• From Genetics to Behavior, the Dynamics and Mechanisms of Adult Neurogenesis in a Sensorimotor Circuit 

  Larson, Tracy Alison

  The most defining attribute of the nervous system is that it shows extensive plasticity of structure and function that allows animals to adjust their behavior, physiology, and morphology to changes in their environment. ...
• Conserving primates in Colombian bamboo forest fragments: logging and landscape impacts on Red Howler Monkeys 

  Gomez Posada, Maria Carolina

  Increasingly, conservation of tropical forest-dwelling species depends on maintaining their populations in human-dominated landscapes. Often, extensive deforestation has left only fragmented forests that are subject to ...
• Restoration of native plant communities: an examination of seed limitation and microsite limitation in the Garry oak ecosystem. 

  Reagan, Karen

  The Garry oak ecosystem is one of the most highly degraded ecosystems in North America due to fragmentation, development, and conversion to incompatible uses, with less than three percent of the ecosystem dominated by ...
• Changes in molecular integrity of chloroplast DNA and mitochondrial DNA in maize 

  Kumar, Rachana Ajay

  Genome copy number is typically two for the nucleus in diploid plants and animals, regardless of developmental or environmental changes, and nuclear DNA is stable. For genomes in mitochondria and chloroplasts, I report ...
• Auxin-induced degradation dynamics and plant development 

  Guseman, Jessica Marie

  Development requires cells to send and receive information, often in the form of small molecules or peptides. An emerging theme in biology is that information can be encoded in the dynamics of signaling, not just in the ...
• Evolution of the rbcS gene family in Solanaceae: concerted evolution and gain and loss of introns, with a description of new statistical guidelines for determining the number of unique gene copies. 

  Miller, Ryan Jarek

  Concerted evolution is a pattern of gene evolution resulting from mechanisms that homogenize gene copies within a lineage. Two mechanisms have been identified that may homogenize <italic>rbcS</italic> copies within Solanaceae. ...
• Floral volatiles in Mimulus: chemical ecology, insect olfaction, genetics, and reproductive isolation 

  Byers, Kelsey Jaye Ruth Paularena

  Floral diversity is immense, with more than 250,000 species of angiosperms known. The number of phylogenetically diverse floral species that share common characteristics implies a background pattern of selection acting on ...
• Climate change impacts on the distribution and performance of plant species at Mount Rainier 

  Ford, Kevin Robert

  Ongoing anthropogenic climate change has profound implications for species, communities and ecosystems around the world. Yet climate is only one of many important drivers in ecological systems, with topography, soils, ...
• Cellular interactions during zebrafish adult stripe formation and implications for pigment pattern evolution 

  Patterson, Larissa Blythe (2014-04-30)

  Pigment patterns are among the most striking of traits, yet we know very little about the interactions required for organizing pigment cells during adult pattern formation or how evolutionary changes in pigment cell ...
• Ecological determinants of rockweed performance: interactions among herbivores, epiphytes and tides 

  Hart, Sarah Alexandra (2014-04-30)

  Ecology seeks to understand how biotic and abiotic factors influence species distribution and abundance in order to make predictions about the outcome of interactions between species and their environment. The rocky ...
• Embryonic xanthophore fate in the zebrafish, Danio rerio 

  McCann, Anna Elizabeth (2014-04-30)

  Pigment patterns are one of the most diverse and visually appealing traits of any animal, playing important behavioral and ecological roles in mate choice, shoaling and predator avoidance. In the zebrafish, <italic>Danio ...
• Enhancing Evolution: When Spatial Structure and Environmental Change Improve Adaptation 

  Nahum, Joshua Richard (2014-02-24)

  Evolution by natural selection is the primary creative force in biology. In order for populations to thrive, or even survive, requires a continual generative process. An understand of the process of natural selection, its ...
• Boundaries and dynamics of biomes 

  Vilhena, Daril Alexandre (2014-02-24)

  Species are packed into biogeographic zones, where evolution can effectively operate independently to forge evolutionary novelty. Biomes are perhaps the most relevant unit of evolutionary progress, with the vast majority ...
• From Cells to Canopies: Reconstructing Vegetation Structure and its Response to Climate Change in the Middle Cenozoic of Patagonia Using Phytolith Morphology 

  Dunn, Regan Elizabeth (2014-02-24)

  Reconstructing ancient ecosystems to answer outstanding questions in paleoecology requires a multidisciplinary approach. This dissertation research integrates geochronology and conventional phytolith analysis, with a new ...
• Exclusion, Amelioration, Tolerance: An investigation of the physiological basis for tolerance in serpentine Mimulus guttatus 

  Palm, Emily (2014-02-24)

  As sessile organisms, plants must cope with a variety of abiotic stress factors, including the mineral composition of soil. In serpentine soils, the low calcium-to-magnesium ratio has been shown to limit the growth and ...
• Testing the Limits: Understanding How Climate and Competition Affect Species' Ranges in a Warming World 

  Ettinger, Ailene Kane (2013-11-14)

  What factors determine where species occur, known as their geographic range limits? This classic ecological question has fascinated scientists for centuries, and is even more relevant today, in the face of anthropogenic ...
• Physiological and behavioral responses to temperature and flow in the barnacle Balanus glandula Darwin (1854) 

  Nishizaki, Michael (2013-11-14)

  Given the scale and pace of anthropogenic change in marine environments, it is important to understand the manner in which organisms respond to environmental uncertainty. For many aquatic species, fundamental processes ...
• Plants, pollinators and global change: the effects of invasion and flowering phenology on plant-pollinator interactions 

  Waters, Susan M. (2013-11-14)

  Global environmental change is currently happening more rapidly than at any time known in Earth's previous history. The impacts of rapid biotic and abiotic change will affect multiple species interactions, including ...
• How the chili got its spice: Ecological and evolutionary interactions between fungal fruit pathogens and wild chilies 

  Machnicki, Noelle J. (2013-11-14)

  Most species depend on other species for survival and reproduction, thus coevolution - reciprocal evolutionary change between species - arguably plays a dominant role in the origin and organization of biodiversity. We used ...
• The Paleobiology of South African Therocephalian Therapsids (Amniota, Synapsida) and the Effects of the End-Permian Extinction on Size, Growth, and Bone Microstructure 

  Huttenlocker, Adam Keith (2013-11-14)

  Despite their relative diversity in terrestrial Permian and Triassic rocks, the fossil record of therocephalian therapsids (Eutheriodontia) and their utility for understanding evolutionary patterns in the therapsid forerunners ...

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