co-limitation across ecosystems have contributed to the interest in understanding interactions of the biogeochemical cycling of multiple elements. Soil microbial production of extracellular enzymes provides a framework for examining the interactions among C, N, and P demands and immobilization by decomposer organisms. Resource allocation theory suggests that microbes preferably allocate toward the acquisition of the element which most limits their growth. Consequently the availability of the limiting element should influence the relative allocation to production of different enzymes. We tested N and P co-limitation of decomposer microorganisms in northern hardwood forests by quantifying the activities of soil extracellular enzymes in a long-term factorial N×P fertilization experiment in the White Mountain National Forest, NH. We measured the activity of N-acquiring enzymes alanine aminopeptidase and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, the P-acquiring enzyme acid phosphatase, and the C-acquiring enzyme β-glucosidase using a fluorometric method, after 4 years of treatment with N, P, N+P, or nothing (control). The relative allocation on P- vs N-acquiring enzymes declined in response to P addition, but did not respond to N or N+P addition. The relative allocation on C- vs N- and P-acquiring enzymes increased in response to N addition. We found no interactive or additive effects of N+P additions that would suggest co-limitation. We conclude that the activities of decomposer microorganisms in this forest region experience P limitation rather than N limitation or N and P co-limitation, and that elevated N increases microbial demand for C. 11:00am LongLong----termterm impacts of land use history on above and belowbelowgrgrgroundound communities within temperate deciduous forests Sergio Andres Sabat Bonilla*, Katie Stuble, Andrea Lynn Maxwell, Sarah Kyker, David Burke
Past anthropogenic activities can have long-lasting impacts on recovering forest communities. In this study, we explored the long-term effects of land use history on above and belowground forest communities and how these changes drive shifts in ecosystem functions. Specifically, we examined the community composition of invasive earthworms, myrmecochorous spring ephemerals and seed- dispersing ants, as well as ecosystem functions including the rate of leaf-litter turnover and myrmecochory, across forested sites with varying degrees of past disturbance. The data obtained suggest that past forest disturbance leads to low abundances of myrmecochorous plants (including many spring ephemerals) relative to old-growth forests. Invasive earthworms (which we found to be more abundant in previously disturbed sites) and disturbance-induced shifts in the seed-dispersing ant community drive further shifts in the community composition of these plants. Leaf-litter turnover rate was sped up by invasive earthworms and thereby much faster on sites with a history of
disturbance. Many seed -dispersing ants depend on the leaf -litter layer as important nesting habitat and we saw that in these disturbed sites the abundance and community composition of seed- dispersing ants were significantly influenced by the abundance of invasive earthworms and soil moisture. These factors ultimately led to a reduction in ant-mediated dispersal of spring ephemeral seeds in previously disturbed sites. Understanding the legacies of past disturbance and how they continue to interact today to drive forest communities can aid in our ability to predict the trajectories of forests as they recover from anthropogenic disturbance.
Poster Presentations Saturday, April 7, 11:45 am ––– 1:30 pm
ODD Posters: Present from 12:00 ––– 12:45 pm EVEN Posters: Present from 12:45 ––– 1:30 pm
Posters in the 100s are located outside the AuditoriumAuditorium Behavioral Ecology (101-111) Conservation Biology & Invasion Ecology (112-123) Population & Community Ecology (124-140) Genetics & Evolution (141-155)
Posters in the 200s are located in the Terrace Room Ecosystem Ecology (201-207) Evolution & Development (208-211) Microbial Ecology (212-218) Eco-evolutionary Dynamics (219-221) Disease Ecology (222-228)
Behavioral Ecology (Posters 101101101-101 ---110)110) 101101101 Effects of Glyphosate and Body Conditions on Courtship and Cannibalism in a Wolf Spider Megan Archdeacon*, Katrina Culbertson*, Jake Godfrey, Ann Rypstra
Courtship in sexually dimorphic species can be dangerous, especially in spiders, where males risk being cannibalized by the larger female. In this experiment we tested the effects of exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide on the courtship, mating success, and rates of pre-copulatory cannibalism for Tigrosa helluo and mapped these variables on the female’s immune function. We randomly assigned pairs to arenas treated with either Roundup® (treatment) or distilled water (control) and recorded interactions for 90 minutes. Recordings were scored for courtship behaviors, mating, and cannibalism. We ran lysozyme assays as a proxy for immune function. We observed higher cannibalism rates and increased male aggression in the herbicide treatment. The more vigorously a male courted, the more likely he was to be cannibalized without mating, but exposure to herbicide decreased pre-copulatory cannibalism. Males courted females with low lytic activity more vigorously, which could be a result of males evaluating risk for individual females and increasing courtship activities when cannibalism was likely to occur. Females showed receptivity sooner on substrates treated with the herbicide. Clearly, glyphosate-based herbicides impacted reproduction in T. helluo . Likewise, males adjusted their courtship activity based upon the female’s immunocopetency, which we presume was an indication of her condition. 102102102 Egg sac recognition and fostering in the wolf spider, Pardosa milvina (Araneae: Lycosidae), and its effects on spiderling survival Alexander Berry*, Ann Rypstra
In species that provide parental care, kin recognition should ensure that parental effort is directed toward related young. An experiment was run to test the hypothesis that superior care would be given to related spiderlings, using Pardosa milvina. Pardosa milvina carry first their egg sacs until after hatching. We predicted that P. milvina would recognize their egg sacs and that the care they provided to their own offspring would give them a fitness advantage. We first removed egg sacs from females and then ran a choice test, allowing them to attach either their own or a foreign egg sac. Pardosa milvina re-attached their own egg sac more often. In a second experiment, we removed egg sacs from females and provided them either their own or a foreign one to care for. We measured time to emergence, the percent of egg sacs that produced spiderlings, time to first molt, and the percent that reached adulthood. Spiderlings raised by the mother reached adulthood more often, but only if cross fostering was delayed, and no other changes were observed. Pardosa milvina does selectively re-attach its own egg sac but being raised by the mother does not always give an advantage. 103103103 The scent of a pathogen, preen oil chemistry reflectsreflects host infection status in feral cchickenshickens (((Gallus gallus ))) Eben Gering*, Danielle Whittaker, Thomas Getty, Hans Cheng
Preen oil is secreted by most living birds, and functions as both a feather protectant and social signal. We sought to determine the sources of variation in preen oil chemistry in rapidly evolving, hybrid feral chickens ( Gallus gallus ). Here, we test how PrC differs between 1) domesticated vs. feral populations, 2) male vs. female feral chickens, 3) ecologically divergent (feral) habitats, 4) individuals that differ in condition indexes (residual body mass and/or infection status), 5) individuals with different genetic backgrounds (MHC and/or unlinked markers), and 6) individuals that differ in sexual ornamentation and/or weaponry (e.g. combs and spurs). Together, these comparisons reveal how variation in a complex trait (preen oil chemistry), covaries with rapid, recent changes in the social, biotic, and physical environments of a colonizing species. Among our most interesting findings thus far is that, in infected birds, preen oil chemistry predicts antibody titers for locally prevalent protozoan and bacterial pathogens. Thus, a chemically complex social signal could encode detailed information about immunological responses to infection, even in rapidly evolving hosts inhabiting novel, non-native environments. 104104104 Impacts of atrazine on the behavior of a common predatory arthropod Jake Godfrey*, Ann Rypstra
Humans introduce large quantities of anthropogenic chemicals to ecosystems, such as the use of pesticides in agricultural fields. While chemicals such as herbicides may not be classified as lethal to many non-target organisms, they sometimes lead to more subtle non-lethal effects that can impact an individual’s behavior and survival. For example, the herbicide atrazine has been shown to disrupt chemical communication externally and hormones internally in several taxa. Despite this, there are currently no publications on the impact of atrazine on the behavior of any agrobiont arthropods. In a first experiment to test for impacts on general movement patterns, we allowed spiders to explore one of two arenas; one lined with filter paper treated with atrazine, or one lined with filter paper treated with water. In a second experiment we examined impacts on courtship behavior. We allowed spider that matured on surfaces treated with atrazine or water the opportunity to mate in arenas that were lined with filter paper treated corresponding to the treatment they were matured in. In the presence of the herbicide spiders were mobile more frequently, utilized less meandering movement, and had slower angular velocity. However, male courtship behavior was largely unaffected except that surprisingly the duration of male courtship activities decreased with increasing atrazine concentrations. Perhaps because females made the decision to mate sooner when the herbicide was present. These results could have implications for populations of this predatory arthropod, and in turn, their potential role in agricultural food webs. 105105105 "Springers" do Jerry Springer: Paternity Testing in Jumping Spiders to Assess Mating Frequency Emily Hamel*, Michael Henshaw
The level of investment in each sex’s gametes differs, and this affects the strategies that individuals use to reproduce. Sperm can be produced in numerous amounts at a low cost. This leads many males to utilize multiple mating to enhance reproductive success. Eggs are more costly to produce and consequently, few are made. This leads many females to be more selective when choosing a mate. Phiddipus audax is a common jumping spider found throughout North America. Females are very selective and males must perform elaborate courtship dances. Phidippus johnsoni , a related species, are receptive to multiply mating in a laboratory setting, but lab settings differ from a natural environment. Mates may be presented in rapid fashion, and the female may not have the ability to choose her partner. Studies of naturally-mated birds have shed much light on their true mating strategies. This led us to perform the first genetic testing on Phiddipus audax . We reconstructed genotypes of naturally-mated mothers and their offspring to determine if one or multiple males contributed. Preliminary data suggests that female P. audax mate singly, however there was one egg sac that suggested there were multiple fathers and multiple mothers. Testing of new microsatellite loci will give us more information on the mating strategies of Phiddipus audax. 106106106 Singing the wrong song: Mismatching plumage and song phenotypes in a hybridizing population of BlueBlue---- and GoldenGolden----wingedwinged Warblers Amy Janik*, Maarten Vonhoff, Sharon Gill
Golden-winged ( Vermivora chrysoptera , GWWA) and Blue-winged warblers ( Vermivora cyanoptera , BWWA) are sister taxa that differ by only six genomic regions and often hybridize despite their distinct plumages and songs. Although their conservation statuses vary, Blue-winged warblers and even more so Golden-winged warblers, are experiencing population declines. A typical GWWA type I song can be described as zee bee bee bee and a typical BWWA type I song can be a bee buzz. We recorded songs of males during the breeding season in a hybridizing population of GWWA and
BWWA in upstate New York. In the field, we classified the plumage phenotype of males as GWWA, BWWA, or Brewster's warbler while recording them and then from a subset of our recordings (n=24) we quantified the number of males that gave species-typical songs (i.e. those that matched their plumage phenotype) and those that deviated from the typical vocalization of their species. Our preliminary data showed that 75% of males sang their species typical song (i.e. a BWWA singing bee buzz), 12.5% of males sang the typical song of the other species (i.e. a BWWA singing zee bee bee bee), and 12.5% sang atypical songs that did not match either of the typical type I or type II songs of the warblers. We hypothesize that song variation may affect species recognition in these warblers and may contribute to hybridization. More research is required to understand the effects of atypical vocalizations on species recognition in Golden-winged and Blue-winged warblers and their hybrids. 107107107 Do BlueBlue----wingedwinged and GoldenGolden----wingwingwingeded Warblers adjust the spectral and temporal characteristics of their songs in response to military noise? Joanna Sblendorio*, Amy Janik, Eric Britzke, Maarten Vonhof, Sharon Gill
The military manages large expanses of land across the United States that serve as breeding habitat to threatened species, such as the Golden-winged Warbler. Military training operations on these lands produce anthropogenic noise that can either be chronic or sudden, and disrupt bird breeding activity and communication. Birds depend on acoustic signaling to attract mates, defend territories, and warn neighbors of predators. To minimize acoustic masking by noise, male songbirds can increase the rate, frequency, duration, and amplitude of their songs. Military noise reduces breeding success and habitat occupancy, but the effect of high-intensity, intermittent noise on avian communication is not well understood. Thus, the objective of our study is to analyze the temporal and spectral song adjustments used by males to reduce noise masking and maintain signal transmission across a gradient of military training noise intensity. We recorded the songs of focal male Golden-winged (n=31) and Blue-winged Warblers (n=51) and their hybrids (n=9) across the training areas at Fort Drum, New York. We analyzed song spectral characteristics, and preliminary analysis suggests that both Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers occupying noisier territories produce songs with higher peak frequency and of longer duration than warblers from quiet territories. Our study is a critical step in informing habitat management of military lands for species that depend on vocal communication. 108108108 Morphological variation within freshwater sponges suggests potential for undescribed speciespeciessss Assil Shawkat*, Angelica Adams, Georgia Tiniakos, Jennifer Slate
In addition to being the common ancestor to all animals, sponges play an important ecological role, acting as natural filter feeders in both freshwater and saltwater ecosystems. Currently there are less than forty species of freshwater sponges known in North America. However, we suspect that further taxonomic research may reveal undescribed species. Thus, we explored morphological variation between populations of Ephydatia fluviatilis collected from the Chicago River in northeastern Illinois. We measured length, width, and curvature of the glass-like microscopic spicules which act like a sponge’s skeleton. The statistical procedure Principal Components Analysis revealed that sponge populations can be distinguished through measurements of megasclere spicules, which are the largest and most numerous type of freshwater sponge spicule. This intraspecies variation suggests the possibility of undescribed species. Future work will determine if the other types of sponge spicules, microscleres and gemmoscleres, also differ between populations of the same species. 109109109 Bat Foraging and Activity Trends in Relation to Agricultural Landscapes Morgan Chaney*, William Mitchell
Studies have shown that bats favor corridors bordering agricultural fields, which mirrors bug density trends. This has been replicated on the east coast and in Europe, but not in the Midwest. I plan to determine how Indiana’s bat species are utilizing crop area for foraging. Specifically, do bats primarily hug tree line corridors or do they forage out into open fields? Is insect density dictating this crop area usage? I hypothesize that bat activity trends will decrease moving away from the tree line, but some species will stay near corridors while others will utilize the entire field due to habitat preferences and specific life history traits. This study is conducted in Vigo, Clay, Owen, Sullivan and Parke-Vermillion County, Indiana. I will passively collect sonogram recordings from mid-June until mid-October. These results will be analyzed to determine the number of calls and feeding buzzes per night by species. Insect density will be measured using intercept traps hung above crop vegetation. Insects will be categorized by order and divided into predetermined size classes. I will analyze my data using generalized linear models with distance from tree line as the response variable and surrounding vegetation type, insect density, distance to water and season as predictor variables. This study could benefit conservation efforts and pest management plans because bats have a strong economic impact for farmers. If this study shows that bats use all areas of an agricultural field efforts could be directed towards protecting habitat within corridors to promote local populations. 110110110 Float Like A Bellflower, See Like A Bee: A Visual and Pollen Color Preference Study in Native Bumblebees Jack Whalen*, Jennifer Ison
Phenotypic variation of floral traits found across populations, usually indicates the presence of either a biotic or abiotic selection driver. A longitudinal cline found in Campanula americana (American bellflower) shows that populations who on the western edge of their range display a more purple pollen color, whereas populations in the eastern range have more lightly colored pollen. Previous research has identified temperature and UV as the driving factors for darker pollen in the west, but no selection factors have been discovered for why the pollen color begins to turn light the further east the populations are located. In this study it was hypothesized that local pollinator preference could be one of the main factors driving the prevalence of white pollen. In order to answer this question, I had to first determine if pollinators could perceive pollen color- based reward in C. americana flowers. To do this I used classical conditioning to train bees to have a preference in pollen color within a flight cage study. Second, in order to determine if pollinator preferences were present I observed natural pollinator behavior within pollen color specific arrays. Results indicate that Bombus Impatiens are able to recognize reward cues and do exhibit a natural preference for purple pollen. A purple preference indicates that we do not yet fully understand the driving factors of the pollen color cline in C. americana systems. 111111111 Effect of parasites on whitewhite----throatedthroated sparrow ( Zonotrichia albicollis ) song Zoe Delefortrie*, Rusty Gonser, Elaina Tuttle
Secondary sexual characteristics in birds, such song and plumage color, are associated with sexual selection. These characteristics are energetically costly to produce and maintain. Thus, variation in these traits may serve as an indicator of individual health. Generally, secondary sexual traits are energetically costly to express or maintain, and variation in these traits can serve as an honest signal of an individual’s quality. Hamilton & Zuk Hypothesis supported that females choose their mates based on their parasite resistance. This resistance could influence sexual selection through the expression of secondary sexual characteristics. The objective of my research is to understand the influence of parasitism on secondary sexual characteristics involved in sexual selection. A number of studies have investigated this effect in songbirds, and have shown that parasite loads influence their reproductive success and singing behavior. The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis ) is a passerine with a unique genetic polymorphism linked to a behavioral polymorphism. To my knowledge, no studies have examined the influence of parasites on the white-throated sparrow’s
fitness and behavior. The purpose of my project is t o understand whether birds transmit information about their fitness status, such as resistance to parasites, through their song, as well as to assess if there are differences on the transmission mechanism of this information between the two white-throated sparrow morphs.
Conservation Biology & Invasion Ecology (Posters 11112222----121212123333)))) 111111 222 Relationships between spatial configuration and traits related to species' persistence in a naturally fragmented landscape Kristopher Bonefont*, Jeremie Fant
The effects the spatial configuration of habitats has on species inhabiting remnants in fragmented landscapes are often not isolated from the response species have to habitat loss. Results of some studies have suggested that these effects tend to be positive and may play a part in helping some species persist the environmental changes brought upon by habitat fragmentation. We compiled community abundance data from 38 sites covering a gradient of natural fragmentation across Illinois. We also gathered eight traits related to persistence for most of the species in the surveys. We then extracted metrics of spatial configuration from said sites while controlling for habitat area. We used the RLQ method to analyze the joint datasets. Resulting variance-explaining axes were tested against each of the traits to quantify their relationship with persistence traits. Results suggest that clonal reproduction and habitat specialization are more likely to be filtered by configurational metrics such as the shape of habitat fragments, the degree of edge contrast between habitat classes, relative dispersion of fragments, and the diversity of neighboring habitats within a set landscape extent. In contrast, the species’ pollination syndrome, dispersal syndrome, seed mass, reproductive height, seed-banking strategy, and phenologic range were more likely to be filtered by spatial metrics more associated with isolation between suitable habitats. Understanding how habitat configuration relates to the persistence of species in fragmented landscapes may improve our ability to predict extinction outcomes, while also offering the possibility of manipulating the configurational attributes of fragmented sites for conservation purposes. 111111311 333 Asclepias Survivorship & Danaus plexxipus Oviposition Preference in Restored Tallgrass Prairies Timothy Brennhofer*, Megumi Corley*
Danaus plexippus , commonly known as the monarch butterfly, feed exclusively on milkweed as larvae. We investigated the monarch oviposition preference between four species of the Asclepias genus (spp. verticillata, syriaca, incarnata, tuberosa ) and the plants’ survivorship throughout summer. We analyzed latex exudation, RGR, and survival percentage to find whether differences exist between the species for both 2016 and 2017. We also compared out-planted milkweed in experimental plots to wild populations. There was no significant difference in exuded latex between species. A. syriaca experienced the most herbivory or drought-caused death while A. verticillata experienced the least in both years. RGR significantly varied between species and decreased in all plants but A. incarnata from 2016 to 2017. Wild A. syriaca individuals had the most oviposition events. 111111 444 The effects of diet on resource value in invasive Pholcus manueli Alex Salazar*, Alex Berry, Ann Rypstra
Invasive species displace native species through various means including preying upon the native species. In Southwest Ohio, Pholcus manueli have begun displacing the native Pholcus phalangioides. P. manueli were a hereto unknown species in the area. Their native habitat and how they are displacing P. phalangioides is unknown. It has already been shown that in normal (lab
controlled) circumstances , P. phalangioides wins or ties any aggressive interactions with P. manueli. We investigated whether diet in P. manueli may affect the results of the aggressive encounters. P. manueli were given either High or Low food diet. After the diet P. manueli were introduced to the containers of the P. phalangioides and were observed for aggressive behaviours and placement in the container at the end of the observational period. Size difference between the spiders was the predominant factor in all interactions. When included as a covariate, the diet provided to P. manueli was important; specifically, when P. manueli were well fed the P. phalangioides was more likely to initiate contests earlier and more often. Despite this apparent aggressiveness, the contesting spiders ended up sharing the web more often under these circumstances. This suggests the success of P. manueli may have to do with their interactions with juvenile P. phalangioides. 111111511 555 Genetic Connectivity of Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes in Michigan Kristin Schepke*, Jennifer Moore
The investigation of population structuring and gene flow can give insight into negative effects that are associated with loss of habitat and fragmentation. Due to factors like habitat destruction, road mortality, and persecution, eastern massasauga rattlesnake (EMR) populations have declined throughout their range and are now listed as federally threatened. Limited dispersal and small home ranges may suggest that populations can be naturally isolated, and previous studies have shown that EMR populations are strongly genetically structured. Here we investigate gene flow and population structure between eastern massasauga rattlesnake populations in Michigan, which has a greater number of populations than any other state or province. We genotyped individuals from seven sample sites, across six Michigan counties, using microsatellites. GENEPOP v 4.6 and Genalex were used to calculate FIS and FST. Additionally, a preliminary STRUCTURE analysis produced K=7. Preliminary results indicate isolation and limited gene flow of Michigan populations. Despite this isolation, most populations do not indicate inbreeding. Island populations are an example of extreme isolation and may indicate the possible trajectory of mainland populations. With the conclusions of our study, we hope to increase EMR population health and genetic diversity by informing management plans that will restore connectivity of EMR populations in Michigan. 111111611 666 The Effect of Road Salt on Macroinvertebrates in Temporary Wetlands in Northeast Ohio Parker Stoller*
Road salt is frequently used in Northeast Ohio to treat icy roads. Previous studies have shown the adverse effects road salt has on fauna, flora, water, and soil. This study looked at the impact road salt has on macroinvertebrates living in temporary wetlands. Salinity levels were found to be over twice as high at sites located near roads, compared to sites farther from roads (>200m). While the salinity was found to be higher, the species diversity and richness did not significantly differ between sites. Further research should be conducted over multiple seasons to confirm these results. A lower than average rainfall in summer 2017 could have had a major influence on the data. 111111711 777 Biomass Production in Response to Nutrient Cycling within a Tallgrass Prairie Amanda Stone*
Fire and grazing are natural historic disturbances in tallgrass prairies and are often used by managers in prairie restorations to maintain biodiversity. Fire and grazing also play important roles in nutrient cycling and can influence both aboveground biomass and soil structure. We investigated how fire and grazing influence soil nitrogen content and nitrogen content in standing plant biomass of restored prairies where bison have been reintroduced. Fire and grazers both increased soil nitrate but decreased soil ammonia. Mean plant biomass of Andropogon gerardii was positively correlated with soil nitrate. These results suggest that prescribed fire and grazers can influence plant nutrient status via changes in soil conditions.
111111811 888 Using dendrochronology to recoreconstructnstruct the time of introductionintroduction and spread of the invasive Asian longhorned beetle ( Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky) Stephen Todd*, Emily Franzen, Scott Gula, Bill Panagakos, Ann M. Ray
In June of 2011, a population of Asian longhorned beetle ( Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky) was detected in Clermont County, OH. Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) poses a serious threat to natural and managed forests in the United States. If new populations of ALB establish or if existing populations expand, the costs of the resulting damage could exceed $669 billion, and could lead to a mortality rate of 30% of trees in North American hardwood forests (Nowak et al.). Although the status of the infestation in Ohio has been closely tracked by state and federal surveys, it is unclear how quickly the invasion was detected. Using tree ring analysis, we seek to conclusively determine when ALB first established in Ohio. We determined the date that a tree was first infested by dissecting and sanding infested sections of trees, marking oviposition sites and exit holes, and counting growth rings. Our data will be used to help delineate quarantine boundaries for existing infestations and to inform trapping and survey efforts for new infestations. 111111911 999 Effect of invasive AsiaAsiann longhorned beetle ( Anoplophora glabripennis [Motschulsky]) eradication on diversity of native cerambycids in southwestern Ohio Clayton Traylor*, Emily Franzen, Ann M. Ray
An infestation of the invasive Asian longhorned beetle ( Anoplophora glabripennis [Motschulsky]) was first reported in Tate Township in Clermont County, Ohio in 2011. Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) is a wood-boring beetle in family Cerambycidae. ALB has 11 potential host genera native to North America. Larvae feed in the heartwood of trees, causing structural damage and eventual death. If left uncontrolled, an infestation could result in mortality of 30% of forest trees in the United States, with an estimated cost of $669 billion. Eradication efforts in Tate Township are underway and include removal of infested and potential host trees. These efforts risk damaging biodiversity of native wildlife, as it alters the native habitat. This study investigates the effect of host tree removal on the diversity and abundance of native cerambycid species inside of the ALB quarantine zone in Clermont Co., Ohio. Cerambycids were collected at two sites inside and outside the quarantine zone from April to September 2017 using a variety of trapping methods. We evaluated differences in biodiversity within and between sites using the Shannon-Weiner Index. The Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity Index was used to determine differences in overall abundance. Differences between sites were negligible overall. However, removal of host trees may have been a factor in differences abundance of several species, especially Anelaphus pumilis (Newman) and Megacyllene caryae (Gahan). 111201202020 No evidence that garlic mustard inhibits native plant growth in prairie restorations Adrienne Wayne*
Invasive species can suppress native species beyond competing for nutrients and sunlight. Many exude allelopathic chemicals that may influence interactions among native plants. In a greenhouse experiment, I examined whether extract of garlic mustard ( Alliaria petiolata ), a common allelopathic invasive, affects competition between prairie plants in a first-year restoration. We found that instead of inhibiting the prairie species, garlic mustard extract gave most a boost in growth and did not influence the outcome of competition. 121212112 111 Are Restoration SeSeeded Pools Evolving Under CommercialCommercial Propagation? Riley Pizza*, J. R. Etterson, Erin Espeland
Climate change and anthropogenic activity have resulted in large-scale ecosystem degradation, necessitating an increase in restoration efforts. While previous restoration efforts have utilized seeds collected from wild populations, the demand for restoration material exceeds what can be
sustainably harvested from these populations. To remedy this, large -scale propagation farms are used to produce bulk-seed. Despite the increased use of farm-raised native seed for restoration, few studies have considered the evolutionary impacts of industrial production on these gene pools. While it has been hypothesized that mechanical planting and harvesting may reduce genetic variation and drive unconscious selection, few have tested these ideas. Using the Montana-native plant Clarkia pulchella (deerhorn clarkia) we will determine if genetic variation is lost and plant traits evolve during commercial propagation, and whether these traits decrease the plants survival under stressful environmental conditions. The results of this research will test the impacts of current propagation methods, inform any necessary production changes, and increase the efficacy of restoration efforts. 121212212 222 Scouting for a good meal: Modeling bumble bee response to landscape composition and configuration using BEESCOUT Andrea Kornbluh*, Elena M. Stachew
Pollinator conservation and the provision of crop pollination often serve as a focal point in the discussion of ecosystem services because together they provide a clear example of how specific land cover types can support complementary objectives. Central to our understanding of pollinator population dynamics is the scale at which bees, the main pollinators of wild and crop plants, nest and forage. The foraging rules which organize bee behavior on a local scale do not apply to the scales at which bees move between distinct foraging patches and discover new habitat. We used satellite imagery and the NetLogo software model BEESCOUT to explore bee behavior in response to the composition and spatial configuration of foraging habitat in an actual landscape in Northeast Ohio. We hypothesized that bees would encounter small, isolated flower patches only when an array of “stepping stones” led from their colony to the habitat. Using BEESCOUT’s standard bumble bee search mode, we simulated bee scouting and tested the effect of bumble bee colony placement in three habitats: agricultural fields, herbaceous wet meadows, and the forested transition zone. We compared the frequency at which bees encountered foraging patches and analyzed the landscape in terms of abundance, distribution, and size of each land cover type. Our preliminary results indicate that bees are strongly influenced by the spatial characteristics of the matrix between foraging patches. Applying landscape metrics to pollination questions is a relatively new approach, but one that has the potential to integrate empirical data and facilitate cross-study comparison. 121212312 333 Optimizing betweenbetween----rowrow management strategies in plasticulture vegetables for improved crop production and soil health Alyssa Tarrant*, Zachary Hayden, Daniel Brainard
While plastic mulch in vegetable production offers excellent weed control in-row, weed management between-row remains a challenge. For organic growers particularly, weedy between- rows are problematic because organic herbicides are expensive and ineffective. As an alternative, organic farmers employ a variety of strategies to manage this area including cultivation, mowing, dead mulching, and planting cover crops as living mulches.
In May 2017 a field trial was established to evaluate the influence of between-row management strategies on production and soil health factors. Strategies included wheel-hoe cultivation, dead mulching, mowing weeds, rye live mulching, rye/white clover live mulching, and Italian ryegrass live mulching. Yellow summer squash and green bell peppers were grown as cash crops to allow for meaningful comparisons between a relatively short- and long-season crop.
In the first year of this study, summer squash yields were maintained across management strategies, but pepper yields were reduced in all treatments compared to cultivated plots. Dead mulch reduced in-season weed pressure by 75%. Italian ryegrass was the only living mulch species
to significantly reduce in -season weed pressure with a 52% reduction. Potentially leachable nitrogen in the fall was lower in weedy and living mulch plots compared to dead mulch and cultivated treatments. Significant differences in microbial biomass and shifts in soil microbial communities were not observed. However, this trial will be established in the same field with treatments in the same areas to evaluate the cumulative impacts of between-row management strategies on soil microbial communities.
Population & Community Ecology (Posters 12124444----111140404040)))) 121212412 444 Mycorrhizal interactions do not influence plantplant----herbivoherbivoherbivorere interactions in populations of Clarkia xantiana ssp. xantiana spanning from center to margin of the geographic range Lana Bolin*, John W. Benning, David A. Moeller
Multispecies interactions can be important to the expression of phenotypes and in determining patterns of individual fitness in nature. Many plants engage in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), but the extent to which AMF modulate other species interactions remains poorly understood. We examined multispecies interactions among plants, AMF, and insect herbivores under drought stress using a greenhouse experiment and herbivore choice assays. The experiment included six populations of Clarkia xantiana (Onagraceae), which span a complex environmental gradient in the Southern Sierra Nevada of California. Clarkia xantiana’s developing fruits are commonly attacked by grasshoppers at the end of the growing season and the frequency of attack is higher in populations from the range center than range margin. We found that AMF negatively influenced all metrics of plant growth and reproduction across all populations, presumably because plants supplied carbon to AMF but did not benefit substantially from resources potentially supplied by the AMF. The fruits of plants infected with AMF did not differ from those without AMF in their resistance to grasshoppers. There was significant variation among populations in damage from herbivores but did not reflect the center-to-margin pattern of herbivory observed in the field. In sum, our results do not support the view that AMF interactions modulate plant-herbivore interactions in this system. 121212512 555 Determining the effectiveness of oviposition traps for collecting larval mosquitoes in urban environments of Cincinnati, Ohio Nicole Broner*, Seth Bucholtz, Adonis Hewari, Heather Little, Mollie McIntosh
The ability to transmit viruses from adult, female mosquito to larvae is a potential component in the ecology of some vectored diseases, such as Zika and West Nile Virus. A common collection technique for mosquito larvae has been through the deployment of oviposition traps. These traps attract gravid female mosquitoes to oviposit eggs which can then be collected at a later developmental stage, such as larvae. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of oviposition traps for collecting larval mosquitoes in urban environments of Cincinnati, Ohio. Oviposition traps using hay infusions were constructed and initially deployed in urban wooded and residential areas on September 27, 2017. After 7 days, trap samples were harvested and immediately redeployed with new infusions. A total of three sampling events occurred (October 4, 11 and 18). In the laboratory, trap samples were sorted and mosquito larvae identified using dissecting microscopes. Trap effectiveness was evaluated by mosquito larval abundance. Of all deployed traps, 57% contained mosquito larvae; however, abundance within each trap was highly variable. The traps had similar effectiveness in both environments, wooded and residential with 56% and 58% of the traps containing mosquitoes, respectively. These results will provide helpful information for future studies monitoring mosquito larvae and potential disease dynamics in urban areas.
121212612 666 Impacts of rere----meanderingmeandering restoration efforts on predation risk ofof juvenile crayfish (((Orconectes obscurus ))) Erica Dulka*, Jennifer M. Clark
Re-meandering restoration in Eagle Creek (Garrettsville, OH) has led to shallower water levels, increased algae cover, and fewer large predatory fishes within the restored section vs. nearby upstream and downstream areas. Prior surveys in this system suggest that juvenile crayfish abundance is higher in the restored section than in upstream and downstream areas. The goals of this study were to 1) quantify fish predator size and 2) predation risk of juvenile crayfish in restored sections compared to deeper, forested control sites. To assess predator load, we used electrofishing surveys during July 2017 in four 30-m stretches in both control and restored sections. Eight juvenile crayfish were tethered to the stream benthos at each site for two nights both in July and August 2017 to assess predation risk (n = 128). Water depth and percent cover of refugia were measured at each tethering location. Overall, juvenile survivorship was significantly higher in restored than control sites (ANOVA, P = 0.0188). However, predatory fish total length was similar across sites (ANOVA, P = 0.6179). Further, water depth correlated with higher survivorship in shallower waters found in restored sites (r 2 = 0.60, P = 0.005). However, percent cover of refuge did not correlate with survivorship (r 2 = 0.09, P = 0.2703). Overall, this study suggests that re- meandering restoration efforts impact juvenile crayfish populations by increasing survivorship and may serve as a nursery zone. Although the size of fish predators was similar across sites, their abundance and stream depth may play a significant role. 121212712 777 ColdColdCold-Cold ---hardeninghardening and supercooling in a broadlybroadly----distributeddistributed jumping spider. How low can you go?! Sophia Hamilton*, Alex Kayfish*, Michael Henshaw
Phidippus audax is a common species of jumping spider, ranging from northern Mexico to southern Canada, and over much of their range, they must overwinter in freezing conditions. We sought to better understand overwintering in P. audax by measuring their supercooling point (SCP), or the lowest temperature before body fluids freeze. We collected 55 spiders from Ottowa County, MI. Spiders were collected from resting nests in fences between September 16, 2017 and January 19, 2018. We cooled each spider at 0.5 C/minute from 15 C to -20 C and, using a thermocouple, monitored them for the exotherm that results when their tissues freeze. We defined the SCP as the lowest temperature reached prior to the exotherm. We found that the spiders went through a process of cold-hardening throughout the fall, and the SCP dropped from about -4 C in September to about -15 C in December. This corresponds roughly with the coldest temperatures commonly experienced at our sites, but cold temperature extremes that exceed this limit are not uncommon. Thus, freezing is likely a source of winter mortality, and 2 of the 5 spiders we collected in January were in fact dead. We hope to measure SCP in other locations across the range to determine whether spiders in warmer environments differ in their capacity to cold harden. Since Phidippus audax lives throughout North America, the distribution of the trait of cold hardening could greatly vary by climate. 121212 888 Synchrony of flowering phenology within clusters dependsdepends on the spatial scale at which clusters are defined Tracie Hayes*, Stuart Wagenius
A model tallgrass prairie plant, Echinacea angustifolia , grows in small, isolated patches of varying size and shape. Reproductive success is influenced by mating opportunity, which depends on the flowering synchrony of potential mates. However, we do not understand which potential mates are spatially connected. Here, we define Echinacea clusters using a connection distance, d. If an individual has neighbors within d, they are in the cluster, and neighbors of those plants that are
within d are also included. (1) How do cluster characteristics such as size, area, and shape depend on d? (2) How does phenological synchrony within clusters vary with d? We used a 3-year dataset including precise spatial coordinates, and first and last day of flowering for 2836 flowering Echinacea individuals within a 6400 ha study site in western Minnesota. We calculated synchrony using Augspurger’s method (1983).
Connection distance influences cluster size. At d = 100 m, cluster size ranges from 1 to 215 individuals, while at d = 2500 m, the study area becomes one cluster. Overall mean synchrony differs between years, with the highest, 0.60, in 2014 and lowest, 0.51, in 2016. In 2015 and 2016, mean synchrony in clusters defined by small d exceeded expectations based on the null model. This relationship was weaker in 2014. Lower synchrony at larger d may result from clusters encompassing heterogeneous environments or genetically differentiated patches. These findings indicate that the scale defining clusters determines interpretation of synchrony, a general phenomenon that affects mating opportunities. 121212912 999 Extraction of hypericin from St. John's Wort in the DePauw Nature Park Quarry Meagan Khan*
Plants end up being very plastic due to a multitude of stressors and changes in the environments that are in such as light intensity, herbivory, and access to water. Plants sometimes respond to the environments by adjusting their growth rates, and their production of defensive chemicals. In a field experiment, I looked into how environmental conditions such as light availability and herbivory affect the production of hypericin in St. John’s Wort ( Hypericum perforatum ). Hypericin is a defensive chemical produced exclusively by St. John’s Wort which may have medicinal properties. The experiment encompassed locating 67 plants in DePauw University Nature Park and assigning them to sun/shade treatments and control/herbivorized treatments. Leaves were collected from all plants pre-herbivory and post-herbivory in order to extract hypericin. My results show that it is inconclusive whether the light intensity plants receive affects their production of hypericin. However there is a trend that shade plants, especially those that experienced severe herbivory, produced more hypericin than sun plants. Future steps include conducting an experiment on greenhouse-grown St. John’s Wort and looking into quantifying the production of hyperforin, another defensive chemical made by this species. 111301303030 Floral neighborhoods: abundance and richness of pollen loads on Echinacea angustifolia native bee visitors Kristen Manion*, Stuart Wagenius
Co-flowering plant species often share generalist pollinators. Movement of heterospecific pollen to flowers can limit seed production and reproductive success in plants. Generalist pollinators are likely to transfer heterospecific pollen among co-flowering plants if there is competition for pollination. To gauge the extent of competition among plants, we collected pollinator visitors to a model prairie plant, Echinacea angustifo lia, and quantified their pollen loads. Over course of 4 sampling days in the summer of 2009, we assessed the diversity and abundance of pollen loads based on the 9 most abundant pollinator taxa, all of which were native bees. We found that abundance and richness of pollen loads differs among native bees that visit Echinacea . 131313113 111 Temporal assessment of habitat quality and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in the Mill Creek Watershed, Cincinnati, Ohio Rachel Neff*, Alyssa Shafor, Ryan Villaver, Sophie Racey, Mollie McIntosh
Urban streams are often impacted by multiple stressors that can lead to ecosystem degradation. The Mill Creek Watershed, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been historically implicated as a degraded urban watershed due to cumulative effects of industrial effluents, combined sewage
overflows and channelization. Since the establishment of the Clean Water Act, local and state efforts to monitor and improve water quality have been ongoing, however, more baseline data on current stream conditions are needed. The main objective of this study was to assess habitat quality and macroinvertebrate communities within the Mill Creek Watershed overtime. Single assessments were conducted at nine different sites along four streams within the watershed from 2014 to 2017. Quantitative (riffle) and qualitative (multi-habitat) aquatic macroinvertebrate samples were collected and Ohio Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) scores were determined for each site. Preliminary results indicate little variation in habitat quality and the aquatic macroinvertebrate community overtime; however, high variation was observed across sites for all study years. Information gained from this study will help to better understand the current condition, detect future impairments, and guide management decisions for this urban watershed. 131313213 222 Seasonal community dynamics of aquatic macroinvertebrates in Great Lakes coastal wetlands Sara Prussing*, T. Gehring, D. Uzarski, K. Pangle, M. Cooper
Summer aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in Great Lakes coastal wetlands are well-studied and known to experience high turnover rates at many spatiotemporal scales. However, spring and fall communities are poorly studied and winter communities have never been reported, and so their compositions and the factors that structure them are relatively unknown. I will study the composition and dynamics of seasonal communities of macroinvertebrates in Great Lakes coastal wetlands. I will collect seasonal sediment and water-column samples of aquatic macroinvertebrates in all major vegetation types at a site and record relevant abiotic variables. Subsequently, I will conduct Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling ordinations to compare community composition similarity by season, vegetation zone, and macroinvertebrate life history traits. 131313 333 ShortShort----termterm responses of a macroinvertebrate community folfollowinglowing rere----meanderingmeandering restoration Keegan Rankin*, Jennifer M. Clark
In August 2013, a 600 m section of Eagle Creek (Hiram, OH) was restored using channel re- meandering with the goals of reconnecting the stream with its floodplain and decreasing flood intensity to downstream suburban areas. Logging and agriculture in the watershed has caused heavily eroded banks, high turbidity, a sandy benthos, and poor canopy cover to occur within this stream. Short-term changes in the macroinvertebrate community was assessed one year prior to restoration (summer 2013) and one year following restoration (summer 2014). Surveys were completed in 10 separate 50-meter stretches including one upstream of the restored section (reference site), three within the restored section, two within the old channel, and three downstream of the restoration site. Within each of the ten sites, macroinvertebrates were collected using D-frame nets in 20 random locations. Overall, there were no significant differences in macroinvertebrate species richness across sampling sites prior to restoration vs. one year post- restoration (year P=0.5071, site P=0.2945). Further, there was no significant difference in macroinvertebrate species richness between the old channel sites (summer 2013) and new channel (summer 2014) (P=0.8796) suggesting that the macroinvertebrate community recovered relatively quickly to restoration practices. Similarly, macroinvertebrate species richness was not significantly different prior to restoration versus post-restoration (P=0.1490) suggesting that the community was either resistant or resilient to upstream restoration. All taxa present prior to restoration were also present post-restoration in each of the ten sites. This suggests that macroinvertebrate communities are resilient to re-meandering restoration. 131313413 444 TemperatureTemperature----mediatedmediated differences in phenology may influence loclocalal species declines Katarina Renaldi*, Meredith Zettlemoyer
Mean annual temperatures have risen 0.85°C since the Industrial Revolution and will likely rise another 0.3-1.7°C by 2100. Plant phenology shifts are a major indicator of climate change, with warmer temperatures often associated with earlier phenology. The inability of some species to adjust their phenology in response to climate warming has been suggested to influence native species declines, therefore having important implications for future species losses. Using herbarium records from across the Midwest, we examined phenological response to temperature in 8 confamiliar pairs of locally extinct and present native prairie species from Kalamazoo, MI. Locally extinct species show earlier phenology than present species (status X 2=8.38, p=0.004). However, present species respond more readily to temperature, shifting their phenology earlier at higher average monthly temperatures (status x temperature X 2=8.22, p=0.004). This suggests that extinct species may be less responsive to rising temperatures and may not be able to respond as effectively to climate change as species that have managed to persist. However, in contrast to previous work suggesting that climate warming should result in shifts towards earlier phenology, extinct species are shifting their phenology later in the season (year x status X 2=4.15, p=0.04), while present species are more consistent over time. This study suggests that extinct and present species differ in phenology and phenological responses to temperature. These differences in phenology may influence how species can adjust to future climate change and affect future species losses in the Midwest. 131313513 555 Development of a Vegetation Cover Analysis Method Which Pairs Computer-Computer ---basedbased Sampling and UserUser----DirectedDirected Sample Identification Matthew Rodriquez*, Ishi Buffam
Vegetation cover analysis is an established method of calculating relative biomass without use of destructive sampling, generally conducted using physical measurement with a pinpoint grid system, or automated digital measurement with open-source or proprietary software, but each option has its own limitations. Physical measurement is limited in feasibility by time sensitivity and in reliability and detail by frame construction and point distribution. Automated digital measurement uses an image to resolve time sensitivity, but sacrifices the ability to distinguish species, as well as some level of ability to distinguish between vegetation and bare soil when contrast between the two is low. Additionally, proprietary software is user-friendly but has a high cost, and open-source software is free but tends to require some level of skill with the coding language it runs on. JMicroVision is a user-friendly, open-source software capable of operator-controlled digital measurement with greater detail than automated methods, and without the time sensitivity of the physical analysis. JMicrovision was used in a case study of small-scale (30 cm x 60 cm) plots to measure green roof vegetation during different seasons under the assumption that the measurements would be equivalent to measurements using physical or automated methods. The purpose of this study was to test this assumption by analyzing precision and accuracy of operator- based digital measurement using JMicroVision compared to physical pinpoint measurements. Preliminary results suggest that the JMicrovision method worked reliably, while the pinpoint method failed to detect small soil patches within plant clusters, as well as missing species below a certain population threshold. 131313613 666 Mast Seeding Patterns in a Boreal Forest Community Jillian Sterman*, Abigail Leeper, Jalene LaMontagne
Vegetation cover analysis is an established method of calculating relative biomass without use of destructive sampling, generally conducted using physical measurement with a pinpoint grid system, or automated digital measurement with open-source or proprietary software, but each option has its own limitations. Physical measurement is limited in feasibility by time sensitivity and in reliability and detail by frame construction and point distribution. Automated digital measurement uses an image to resolve time sensitivity, but sacrifices the ability to distinguish species, as well as some
level of ability to distinguish between vegetation and bare soil whe n contrast between the two is low. Additionally, proprietary software is user-friendly but has a high cost, and open-source software is free but tends to require some level of skill with the coding language it runs on. JMicroVision is a user-friendly, open-source software capable of operator-controlled digital measurement with greater detail than automated methods, and without the time sensitivity of the physical analysis. JMicrovision was used in a case study of small-scale (30 cm x 60 cm) plots to measure green roof vegetation during different seasons under the assumption that the measurements would be equivalent to measurements using physical or automated methods. The purpose of this study was to test this assumption by analyzing precision and accuracy of operator- based digital measurement using JMicroVision compared to physical pinpoint measurements. Preliminary results suggest that the JMicrovision method worked reliably, while the pinpoint method failed to detect small soil patches within plant clusters, as well as missing species below a certain population threshold. 131313713 777 Using minnow traps to monitor spotted turtles in a southwestern Ohio fen Katrina Rosing*, Rachel Wallenhorst*, Kyle Van Dyne, Scott Sholar, Michelle Comer, Richard Phillips
The spotted turtle is found in disjunct populations in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. Each state in the Midwest has afforded the species protection and, consequently, population monitoring is critical. To monitor a once-abundant population in an Ohio fen, we used minnow traps with male and female spotted turtle decoys as well as trail cameras, to estimate population numbers. During 2017, 12 spotted turtles were documented over 2,520 trap nights with a total of 51 spotted turtle captures and recaptures. Capture rates were highest in late March and April (4.6 and 5.4/100 trap nights respectively) and dwindled to no captures in October. A single turtle was identified by trail cam bringing the total number documented to 13 in the fen. Efforts continue this spring with the goal of establishing a protocol to most efficiently monitor spotted turtle populations. 131313813 888 Population Monitoring of the Kirtland's Snake in the Estel Wenrick Wetlands Nature Preserve and Leadingham Prairie Preserve Kyle Van Dyne*, Scott Sholar, Michelle Comer, Richard Phillips
Kirtland’s snake populations can be found intermittently from Pennsylvania to Illinois. In states where they occur, populations are currently listed as threatened or endangered, depending on the state. Coverboard surveys were used along with passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) to carry out a mark-recapture study at Leadingham Prairie Preserve and Estel Wenrick Wetlands Nature Preserve. A total of 11 Kirtland’s Snakes were detected and PIT tagged over the course of the study with no recaptures, possibly pointing to a substantial population that is difficult to detect. 131313913 999 AlgalAlgal----foodfood forcing and population dynamics of D. pulex Jessica Barton*, Jalene LaMontagne
Population dynamics are affected by both internal and external factors. The population dynamics of the model organism Daphnia pulex are affected by the number of individuals in each size class (stage-structure) of a population and maturity rate (internal factors), as well as extrinsic factors such as nutrient levels, light, food availability, and food quality. Population-level characteristics, for instance fecundity rates and population biomass are directly affected by these internal and external factors and tracking fecundity and biomass of a population over time can indicate whether a population is stable or unstable. We will run an experiment to test whether the effects of internal or external factors have a greater impact on D. pulex populations. Extrinsic algal-food forcing will be done by setting predetermined Chlamydomonas reinhardtii food dynamics over time provided to Daphnia pulex populations using a peristaltic pump, coupled with the direct manipulation of stage
structure of the Daphnia populations toward fewer -larger offspring. Average fecundity and population biomass will be tracked and will give insight as to what factor (extrinsic food or internal life history) more greatly affects these populations. 111401404040 Population variation in pestpesticideicide resistance in benthicbenthic macroinvertebrates Riley Rackliffe*, Jason Hoverman
Resistance to pesticides is commonly observed in pest species as pesticides exhibit a strong selective pressure. Non-target organisms can also develop pesticide resistance when exposed to pesticides. Aquatic insects are exposed to significant levels of neonicotinoid insecticides in the Midwest as the recently-developed (1990s), water soluble compounds are extensively used on the widespread corn and soybean crops. We observed variation in pesticide resistance in different populations of larval heptageniid mayflies across a gradient of agricultural land use in the watershed. Using LC50 assays we found variation in pesticide resistance ranging from 0.88 ppb to 33.4 ppb for thiamethoxam (a neonicotinoid) and from 1.75 ppb to 48.7 ppb for carbaryl (an older carbamate pesticide). While this preliminary study suggests notable variation in tolerance it did not correlate with agricultural intensity. More surveys need to be performed to determine landscape patterns. Benthic macroinvertebrates are often used as water quality indicators so development of pesticide resistance in mayflies has implications for overestimating biotic quality indices.
Genetics & Evolution (14(14(141(14 111----151515155555)))) 141414114 111 Evolutionary potential of antibiotic resistance in a longlong----termterm experiment with E. coli Jasper Gomez*, Kyle J. Card, Thomas LaBar, Richard Lenski
Bacterial infections are becoming more difficult to treat with current drug therapies. An improved understanding of the evolutionary forces underlying antibiotic resistance is therefore a critical public health goal. Accordingly, there has been significant study of how resistance evolves in the presence of antibiotics. However, how resistance evolves after their prolonged absence has received comparatively little attention. Adaptation to one environment often comes at the price of a loss of fitness in other environments. How do such tradeoffs affect the evolution of antibiotic resistance in an environment in which these drugs are not found but later introduced? To study this question, we used strains of Escherichia coli that have evolved in drug-free conditions for 50,000 generations during a long-term evolution experiment (LTEE). In previous work, we showed that evolved LTEE strains are initially less resistant than their common ancestor. Next, to see whether the bacteria could overcome these tradeoffs, we then evolved the ancestral and more-sensitive LTEE-derived strains in the presence of antibiotics. In general, both the ancestral and derived strains gained resistance, although often to different degrees. Our results suggest that complex traits decay in the absence of selection, but these traits can be re-evolved upon further environmental change back to the ancestral state. 141414 222 Establishing and manipulating callus cultures to study somatic selection in Arabidopsis thaliana Nicolas Lara*, Angela Roles
We are interested in the potential for and evolutionary consequences of somatic selection during plant growth, using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system. However, this small annual plant experiences relatively few cell divisions from seed to seed. In an effort to manipulate the number of somatic divisions, we are exploring the use of callus cultures. Plant wound tissue—known as callus— is frequently used in research due to its relative genetic homogeneity, its ability to be easily grown in lab, and its ability to propagate through somatic cells. Nobody in our lab has previously studied callus growth, therefore, we are performing a series of preliminary experiments to explore the
factors affecting callus induction, rate of growth in cultures, and how quickl y we can generate new plants from an established callus culture. 141414314 333 Wood frogs ( Rana sylvatica ) increase NO metabolites in preparation for and in response to winterwinter----associatedassociated stresses Bethany Williams*, Richard E. Lee, Jon P. Costanzo
Nitric oxide (NO) is a ubiquitous signal molecule that carries out various regulatory and protective physiological functions in bacteria, plants, and animals. Although NO is thought to benefit various species during exposure to hypoxic environments, its role in animals that are tolerant of freezing, a hypoxic event, is unknown. Concentrations of NO metabolites, NO2- and NO3-, were measured as a proxy for NO in various tissues of wood frogs ( Rana sylvatica ) throughout the hibernal cycle, after 24 h hypoxia-exposure, and after a mild freeze/thaw bout. NO metabolite concentrations were generally higher in tissues of winter-acclimatized frogs compared to frogs sampled in late summer, particularly plasma NO2-, which was much higher in winter-acclimatized frogs. Concentrations of NO metabolites were also higher in plasma, heart, and liver of hypoxia-exposed frogs compared to reference frogs. Plasma NO2- was lower in frogs that had been frozen and thawed than in reference frogs, whereas liver NO metabolites were higher compared to reference frogs. This is the first study to examine the response of NO metabolites to freezing in animals, and our results suggest that increased NO availability is an important adaptation for freeze-tolerance as well as hypoxia- tolerance in wood frogs. 1114144444 Characterization of genetic differentiation to understand morphological variation in the bold jumping spider , Phidippus audax Brandon Beltz*
Gene flow between populations should limit genetic differentiation, and the most prominent models of speciation incorporate geographic isolation which limits the mixing of genes. The bold jumping spider, Phidippus audax , is common throughout North America, but is morphologically polymorphic, and may constitute distinct forms despite the potential for gene flow. We have characterized the nature of genetic differentiation. We sequenced 672 bp of the mitochondrial Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. We also genotyped spiders at 7 microsatellite markers found throughout the nuclear genome. Analysis of the mitochondrial sequences found two genetically-distinct clusters, but the nuclear markers did not identify two separate genetic groups. This disagreement between the mitochondrial and nuclear loci might result from male-biased gene flow or from divergent patterns of selection. We plan to investigate this discordance to better understand the process of differentiation in this species. 141414514 555 Phylogeography of the Neotropical Fish Genus Rhoadsia (Teleostei: Characidae) in Ecuador Roberto Cucalon*, Windsor Aguirre
Western Ecuador harbors a great diversity of animals and plants, many of which are endemic. Consequently, it is considered a biodiversity hotspot. However, little is known about the evolutionary relationships among the species there despite the rapid environmental degradation in the area. Rhoadsia , a freshwater characid fish, represents one of the endemic genera found in this region. Two morphologically differentiated species of Rhoadsia are currently recognized ( Rhoadsia altipinna and Rhoadsia minor ). Nonetheless, there is uncertainty of whether these two species could be just one single species separated into morphologically variable populations adapting to local conditions along elevational gradients. My goal is to investigate the evolutionary relationships of populations of the species of Rhoadsia for future studies on the ecology and evolution of the genus. The study is based on two different types of molecular markers; two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes, cytochrome b (cyt-b) and cytochrome oxidase I (COI), and twelve microsatellites from the nuclear DNA (nDNA). Phylogeographic and statistical analysis was implemented to test the
genetic relationships among populations of Rhoadsia . This study will make a significant contribution to elucidating biogeographic patterns of aquatic species in western Ecuador and provide a baseline for future studies of adaptation along elevational gradients conducted in Rhoadsia and other freshwater fishes. 141414614 666 Exploring diversification in Megistohibiscus (Malvaceae(Malvaceae)) on Madagascar with RADseq data Nicholas Drews*, Margaret Hanes
Megistohibiscus represents a group of morphologically diverse plants comprising 5 genera and 35 species, all of which are endemic to Madagascar. To reconstruct the phylogeny for this group we extracted gDNA from 64 plants representing 1-3 individuals per species. Genomic libraries were sequenced with a tool, RADSeq, that uses restriction site markers and molecular tags to sequence genes across the genome in all individuals. The bioinformatic pipeline ipyrad was used to filter raw data and cluster sequences into homologous genes. Phylogenetic analyses, including tetrad, RAxML, and Bayesian statistics were used to resolve how species of this clade are related. We also investigated when each genus originated. 141414714 777 Mechanisms of Adaptive Weed Evolution Ava Garrison*, Jeff Conner
Wild radish ( Raphanus raphanistrum ) is a winter annual native to the Mediterranean, but it has evolved a distinct weedy ecotype that is an aggressive agricultural pest on every continent except Antarctica. We are investigating the rapid adaptation of weedy radish to agricultural habitats, particularly the frequent and severe disturbances of plowing and harvesting. Previous work suggested that weeds evolved a rapid life-cycle compared to their native ancestors by flowering rapidly and reducing investment in rosette leaves. To investigate the relative contributions of genetic differentiation and plasticity to differences between weedy and native radish in these key traits, we conducted a simulated reciprocal transplant. Growth chambers were used to mimic environmental conditions in Spain (the native range) during a winter annual growth season and Michigan (part of the weedy range) during a spring annual growth season. Weeds flowered faster and produced fewer rosette leaves in both environments. In addition, the spring annual environment caused accelerated flowering of both weedy and native ecotypes relative to the winter annual environment. This suggests that plastic earlier flowering upon initial invasion of agricultural fields enabled annual radish to produce some seeds and establish in the fields, and subsequent adaptive differentiation of both flowering time and rosette investment made it possible for radish to become a damaging weed. Current work is focused on the genetic mechanisms underlying these processes, particularly the involvement of the Gibberellin signalling pathway, as well as the environmental cues for plasticity. 141414814 888 Phenotypic Plasticity in D. melanogaster : Investigating the effects of temperature on body sizesizesize Mubeen Jaffri*, Lota Ofadile, Judit Appenteng, Andrew D. Stewart
Phenotypic plasticity occurs when certain aspects of an organisms phenotype (observable traits) are altered during development, such as physiology, morphology, behavior, etc., in response to changes in their environment. When environments suddenly change, plastic traits often allow individuals to survive in sub-ideal conditions. As such, phenotypic plasticity is critically important for survival and adaptation in many species. Research in Drosophila melanogaster has demonstrated environmental temperature to specifically alter body-size. For this project, we utilized five different lines of D. melanogaster that had been selected for three different body-sizes (small, large, and divergent), which we then reared at three different temperatures (18, 25, and 31C) in order to observe the effect of temperature on the respective body-sizes (thorax lengths) of these flies, and examine their phenotypic plasticity. Here we report the findings of the project.
141414914 999 The Selection GradienGradients,ts, They are a Changin: ExaminingExamining how selection on phenological traits changes over the flowering season in selfself----incompatibleincompatible annual plant Laura Leventhal*, Jennifer Ison
Selective pressures act on phenotypes of organisms if the trait provides a fitness benefit to the organism. Selective pressures can change over many seasons but also can change within a season. Possible explanations for changing selective pressures lie within varying environmental conditions, mating opportunity, predator abundance, and other community dynamics. Our study aims to calculate selective pressures at several time intervals within a flowering season in Brassica rapa . We reconstructed the paternity of offspring from a large field experiment using Bayseian statistics in R. We determined the selection gradients for start date, total flowers, and duration in four open pollinated field plots. We found selective pressures did change throughout the season and that the changes were in some cases spatially context dependent. We show that an early start date is selected for early in the season, longer duration is selected for later in the season, and more total flowers is selected for in the middle of the season. Interestingly, we found that pollen moved farther in plots where plants were aggregated into dense clusters compared to plots where plants were evenly dispersed, and further, that the distance pollen moved changed throughout the season. These results provide insight as to when and on what trait selection is acting the strongest in flowering plants. Further, this research shows that with the right selective pressures, adaptive temporal clines can form within a season. 111501505050 Evolution and phylogeography ooff African elephant mitochondrialmitochondrial genomes Tolulope Perrin-Stowe*, Yasuko Ishida, Adam L. Brandt, Nicholas J. Georgiadis, Alfred L. Roca
Changing climates and shifting habitats have enabled increasing hybridization between closely related species. In some cases, due to the male-biased dispersal typical of many species, hybrids may only backcross to the paternal species. After generations of backcrossing, populations will carry mtDNA from the maternal lineage, but the nuclear DNA will be replaced by that of the paternal species. Here, we examine the effects of both hybridization and mitonuclear introgression on the phylogeographic patterns of the African savanna elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) and African forest elephant ( L. cyclotis ), which are distinct species separated by more than 5 million years of evolution. Determining how hybridization between species can affect phylogeographic patterns has important management implications. We also examined a genetically isolated population of elephants to examine their species identity, genetic affinities and diversity. Overall, the findings of this investigation will increase understanding of hybridization and evolution, and provide insights into the diversity and conservation of Africa’s elephants. 151515115 111 Impact of INKARINKARHO™HO™ rootstock on various cultivars ofof Rhododendron leaves and roots Madison Proctor*, Elspeth D. Weiss, Juliana S. Medeiros, Stephen Krebs
Rhododendrons can be a difficult plant to grow. Due to this, a rootstock known as INKARHO™ was created. This rootstock claims to be tolerant to high pH therefore our aim is to find evidence supporting this. Along with looking for correlations among pH, root morphology, and rootstock, we are hoping to see a correlation between leaf morphology and rootstock. We examined four cultivars. For roots, we sampled three plants per cultivar for each combination of pH (5 versus 8) and rootstock (INKARHO™ versus self) for a total of 48 root samples. For leaves we sampled 5 plants per cultivar for each combination of pH (5, 6 and 7 versus 8) and rootstock (INKARHO™ versus self) for a total of 153 leaf samples. Data showed that there were correlations between total root length per volume, specific root length, average diameter, specific leaf area, total area of 5 leaves, and rootstock. Carbon allocation to leaves and roots is not related to pH but average diameter is positively correlated with pH. Length of roots and leaf size is negatively correlated to pH. We found
that INKARHO™ makes a difference in root length per volume in some species. INKARHO™ also increases leaf size across all species. Root length was greatly affected by pH across all species. Based on our findings, INKARHO™ can provide an easy to grow rhododendron under the right conditions. 151515215 222 Phylogeographic Analysis of the Prairie Vole ( Microtus ochrogaster ) at the Subspecies Level Joshua Robinson*, Nancy Solomon, Brian Keane
Intraspecific variation in social and reproductive behavior is common in vertebrates. In geographically distinct populations or subspecies, variation in behavior can occur due to genetic divergence among separately evolving lineages. In prairie voles ( Microtus ochrogaster ), geographically distinct populations exhibit varying degrees of social and genetic monogamy, which has been partially explained by ecological and neurogenetic factors. However, the relevance of phylogeographic relationships to this observed variation is not fully understood because the current taxonomic classification of seven putative subspecies is in question due to conflicting data from morphological and molecular analyses.
Therefore, the objective of my study is to document the phylogeography of prairie voles using DNA sequence data from mitochondrial and nuclear loci, which will provide independent lines of evidence to determine the possible relevance of phylogeographic relationships to understanding geographic variation in monogamy. Based on current taxonomy, I hypothesize that the genetic lineages of prairie voles are roughly congruent with the geographical boundaries of the seven subspecies. From museum collections, I have obtained tissue samples from 339 individuals throughout the species range, including all seven subspecies. For mitochondrial data, I sequenced approximately 550 base pair regions of the cytochrome-b gene from at least one individual from 40 populations throughout the species range. Preliminary data from the cytochrome-b region does not suggest clear genetic lineages that would support the current subspecies classification. To acquire nuclear data, I am performing RAD-tag sequencing, a type of next-generation sequencing. 151515315 333 The Effects of Dietary Sterols on D. Melanogaster Survivorship and Adult Sterol Composition Scott Martin*, Henry Burton, Jordan Middleton, Shon Mirza, Mubeen Jaffri, Robert Grebenok, Andrew Stewart
Ecdysone is essential for larval development and pupation in most insects. In most cases, this is synthesized from sterols that insects receive in their diet. One such insect is D. melanogaster , which has been used extensively as a model system for studying hormone-mediated development. Previous research suggests that two dietary sterols are capable of fostering Drosophila survival: cholesterol and B-sitosterol. However, this previous work was conducted over a series of single- generation experiments. This potentially can lead to misconclusions, due to trans-generational effects (i.e. sterol sparing, etc.). In order to validate the previous work, we are extending it to include multiple generations of rearing on single sterols, either cholesterol or B-sitosterol. During the course of these generations, we will not only examine adult survivorship, but also adult sterol composition and an analysis of molting hormone levels/composition. Here we present our results to date. 151515 444 Modeling longlong----termterm genetic diversity of Myotis lucifugus populations after infection by whitewhite---- nose syndrome Erika Forest*, Amy Russell
The little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus , is one of many North American bat species showing large population declines due to the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease affecting hibernating bats. This disease has resulted in population declines of up to 99% in some colonies. However, long-term population viability studies have predicted improving survival rates after WNS detection and possible evolutionary rescue of M. lucifugus populations due to hypothesized
inherited WNS resistance. We modeled a s imple forward -in -time simulation of M. lucifugus populations using the population modeling software forqs. Populations with WNS resistance were simulated under levels of population decline observed in WNS-infected M. lucifugus populations in order to examine the resulting change in genetic diversity. Tracked changes in allele frequency will allow for a determination of the possible long-term impact on population genetic diversity of the current declines caused by WNS. This presentation will provide an evaluation of the impact of WNS syndrome on genetic diversity in M. lucifugus populations. 151515 555 Evolution of sensory systems across novel environments John G. Phillips*, Janette Boughman
Organisms radiating into novel environments can offer insight into adaptive evolution. We are using a fish model, the Three-spined Stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) to test differential patterns of selection on different sensory systems across a variance in ecological parameters. As an anadromous fish, stickleback can inhabit both fresh and saltwater habitats, and across their range have repeatedly colonized freshwater habitats from a saltwater ancestor. One topologically diverse region that serves as a natural laboratory to study G. aculeatus is the island of Iceland, whose landscape contains hundreds of lakes that were recently formed (on a scale of 100s to 1000s of years ago). Some lakes are spring fed and clear, and others are glacially fed and turbid. Stickleback have colonized a number of both glacial and spring-fed lakes, offering a unique opportunity to study how this closely related populations can undergo phenotypic divergence when faced with different ecological pressures. We examine visual, olfactory, and mechanosensory systems in G. aculeatus to test for trade-offs between sensory systems. Due to turbidity, sensory adaptations to glacial lakes have potential to reveal novel sensory function. Most studies of sensory adaptation are limited in scale, so we attempt to address this by incorporating multiple sensory modes. This work will be completed by phylogeographic work to establish divergence among populations and to further estimate the temporal scale over which evolutionary change occurs in this system.
Ecosystem Ecology (Posters 201201----207)207) 201201201 Shift in organic and inorganic N PPProcessingProcessing in laboratory biofilms Mansi Chhina*, Michelle Baskins, Jonathan O’Brien
Recent research suggests that larger, more developed biofilms are able to rely on internal nutrient recycling, rather than external sources, to account for a large portion of their metabolic needs. We grew aquatic biofilms under laboratory conditions to examine the tradeoffs between externally nutrient uptake and internal nutrient recycling that occur as biofilm mature. We measured biofilm growth, metabolism (photosynthesis and respiration), nutrient uptake and enzyme activities over 2.5 months of incubation. We found that nitrate and N recycling are equally important to supply the nutrient requirement of growing biofilms at early and middle stages of development. At late stages, internal cycling of N becomes more important than nitrate as a source of N to meet the metabolic needs of algae within the biofilm. These results have implications for our understanding of nutrient retention in rivers and prevention of nutrient transport to downstream water bodies. 202202202 Liceus fontinalis : feeding preference, abundancabundancee and growth factors Sarah Congress*, Sarah C. Lee, Leia Hudgins
Lirceus fontinalis is a species of freshwater isopod whose functional role as a shredder includes breaking down decaying organic matter and assisting in nutrient cycling. In a series of field and laboratory experiments, we examined the distribution and feeding ecology of Lirceus . We asked three research questions: (1) how does Lirceus density vary among stream microhabitats, (2) do Lirceus prefer detritus from different tree species, and (3) how does leaf conditioning affect Lirceus
growth rates. We predicted that (1) Lirceus density will be highest in riffle habitats, (2) because Platanus occidentalis leaves are tougher than Acer saccharum leaves, the isopods will prefer to feed on A. saccharum leaves, and (3) isopod growth rates will increase with longer conditioning treatments. Results of the choice feeding experiment showed no significant difference in the mass loss due to feeding between each of the species therefore it cannot be concluded that L. fontinalis has preferential feeding traits. There was no significant difference in the abundance of L. fontinalis in each of the respective areas of the stream. After looking at the effect of conditioning on growth rate it was found that when L. fontinalis was fed leaves conditioned for five weeks they had a larger average change in length when compared to L. fontinalis that were fed leached leaves that had not been conditioned. Together these results indicate that Lirceus growth depends on the age of available leaf litter, which in turn likely depends on the retention rate of litter in stream reaches. 203203203 Factors influencing temporal variation in nitrogen losses in runoff from an extensive green roofroofroof Sarah Handlon*, Ishi Buffam
Green roofs are engineered ecosystems found within urban environments. Green roofs are ideal candidates for asking ecosystem ecology questions, particularly associated with climate change due to their exposure to severe environmental extremes and global presence. Many studies have found that green roofs can be sources for nutrients in runoff, potentially providing an ecosystem disservice. The degree to which nutrients are leached varies widely from roof to roof and over time, and the controlling mechanisms have not been fully explored. I conducted a study of nitrogen (N) cycling patterns and processes to understand the spatial and seasonal variability of N cycling dynamics within an extensive green roof in Cincinnati, OH, USA. Nine rain events were sampled from June 2017-February 2018 to assess the within-event temporal variability of roof runoff water quality, with a focus on N. Preliminary data shows that the concentrations of nitrate and ammonium were highest at the beginning of events and reached a steady state as events progressed. We have developed a conceptual model in which soluble nutrients build up over time in the green roof substrate between events as a function of the balance between microbial activity and plant uptake. Thus, runoff concentrations at the beginning of the subsequent event are affected by the intervening temperature, moisture, and amount of time elapsed. Our work reveals a high degree of temporal and seasonal variation in runoff nutrient concentrations at multiple scales (within-event, among-event, and seasonal), emphasizing the need for more mechanistic studies of how nutrients are utilized within these systems. 204204204 How is a stream impacted by burial? Examining the spatial variation within urban buried streams in Cincinnati, OH Chelsea Hintz*, Ishi Buffam
While the effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems have been well-documented, little is known regarding the impact of burying streams within culverts. Our project aims to explore the ecological impacts of stream burial at a fine spatial scale. Two culverted urban streams in Cincinnati, OH, USA were evaluated over 8 months to achieve this aim, with measurements made along a spatial gradient above, within, and below the culverts. Monthly periphyton samples were collected from artificial substrate, and monthly deployments of dissolved oxygen and temperature loggers were used to evaluate rates of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER). Preliminary results demonstrate that ash-free dry mass (AFDM) of periphyton was lower in buried reaches than in open upstream and downstream reaches, as expected. GPP was supported at lower levels within buried reaches and continued to decrease with distance downstream within the buried reach. ER was supported at lower levels within buried reaches as well, but showed little within- culvert spatial variation. The differing responses of GPP and ER can lead to patches of low stream dissolved oxygen, particularly at the downstream end of culverts and during periods of low flow.
205205205 How Effective is Biochar at Retaining Nutrients in Green Roof Substrates? Nicholas Willse*, Alicia Goldschmidt, Ishi Buffam
Degraded water quality in urban areas has become a major concern and has added to the many issues impacting our freshwater supplies. The utilization of green infrastructure within urban areas has become an increasingly popular way to combat these issues, and green roofs are at the forefront of this approach. Though green roofs have proven to provide many ecosystem services, they have also shown to be a disservice by being a source of nutrient (especially phosphorus) leaching. The addition of biochar as an amendment to green roof substrate has been proposed as one possible approach to improving green roof runoff water quality and is the focus for this study. A field experiment was conducted with forty-five green roof plots, which included four treatments with different levels of biochar, with five replicates of each. These four biochar levels were constructed with and without vegetation and the plots were exposed to natural weather conditions for one year in Cincinnati, Ohio. We found biochar had no significant impact on pH, or the concentrations of dissolved salts, ammonium and nitrate in the runoff. However, phosphate concentrations in the runoff were significantly decreased as the concentration of biochar increased. This was clear in treatments with and without plants, which helps to concluded biochar was the driving factor. Though biochar did not have a direct impact on nitrate concentrations, the presence of plants significantly decreased nitrate in runoff. These results suggest that biochar could be one viable solution to helping retain nutrients in green roof runoff, especially phosphate. 206206206 Shifts in benthic algal community taxa along a spatial gradient in aann urban buried stream Caroline Tran*
Many studies regarding the effects of urbanization on algal communities have been undertaken; however, little is known about how algal communities respond within buried stream ecosystems, i.e. in streams that pass through culverts. This study serves to investigate how benthic algal taxonomic composition shifts over a gradient along a culvert in a buried stream. Algal samples were collected from natural substrates at a series of evenly-spaced stations both inside and outside the culvert of an urban stream in Cincinnati, OH, analyzed for chlorophyll-a and ash-free dry mass (AFDM), and assessed for species relative abundance and diversity. Analysis is underway. Algal biomass and chlorophyll-a are expected to be higher outside of the culvert and decline with distance within the culvert due to light limitation of algal growth. Species diversity is expected to be relatively low due to the higher concentration of pollution found in urban streams. Additionally, we predict that benthic soft-bodied (green) algae will occur more abundantly outside and at the ends of the culvert, while diatoms will dominate inside the culvert since they can thrive in lower light conditions. This is important because the composition of algal communities can provide valuable insight concerning water quality and the presence of pollution in aquatic systems and help to address potential environmental causes that could hinder ecosystem health. 207207207 Inorganic and organic nutrient processing in streams biofilmsbiofil msmsms Maria Butler*
We used pulsed releases nitrate, phosphate, and ammonium to measure uptake rates from stream water. We then compared this to the activities of microbial enzymes involved in nutrient recycling. We found that uptake N and P from the stream water was orders of magnitude lower than enzyme activity, suggesting that organic nutrient processing has the capacity to be critically important for biofilms at the ecosystem scale.
Evolution & Development (Posters 208208----2011)2011)
208208208 The Impact of TemperatuTemperaturere on the Early Stages of thethe Development of the BoBodydy Axis in the Emerging Model Species Astyanax mexicanus (Teleostei: Characidae) Sara Alharbi*
Environmental changes have an impact on species' evolution, adaptation, and development. Temperature is one of the major environmental factors affecting aquatic ectotherms like fishes. This study will be using lab-reared Astyanax mexicanus surface fish to examine how temperature variation impacts the early stages of the development of the body by measuring the somitogenesis period, somite length, and tracking the expression of the msgn1 gene, a marker of the development of the tail bud region in fishes. Fish embryos have been collected, subjected to temperature treatments (20°C, 24°C, and 28°C), and fixed every hour through hatching. The rate of somite formation over time will be compared across temperature treatments. Somite length will be measured during somite development by using ImageJ software to examine if the length of the somites is impacted by temperature variation. The effect of temperature on the expression of msgn1 during development will be examined using confocal microscopy. This study will give us a better understanding of how temperature influences the early stages of the development of the body axis in this emerging model species. It will also provide a baseline for future studies examining the influence of phenotypic plasticity on body form variation in characids colonizing new habitats. 209209209 Weird anatomy and unique behavior: Brain organization in thresher sharks (Lamniformes: Alopiidae) Francesco Guzzo*, Kenshu Shimada
Alopias (Alopiidae: thresher sharks) is a group of lamniform sharks with a highly elongate tail, consisting of three extant species: A. pelagicus, A. superciliosus , and A. vulpinus. The relative brain size (‘encephalization’), relative development of five major brain areas (i.e., telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon, cerebellum, and medulla), and the degree of cerebellar foliation are previously reported for embryonic A. vulpinus and a free-swimming A. superciliosus , but not A. pelagicus. Using museum specimens, we examined the brain attributes in a non-embryonic individual of A. pelagicus and A. vulpinus . Our study suggests that: (1) the cerebellum in all three species makes up >30% (by weight) of the total brain mass (i.e., largest cerebellums among all sharks examined to date); (2) Alopiidae is the only lamniform family that has a telencephalon <29%; and (3) Alopias in general has a high level of cerebellar foliation. At least A. pelagicus and A. vulpinus are known to use their elongate tail to hunt, and their unique hunting behavior may be responsible for their cerebellar enlargement. Their small telencephalon can be attributed to their diet preference of small schooling fish where such ‘less agile prey’ could have reduced the need for rapid ‘decision making.’ Their highly foliated cerebellum suggests that the majority of their brain power is devoted to controlling their tail. Our study shows that Alopiidae not only exhibits a highly specialized body plan, but also possesses a unique brain organization among sharks that correlates with its feeding behavior. 210210210 Paleobiology of the Late Cretaceous sclerorhynchid sawfish, Ischyrhiza mira (Elasmobranchii: Rajiformes), from North America based on new anatomicalanatomical data Phillip Sternes*, Kenshu Shimada
Ischyrhiza mira is a Late Cretaceous sclerorhynchid sawfish (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii). The species is primarily known by its rostral spines, but its paleobiology remains largely uncertain. Here, we describe seven associated skeletal remains of I. mira from the Campanian-lower Maastrichtian of Tennessee and Alabama, USA, based on specimens in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Memphis Pink Palace Museum in Tennessee, and McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Our study suggests that I. mira had about 16 or 17 functional spines and about the same number of replacement spines on each side of the rostrum, and that its pair-wise
spine replacement mode was the same as in the extant pristiophorid sawsharks and at least in one previously studied sclerorhynchid, Sclerorhynchus atavus . Our study also reveals the presence of at least two different types of dermal denticles in I. mira , small hat-shaped dermal denticles distributed on the rostrum and large thorn-like dermal denticles presumably on the dorsal body surface. The thorn-like dermal denticles in particular suggest that I. mira was likely a sluggish benthic batoid. Based on the ratio between the rostrum length and total body length in other sclerorhynchids known from complete skeletons (i.e., determined to be about 1:3.27), our study suggests that I. mira reached at least 1.9 m in total length. This size estimate refutes previously published estimates for Ischyrhiza that indicated that the taxon reached up to only about 1 m. 211211211 Temperature Effects on the Development of Body Shape and the Axial Skeleton in Astyanax mexicamexicanusnusnusnus (Teleostei: Characidae) Joseph Forberg*, Windsor Aguirre
Phenotypic plasticity is common in nature and the focus of increasingly intense study. Many environmental factors can contribute to the plasticity of a species, but water temperature is one that has broad phenotypic effects in many fish species. Depending on the temperature of development, fish will respond by having different vertebral column phenotypes and different body shapes. However, there is uncertainty as to when and how phenotypic variation arises during development. The emerging model species Astyanax mexicanus (the Mexican tetra) was subjected to water temperature treatments of 20°C, 24°C, or 28°C from fertilization until collection (four days at the earliest to 65 days at the latest). These larval to juvenile fish were then analyzed using Geometric Morphometrics to see when body shape differences arise. A total of 32 fixed and sliding semi-landmarks were placed on the outline of the body and eyes. The developmental trajectories through morphospace are being analyzed using PCA and other multivariate methods. The same specimens are being cleared and stained to examine how bone and cartilage development is influenced by temperature. Understanding how phenotypic variation arises during development can lead a better understanding of the contribution of environmental factors to the early stages of phenotypic divergence of populations subjected to different environmental conditions in nature like those resulting from climate change.
MiMiMicrobialMi crobial Ecology (Posters 212212----218)218) 212212212 The impact of road salt runoff on methanogens and other lacustrine prokaryotes Emily Sprague*, Danielle Dupuis, Carla Koretsky, Kathryn M. Docherty
Road salt deicers are widely used in regions that experience icy winters. The resulting saline runoff can negatively impact freshwater lake ecosystems. Saline runoff can cause density stratification, resulting in persistently anoxic hypolimnia. This may result in a shift in the structure of the hypolimnetic prokaryotic community, with potential increases in anaerobic and halotolerant taxa. Specifically, anoxia creates a habitat suitable for the proliferation of obligately anaerobic Archaeal methanogens. As a result, more persistent and expanded anoxic zones due to road salt runoff have the potential to increase hypolimnetic methane concentrations. If a portion of this methane is released to the atmosphere, it could be a currently uncharacterized contributor to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines two urban, eutrophic lakes with significant road salt influx and one rural, eutrophic lake with little road salt influx. All three lakes are located in southwest Michigan. Samples were taken from the water column at every meter at the deepest part of each lake, in May, August, and November 2016 and February 2017. The V4 and V5 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene in Bacteria and Archaea were amplified and sequenced using an Illumina MiSeq approach. Water column methane levels and a suite of supporting geochemical parameters were measured to determine changes in redox stratification in each lake and across
seasons. Results indicate significant changes in the 16S rRNA -based community associated with depth, season, salinity and lake. Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Bacteriodetes were among the phyla with the highest overall relative abundance. In most seasons, hypolimnia in the urban lakes had 550 to 900 µM more methane and epilimnia had small but consistently higher concentrations of methane than the rural lake. These results indicate that road salt contamination can directly and indirectly affect prokaryotic communities and has the potential to increase methane release from lakes. 213213213 The effect of freezing and fridge storage on soil nitrinitrificationfication Wissam Jawad*, Di Liang
Studies of soil microbial activities would ideally be carried out with fresh samples. However, this is not always practical. Storing soil in a refrigerator or freezer before analysis is the common practice to keep microbial activity to a minimum, usually at 4°C and -20°C, respectively. Not too much is known about the response of microbial processes, such as nitrification, to different storing methods. In this experiment, we took soil samples from six ecosystems including two annual crop ecosystems, one perennial crop ecosystem, one prairie ecosystem, and two native successional ecosystems of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Soils were stored in either a 4°C fridge or a -20°C freezer for a week and then thawed for either two or five days. We tested soil nitrification potential under these different freezing-thawing scenarios. The data shows that the conventionally managed ecosystem had a significant decrease in nitrification potential for both freezer and fridge methods. In general, the other ecosystems showed no significant difference in nitrification potential. This could mean that the microbial communities found in conventionally managed ecosystems are less resilient to changes in the environment. Tilling and lack of cover crop in the conventionally managed ecosystem could be the major causes for the microbial communities to be less established, leading to less resilience to different storage methods. 214214214 CompComplexitylexity of the gut microbiome: an experimental approapproachach Emmi Mueller*, Ken J. Locey, Jay T. Lennon
The gut microbiome of mammalian hosts contains trillions of bacteria belonging to thousands of different species. Despite the profound implications for host health and nutrition, the factors that contribute to microbiome community structure remain unclear. One overlooked driver of microbiome diversity is the physical complexity of the gut environment. A few key aspects of gut complexity are the amount of time microorganisms spend in the gut, known as residence time, which is influenced by flow and volume, and structures such as villi and crypts. Previously, we have used individual-based models (IBMs) to explore the effects of residence time on ecological patterns such as bacterial abundance, species richness and bacterial dormancy. Our simulations predict hump-shaped relationships where abundance and richness are greatest at intermediate residence times. Also, the percent of bacteria that are dormant is predicted to increase as residence time increases. We have developed 3D-printed gut bioreactors to test these predictions. The bioreactors are fed an artificial gastrointestinal medium, inoculated with a gut microbiome of antibiotic-free mice and are maintained at high and low residence times with high and low villi density. We are tracking bacterial abundance, species richness, and dormancy over time across this range of residence times and villi density by using outflow of the system to observe how these ecological patterns change as a function of physical complexity. By understanding how physical complexity changes communities we will be able to apply this knowledge to better understand the assembly, diversity, and function of natural, managed, and host-associated microbiomes. 215215215 RhizobiaRhizobia----LegumeLegume Associations at Grand Valley State UniversitUniversity'sy's Sustainable Agriculture Project Gwynne Powell*, Jennifer Winther
Nitrogen is a major limiting nutrient for plant growth. Plants with root nodules make their own chemical nitrogen (ammonia) from nitrogen gas and do not require the addition of nitrogen-rich fertilizers for growth. Root nodules are plant structures that house bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH3). In fact, nodule-forming plants (e.g. legumes including soybeans and peas) increase the soil concentration of available nitrogen and have long been used in sustainable agricultural practices. The purpose of this research project is to identify and cultivate the species of bacteria that form symbiotic root nodules on pea plants grown at GVSU’s Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP). Currently, there are 14 genera of bacteria that are known to form Rhizobia-legume associations (Lindstrom and Mousavi, 2010). Based on previous work on the role of intercropping clover on microbial diversity, we know that all 14 genera are found in the soil at the SAP. What is unknown is the identity of the bacterial symbionts associated with SAP crop legumes and whether the identity of the bacteria matters. Once the bacterial symbionts have been identified and cultivated, we plan to quantify the benefit of the different bacterial species to the pea plants in a controlled greenhouse setting. At the completion of this project, we hope to have identified those bacteria that are the best nodule symbionts with the peas grown at the SAP and to be able to provide SAP with beneficial bacteria inoculum. 216216216 Development of a Novel Method for Temporal Analysis of Airborne Microbial Communities Allison Spring*, Kennth Domingue, Margaret Mooney, Thomas Kerber, Kristina Lemmer, Kathryn Docherty
Microorganisms are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, which serves as an important vector for microbial dispersal to all terrestrial habitats. Very little is known about the mechanisms that control microbial dispersal, because sampling of airborne microbial communities beyond 2 m above the ground is limited. The goal of this study was to construct and test an airborne microbial sampling system to collect sufficient DNA for conducting next generation sequencing and microbial community analyses. The system we designed employs helium-filled helikites as a mechanism for launching samplers to various altitudes. The samplers use a passive collection dish system, weigh under 6 lbs and are operated by remote control from the ground. We conducted several troubleshooting experiments to test sampler functionality. We extracted DNA from sterile collection dish surfaces and examined communities using amplicons of the V4 region of 16S rRNA in bacteria using Illumina Mi-Seq. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the samplers we designed 1) remain decontaminated when closed and collect sufficient microbial biomass for DNA-based analyses when open for 6 hours; 2) are optimally decontaminated with 15 minutes of UV exposure; 3) require 8 collection dish surfaces to collect sufficient biomass. We also determined that DNA extraction conducted within 24 hours of collection has less of an impact on community composition than extraction after frozen storage. Using this sampling system, we collected samples from multiple altitudes in December 2016 and May 2017 at 3 sites in Kalamazoo and Pellston, Michigan. In Kalamazoo, areas sampled were primarily developed or agricultural, while in Pellston they were primarily forested. We observed significant differences between airborne bacterial communities collected at each location and time point. Additionally, bacterial communities did not differ with altitude, suggesting that terrestrial land use has an important influence on the upward distribution of bacteria. Proteobacteria were predominant in air samples from Kalamazoo, while Firmicutes were more prevalent in Pellston. Our results demonstrate that the sampling platform we designed is a useful tool for exploring ecological questions related to distribution of airborne microbial communities across a vertical transect. 217217217 Extracellular enzyme response to substrate availability: A case of endend----productproduct inhibition in Arctic soils Ruth Whittington*, Michael N. Weintraub
With annual temperature averages already rising in Arctic regions due to globally increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, a better understanding of the dynamics underlying carbon release from Arctic soils is crucial to predicting future soil carbon losses. Microbial-mediated litter decomposition, controlled by enzyme-catalyzed depolymerization reactions, will likely change as decomposition rates increase, yet how soil microbes respond via enzyme production to varying substrate availability is not well understood. To better classify enzymatic response, Arctic moist acidic tundra soils were thawed and pre-incubated for 15 days at 12°C before varying amounts of cellobiose were added (0 to 10 mg C g dry soil-1). Respiration rate was monitored over 15 days before the soils were harvested to compare β-glucosidase (BG) and cellobiohydrolase (CBH) activities, catalyzing the degradation of cellobiose and cellotetraose, respectively, as well as total reducing sugar (TRS), ammonium, and nitrate concentrations. Added cellobiose led to significant increases to respiration rate across the incubation period, with the lowest concentration addition soils returning to control rates after 11 days. However, both BG and CBH activities were negatively correlated with added cellobiose at the end of the incubation period (p = 0.013 and 0.0001, respectively). This could be explained by two mechanisms: 1. Increased glucose availability, as demonstrated by increasing TRS concentration with cellobiose addition, may inhibit the production of BG and CBH, and 2. Low nutrient availability may lead microbes to focus production on N- and P- acquiring enzymes. Overall, these results demonstrate the need for additional research into the dynamics controlling these important enzyme-catalyzed steps to eventual carbon release. 218218218 Urea hydrolysis by gut bactbacteriaeria in a hibernating frog:frog: Evidence for ureaurea----nitrogennitrogen recycling in Amphibia James Wiebler*, Kevin D. Kohl, Richard E. Lee, Jon P. Costanzo
The critical role of the osmoprotectant urea in the water economy of amphibians is widely appreciated, but urea’s ultimate fate after osmotic stress is resolved is unknown. Our studies of the wood frog (Rana sylvatica), a terrestrial species that maintains high levels of urea in hibernation, showed that gut bacteria possessing the enzyme urease can hydrolyze urea, potentially returning its constitutive nitrogen to the host. This system of urea-nitrogen recycling benefits various vertebrates, but its presence in Amphibia is unknown. We found that despite having a 33% reduction in the number of gut bacteria, hibernating frogs had 2.8-fold higher urease activity than that of active frogs. Experimentally augmenting urea in frogs increased bacterial urease activity 2.7- fold compared to controls. Bacterial inventories constructed using 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that communities in hibernating and active frogs were equally diverse but markedly differed in membership and structure. Relative abundances of ureolytic bacteria were higher in hibernating frogs than in active ones, suggesting this system is especially important during periods of limited nutrient acquisition. Nitrogen recouped through host-bacteria symbiosis likely helps restore body condition before wood frogs emerge from hibernation; however, urea-nitrogen recycling probably has much broader significance in the physiology of the Amphibia.
EcoEcoEco-Eco ---evolutionaryevolutionary Dynamics (Posters 219219----221)221) 219219219 Germination Dynamics of Light and Dark Pollen in Campanula americana Under Full Sun and Shaded Environmental Conditions Sara Garcia*, Jennifer Ison
Pollen color polymorphisms are present in various floral species but have not been evaluated to the same degree as petal color variation. Campanula americana , or American bellflower, has pollen grain color variation that ranges from white to dark purple. Other studies have shown that dark pollen is more abundant in the western range. In order to understand why this longitudinal cline exists, we examined whether abiotic environmental pressures had an impact on light or dark pollen.
We focused primarily on th e effect of UV on germination of light and dark pollen. This was done through the placement of Campanula americana fully in the sun or in the shade. We restricted pollen color to white and dark purple. There was not a significant distinction found between UV effect on light and dark pollen. However, dark purple pollen always germinated more successfully than light pollen, perhaps indicating that dark pollen is more effective than light pollen, under UV conditions. Although currently UV was not found to be a significant selective force for pollen color polymorphisms, the effects of UV and other abiotic factors due to climate change could become more prominent in the future. Decreased ozone levels are predicted to increase UV and temperature levels which may intensify selective pressures for pollen color polymorphisms. 220220220 Who is the better pollinator? Comparing pollinator efficiency of native bees towards Bellflower Ashley Padilla*, Mia Stevens, Jennifer Ison
As an increasing number of plant species are at risk for extinction, it is important to measure how pollinators are contributing to their fitness. Pollinator efficiency is a measure of how well a pollinator transfers pollen between flowers. An inefficient pollinator depletes pollen from a flower by collecting more pollen than is deposited into a receptive female. My study aims to measure pollinator efficiency per visit to see how pollinators affect a plant’s fitness. We observed efficiency in Campanula americana’s pollinators, Bombus, Megachile campanulae , and halictids using three measurements: 1) seed set, 2) pollen removal, 3) pollen deposition. We collected the data after a single visit to either a male (pollen removal) or a receptive female (seed set and pollen deposition). We found that Bombus deposited more pollen than M. campanulae and halictid, but M. campanulae removed more pollen than Bombus . In terms of seed set, Bombus and M. campanulae set more seeds than halictid, and Bombus had a higher fruit set than halictid. Overall, evidence suggested that Bombus contributed more to the plants' reproductive success while removing less pollen than M. campanulae . Our study presents evidence for pollen depletion in this system, illustrating the degree of pollen limitation. This illuminates the effects of different pollinator characteristics (e.g. morphology, mode of pollen collection, etc.) on plant fitness. 221221221 The Role of Pollinator Preference on the Maintenance of Pollen Color Polymorphisms in the American Bellflower, Campanula americana Elizabeth Tuan*, Jennifer Ison
Over time natural selection should reduce the genetic variation of traits with fitness consequences. Floral traits are often under strong selection and are predicted to have low genetic variation. Therefore, the maintenance of floral trait polymorphisms has attracted significant attention. The Campanula americana exhibits polymorphism in pollen color and nearly all populations are polymorphic. In addition, there is a cline in the pollen color, such that purple pollen is selected for in western populations (MN to KS) due to increased viability under heat stress, while eastern populations (OH to MS) have predominantly white pollen. Our study examined the mechanisms behind the prevalence of white pollen in the east and the maintenance of polymorphisms pollen in C. americana populations. We assessed pollen color preference and constancy in the main insect pollinators, Bombus sp., Megachile campanulae , and small bees in the Halictidae. We observed foraging patterns of wild bees as they visited arrays with two different pollen color morphs. Pollinator preference varied between pollinators and preference was significantly influenced by morph frequency. We found when white and purple pollen are present in equal frequencies, all pollinators preferred purple pollen. Megachile campanulae also demonstrated a preference for purple when white pollen was more abundant. Pollen color constancy was observed in all three pollinator types, though Bombus appeared inconstant to white pollen. We conclude that frequency- dependent preference seems to help maintain pollen color morphs in C. americana . Our study also offers insights on pollen color as a floral cue used to attract pollinators.
Disease Ecology (Posters 222222222-222 ---228)228) 222222222 Identification of pathogenic Bartonella spp. in prairie dependent rodents in northern IllinIllinoisois Fernanda Chavez*, Hailey Avery*, Malcolm T. Engelbrecht, Sean M. Beckmann
Bartonella species are the etiological agents of several human conditions including: cat scratch disease, encephalitis, and endocarditis. While the degree of pathogenicity of many Bartonella species is poorly understood, an increasing number are being identified as potential human pathogens. Many of these pathogens are known to infect both primary and incidental hosts with long periods of asymptomatic latency. Additionally, several Bartonella species are known to be transmissible to humans through the bite of arthropod vectors including: fleas, lice, and ticks. The potential of rodents as reservoirs has been suggested but not thoroughly studied. This study sought to identify the presence and prevalence of Bartonella spp. among prairie dependent rodent species in northern Illinois. Rodents were live trapped during the summer of 2017. Upon capture animals were identified to species, observed ticks were removed from the animals, and a tissue sample was collected. DNA was extracted from tissues and screened for Bartonella spp. via PCR of the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region using Bartonella specific primers. A total of 210 unique individuals were trapped representing four species: Ictidomys tridecemlineatus, Microtus ochrogaster, Microtus pennsylvanicus , and Zapus hudsonius . At a community level, 20% of individuals captured were identified to harbor Bartonella DNA. Species specific infection rates range from 7.6% in M. pennsylvanicus to 41.4% in Ictidomys. These data suggest that several prairie dependent rodent species may represent reservoirs of pathogenic Bartonella species. Additional monitoring and assessment of tick specimens are needed to verify results and identify routes of transmission. 223223223 Preliminary analysis on the effects of host type on body size in the gill parasite Livoneca redmanii (Isopoda) Patty Delmedico*, Tim Sparkes
The isopod Livoneca redmanii is a generalist parasite on the gills of several fish species in North and South America. This parasite is more abundant on younger hosts and host size is often correlated with body size, which in turn is correlated with fecundity. We examined whether inter-specific variation in the size of hosts was associated with changes in either parasite size or fecundity. Using samples of infected butterfish ( Peprilus triacanthus ) and spot ( Leiostomus xanthurus ) collected in the Charleston Harbor Estuarine System (South Carolina), we examined the relationship between host size and parasite size. Consistent with studies in other host-parasite relationships, we found that host size was correlated positively with parasite size for both host species. The results also showed that host size differed between the host species (spot TL = 170 mm, SD = 26.8; butterfish TL = 131, SD = 16.8). Despite this difference, body size of adult L. redmanii did not differ between hosts. This result is consistent with the interpretation that individual L. redmanii follow a generalized pattern of growth that is independent of host type. We discuss the potential for this type of growth to generate species-specific patterns of gill damage in which smaller species are more heavily impacted by the parasites than larger species. 224224224 Preliminary analysis of the pattern of trematode infection ( Posthodiplostomum minimum ) in creek chub and green sunfish in Woods Creek (McHenry County, IL) Chelsea Gacula*, Sara Teemer, Timothy Sparkes
Using a field survey collected in Woods Creek, McHenry County, IL, we determined the pattern of infection of the trematode Posthodiplostomum minimum in creek chub ( Semotilus atromaculatus , n = 188) and green sunfish ( Lepomis cyannelus , n = 12) over a 10-month period (August 2016-May 2017). This parasite is trophically transmitted and uses creek chub and green sunfish as intermediate hosts before completing its life cycle in a piscivorous bird (e.g., heron). A third species of fish (bluegill sunfish, Lepomis machrochirus ) was also common in the site but was not collected in this project. Previous studies have shown that the parasites present in the different host types likely represent different subspecies (creek chub - Posthodiplostomum minimum minimum ; green sunfish - Posthodiplostomum minimum centrarchi ). The results obtained from the survey showed that the metacercariae stage of the parasite was highly prevalent in the population (91%, n = 200) with a mean intensity of 41 (SD = 37.2) per infected fish (n = 182). Parasite intensity was positively correlated with host size, which is common in this parasite. A comparison of prevalence and intensity values between the two host types revealed that both values were higher in creek chub. We will discuss the potential for host specificity for bluegill sunfish by the P. m. centrarchi subspecies to explain the decrease in prevalence and intensity of P. m. centrarchi in green sunfish. 225225225 Identification of Ehrlichia muris subsp. Eauclarensis in prairie dependent rodents of northern Illinois Nicole Silvers*, Nicholas Monkemeyer, Sean Beckmann
In the United States, incidences of tick-borne illnesses continue to rise. These include both established and emerging diseases. One emerging pathogen, Ehrlichia muris (EM) was first identified in four human patients in 2009 in Wisconsin and Minnesota, with over 50 subsequent diagnoses. Since the initial diagnoses, studies of the presence and prevalence of EM in deer, rodents, and ticks have shown mixed results. In 2010, a study found infection rates of 1.2 and 1.6% in Peromyscus leucopus from Minnesota and Wisconsin respectively, but none in deer. Other studies identified EM in ticks collected from this area as early as 1992. Currently, little information exists about the presence of the disease among rodents in tall grass prairies. In the summer of 2017, 276 prairie rodents were sampled in Boone County, Illinois and tested for EM via PCR of three loci using EM specific primers. Four species of rodents were sampled: Ictidomys tridecemlineatus, Microtus ochrogaster, Microtus pennsylvanicus , and Zapus hudsonius . The pathogen was present in all four species with infection rates ranging from 0 and 4%. This suggests the potential for infection in non- Peromyscine hosts. The ability of the pathogen to be transmitted to ticks from these hosts has not been assessed. 226226226 Integrating ecological modeling and computer programming into a biology course taken by future teachers Jennifer Slate*, Jerry Santos, Uzma Ain, Estefania Figueroa
Modeling is increasingly used to explore complex ecological systems, analyze large datasets, and test predictions. Students traditionally study established ecological models, such as the cycling of predators and prey. However, they may not have the opportunity to build, modify, or test models. We thus developed a computer simulation that allows students to model the spread of a mosquito- borne virus. In the simulation, people advance from susceptible to infected to recovered, and the proportion of the population in each stage is tracked over time. Students can vary the total number of people, the percentage initially infected, the number of days they remain infectious, and the chance of contact with mosquitoes. Students also modify the computer code to add ecological factors that can impact the spread of a vector-borne disease, such as mosquito life span. We introduced this modeling exercise into an introductory biology course taken by future elementary and middle school teachers. Survey results revealed that they increased their knowledge of and interest in using computers to solve problems. By gaining this modeling experience, they are now better prepared to train the next generation of potential scientists.
227227227 CascadeCascade----fueledfueled epidemepidemics:ics: Predators spread infectious diseasedisease by enhancienhancingng withinwithin----hosthost parasite production Maja Sljivar*, S. R. Hall
Predators may strongly suppress or spread epidemics, so it is important to understand when and how each outcome arises. For example, predators can directly suppress epidemics by culling prey populations and hence inhibiting density-dependent transmission of parasites. Then again, predators can also spread disease through indirect mechanisms which need to be evaluated to prevent major mistakes in disease control efforts (i.e., manipulation of predators). Using a freshwater plankton system, we evaluate a ‘cascade fueling’ hypothesis for disease spread by predators. In this hypothesis, predators fuel disease, despite depressing host density, because resource release (via trophic cascade) increases parasite production within hosts. Net effect of predation spreads infection despite the simultaneous culling of hosts, because parasite production responds sensitively to elevated resource density. First, we detect signatures of cascade fueling in multi-year field survey of Midwestern freshwater lakes. Then, we evaluate predictions of a simple mathematical model with a mesocosm experiment. In the experiment, we track host densities, resources, and infection prevalence under three levels of midge predation. Together, our combination of field data, mathematical model, and mesocosm experiment introduces a general mechanism by which predators increase parasite burden in wildlife populations through strong indirect effects on resources. 228228228 Identifying potential reservoirs of Borrelia burgdorferi in a northern Illinois prairie ecosystem Taggart Venegas*, Rhonda J. Freund, Sean M. Beckmann
The prevalence of Lyme disease has increased substantially over the past twenty years in the upper Midwest, particularly northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. While research indicates Peromyscus leucopus is the predominant reservoir of the etiologic agent—Borrelia burgdorferi — recent studies report B. burgdorferi in non-Peromyscine species as well as in habitats not commonly used by P. leucopus such as tallgrass prairies. However, minimal research has focused on identifying other potential small mammal reservoirs or examining infection rates among grassland dependent species. During the summer of 2017, four species of rodents were assessed at a prairie restoration in Boone County, Illinois: Ictidomys tridecemlineatus, Microtus ochrogaster, Microtus pennsylvanicus, and Zapus hudsonius . Tissue samples were screened for B. burgdorferi via PCR of the flagellin B gene using Borrelia specific primers. Each species tested positive for the presence of the spirochete, resulting in an overall infection rate of ~33%: 23.0% of I. tridecemlineatus , 41.8% of M. ochorogaster , 40.6% of M. pennsylvanicus , and 23.7% of Z. hudsonius . Data indicate that several species likely represent substantial reservoirs at this site; further monitoring and assessment of disease transmission is needed to validate these conclusions.
Professional Development Panel Sessions Saturday, April 7, 1:45 ––– 2:45 pm
Title: Engaging in Interdisciplinary & Collaborative Science Presenters: Dr. Todd Barkman (Western Michigan University Department of Biological Sciences) Dr. Sandy Marquart-Pyatt (Michigan State University Department of Sociology), Dr. Bonnie McGill (Kellogg Biological Station) Summary: Complex scientific questions require broad thinking from many angles and perspectives. Scientists in this panel will share their insights about how to partake in interdisciplinary science and communicate with scientists outside their field. Because broad science also requires thinking about global perspectives, panelists will also provide examples about how to engage in broad, collaborative, multi-institutional, and international research.
Title: Nonacademic Science Careers Presenters: Dr. Ryan Bixenmann (Michigan State University PhD Career Services), Dr. Stephen Denham (MPI Research), Kenneth Kettler (Kellogg Forest), Dr. Shu Kin So (Zoetis), Emily Wilke (Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy) Summary: So, you have a post-graduate degree in science—now what? During this panel, you will hear from professionals who have taken a wide variety of career paths and now work in business, industry, conservation, and public outreach. Panelists will discuss their career trajectories, the day-to-day responsibilities of their jobs, how to network and apply to positions, and more.
Title: Communicating Science Workshop Presenters: Sheril Kirschenbaum Summary: Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation—many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require scientific solutions, yet America is paying less and less attention to scientists. Ongoing political assaults on scientific integrity are on the rise as viral messaging campaigns on social media hamper critical thinking and threaten progress. Only by becoming better storytellers, we will be more effective and persuasive ambassadors for science. Visit Sheril’s website at http://www.sherilkirshenbaum.com/ .
Title: Getting Into & Succeeding in Graduate School Presenters: Lana Bolin, Andrew Dennhardt, Christopher Warneke, Meredith Zettlemoyer Summary: Come hear current graduate students in ecology and evolution speak about their experience (prior to and in graduate school), provide tips for selecting programs, graduate school applications, and interviews, and discuss how to hit the ground running once you get there. Come with your questions! This session is geared toward undergraduate students. Field Trips Sunday, April 8, 1:1:30303030 ––– 3:00 pm
KBS Research Tour Lead by: Kate Glanville & Heather Kittredge This guided tour showcases the research facilities of the KBS Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) program. This program aims to understand the ecology of Midwest cropping systems and agricultural landscapes, focusing on how to make agriculture more profitable and provide environmental benefits. Research areas include agronomy, microbial ecology, plant dynamics, insect dynamics, biogeochemistry, ecosystem services, and biofuels. Join current LTER researchers to learn about the LTER field sites (including agricultural landscapes, forests, and restored prairies), visit lab facilities, and stop by the Pasture Dairy Center.
Bird Sanctuary Lead by: Dr. Thomas Koffel Explore the bird sanctuary and trails around Wintergreen Lake with one of KBS’s residents. A variety of birds call the sanctuary home, and waterfowl, gamebirds, and raptors are on display all year round. This is a great place for birding, nature photography, or enjoying a walk.
Naturalist Tour Lead by: Christopher Warneke Explore the grounds of KBS, including the Succession Trail and Turkey Marsh, and learn about the natural history of the area, including some of the many plant and wildlife species found locally.
Kellogg Biological Station Grounds Map
An interactive map is available atatat http://conference.kbs.msu.edu/explore/interactivehttp://conference.kbs.msu.edu/explore/interactive---- map/ ...
A map of trails around KBS is available at http://www.kbs.msu.edu/wphttp://www.kbs.msu.edu/wp---- content/uploads/2015/03/TrailmapKBS_web.pdf .
Directions: KBS to Kalamazoo
KBS (3700 E Gull Lake Dr. Hickory Corners, 49060) to Arcadia Parking Ramp #4 (320 N Rose St. Kalamazoo,Kalamazoo, 49007) • Head southeast on Gull Lake Dr. • Continue onto E B Ave • Turn right onto N 40 th St. Drive 2.3 miles. • Turn right onto M-89 W. Drive 4.1 miles. • Continue onto E D Ave (Richland) • Turn left (road curves) onto M-43 W/Gull Road. Drive 7.9 miles. • Turn left onto Riverview Dr. (Follow signs for downtown.) Drive 0.4 miles. • Continue onto E Michigan Ave. (road curves right). Drive 0.3 miles. • Continue onto E Kalamazoo Ave. In 0.5 miles, the parking ramp will be on the left.
Arcadia Parking Ramp #4 is pay parking. Meters in the downtown Kalamazoo area are free weekdays after 5pm and on weekends.
Downtown Kalamazoo Map & Parking
Arcadia Parking Ramp #4 and the Kalamazoo Mall Parking Ramp are pay parking ($1.75 for first hour; $1 per 30 min thereafter). Meters in the downtown Kalamazoo area are free weekdays after 5pm and on weekends.
Source: http://www.discoverkalamazoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fs65-1401740066-49247.pdf
Things to Do in Kalamazoo • Restaurants o Bell’s Eccentric Café o Central City Tap House o Old Peninsula Brewpub & Restaurant o Crow’s Nest o Bangkok Flavor o Old Burdick’s Bar and Grill o Food Dance o Mangia Mangia o Saffron o Zooroona o Bimbo’s Pizza o Kitchen House (near KBS) o The Dock (near KBS) o Dandelion Café (near KBS, lunch only) o Ned’s • Breweries o Bell’s Eccentric Café o Old Dog Tavern o Gonzo’s BiggDogg Brewing o Kalamazoo Beer Exchange o HopCat o Arcadia Brewing Company o Shakespeare’s Pub • Hiking o Bird Sanctuary o Kellogg Forest o Chipman Preserve o Pierce Cedar Creek o Kalamazoo Nature Center o Fort Custer o Kal-Haven Trail o Bishop’s Bog / West Lake Nature Preserve o Yankee Springs Recreation Area o Al Sabo Land Preserve • Other o Gilmore Car Museum o Air Zoo o Binder Park Zoo o Kalamazoo Institute of Arts o KBS Pasture Dairy Center
WK Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Code of Conduct
KBS is committed to a safe and supportive environment that is free from all forms of discrimination, harassment, and assault.
The KBS community includes faculty, staff, students, researchers, program participants, and conference center guests who work, live, visit and often socialize with one another. This close-knit atmosphere makes KBS a unique and special place, but also comes with responsibility. EVERYONE at KBS will be held to the following standards.
Expected Behavior:
-You will treat all persons with respect and consideration, value a diversity of opinions so as to develop a relationship of mutual respect, and recognize how your actions impact and reflect upon the entire KBS community.
-You will be conscious of the safety and well-being of every person and will intervene when a situation threatens a person’s health or safety.
-You will be considerate and respectful of all areas and events at KBS, including those not open to or accessible to the public (private events, research areas, the research dock, etc.).
-If you become involved with a person under your supervision, or over whom you have a perceived position of authority/power (e.g., faculty/professional staff & undergraduate), the relationship must be reported to the KBS Director’s Office. See MSU’s Conflict of Interest in Education/Employment for details: https://tinyurl.com/msuregs1
Unacceptable Behavior:
-Behavior that endangers the health or safety of oneself or others.
-Harassment, assault, intimidation, or discrimination prohibited by MSU’s Anti-Discrimination Policy, which includes discriminatory or harassing comments related to race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, weight, height, age, relation, and nationality. See MSU’s ADP for details: https://oie.msu.edu/policies/adp.html .
-Unsolicited, unwelcome, or nonconsensual physical or sexual contact; sexual harassment; or sexual misconduct. See MSU’s Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM) Policy for details: https://oie.msu.edu/policies/rvsm.html .
-Use or distribution of illegal drugs, consumption of alcohol by persons under the legal drinking age, and irresponsible use of alcohol by those over the legal drinking age (e.g., supplying alcohol to underage persons, binge drinking, etc.).
-Irresponsible use/damage of KBS property and equipment through gross disregard for property, safety and research integrity, above and beyond normal accidental incidences.
-Unprofessional or inappropriate conduct, including engaging in aggressive, hostile, or threatening behavior. See MSU’s Rules Governing Personal Conduct of Employees and Student Regulations for additional details: https://tinyurl.com/msu-employee and https://tinyurl.com/msu-student .
In conjunction with the above, all Michigan State University policies and procedures apply to every person working, staying, living, or recreating at KBS.
Any transgression related to the above unacceptable behaviors may be grounds for : initiation of discplinary actionaction, or termination of employment; dismissal/removal from KBS wit no refund ; and if applicable, forfeiture of any stipend, fellowship, scholarship, or award administered by KBS.
Below is information for you to keep regarding how to report emergencies, discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct, relationship violence, and stalking: