Biology

Excerpt from article: One important boreal tree species, the tamarack, Larix larcina (Du Roi), is the primary host plant of the Columbia silk moth, Hyalophora columbia columbia (S.I. Smith, 1865)(Saturniidae: Saturniinae).  Ferguson (1972) and Tuskes et al. (1996) speculated that this species should be present in northern New York but no specimens exist in the New York State Museum (T. McCabe, personal communication).  Three H. columbia specimens in the United States National Museum have collection dates of 1865 and are labeled ‘New York’ (Ferguson 1972).  There is one specimen of Hyalophora columbia columbia at the American Museum of Natural History dated 20 June 1892 from New Windsor, NY.  Here I report photo-documented sightings of H. columbia from New York along with results from placement of virgin females at field sites in 2012-2014.

The purpose of this research was to examine whether the sonar calls of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) differ based on geographic location of summer roosting colonies and to look for recognition of these call dialects by bats.  All bats used in the study were from 2 separate geographic locations within Chautauqua County, NY: SUNY Fredonia campus and Chautauqua Institution.  I first selected sonar calls of crawling bats from the database and analyzed their characteristics to look for evidence of geographic variation (dialect) among calls.  To greatly minimize the influence of call situation on variation, I only selected calls from bats recorded at the same location.  I chose individual calls from each of 16 adult bats (8 from each location) and performed logistic regression on PCs to determine if significant differences existed between calls at the two locations.  A second round of logistic regressions with specific variables that loaded most heavily (>0.8) on significant PCs was then carried out to determine which variables best explained the geographic variation in calls.  The analyses indicated several variables predicted geographic location of a call; frequency, time, and shape variables all had significant results.  DFA was also performed with the significant variables and was partially successful, classifying 87.5% of calls to their correct location without cross-validation.  To look for recognition of call dialect among bats, I captured adult subjects for use in playback experiments. Calls from the database were used to create 60-second call sequences consisting of 10 looped calls from a single bat.  I then matched the sequences by sex and paired them so that each test subject was played one sequence from each location along with a pre-playback and post-playback segment. The subjects’ responses were recorded including latency to first call and call rate and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to determine if there is evidence of call recognition based on geographic location.  The results suggest that call dialects exist at the 2 locations studied, but that bats do not pay attention to these differences in dialect.

Collembola of the Hypogastruridae family are common in New York State.  These Springtails are often found in large swarms on ice and snow during the winter months.  Genetic analysis can help to increase understanding about genetic variation, gene flow, dispersal, and spatial population structure of Collembola and other organisms.  I wanted to perform a genetic study of Hypogastrurid snow fleas and examine the genetic variability within their populations, drawing conclusions about the genetic relationships among individuals.  The first step in this process is to determine if DNA can be extracted from individual snow fleas and what the best method is for genetic analysis.  Springtails were collected from areas of upstate New York and two types of primers, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and insect-specific mtDNA primers, were used to amplify the DNA of individual snow fleas.  The results of amplification with RAPD primers proved to be too variable to produce any conclusions about genetic relationships among the snow fleas.  Instead, the mitochondrial DNA amplified using the insect-specific primers was sequenced and the results were used in analysis.  MtDNA from the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was successfully amplified and sequenced from two individual snow fleas. The resulting sequence was compared to existing sequence data in the NCBI online database and the sequences between the two individuals were compared to draw conclusions about their genetic relationships.  From the results it was determined that there was a high degree of variability between the two snow fleas in the COI gene and it was concluded that successful identification of Springtail species using this type of DNA barcoding would be quite difficult.  Further study is needed to determine whether the variability was present within the snow flea populations or if some unknown procedural error was the major cause.

Citizen science has grown rapidly in popularity in recent years due to its potential to educate and engage the public while providing a means to address a myriad of scientific questions. However, the rise in popularity of citizen science has also been accompanied by concerns about the quality of data emerging from citizen science research projects. We assessed data quality in the online citizen scientist platform Chimp&See, which hosts camera trap videos of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other species across Equatorial Africa. In particular, we compared detection and identification of individual chimpanzees by citizen scientists with that of experts with years of experience studying those chimpanzees. We found that citizen scientists typically detected the same number of individual chimpanzees as experts, but assigned far fewer identifications (IDs) to those individuals. Those IDs assigned, however, were nearly always in agreement with the IDs provided by experts. We applied the data sets of citizen scientists and experts by constructing social networks from each. We found that both social networks were relatively robust and shared a similar structure, as well as having positively correlated individual network positions. Our findings demonstrate that, although citizen scientists produced a smaller data set based on fewer confirmed IDs, the data strongly reflect expert classifications and can be used for meaningful assessments of group structure and dynamics. This approach expands opportunities for social research and conservation monitoring in great apes and many other individually identifiable species.

New sediment core data from a unique slow-sedimentation rate site in Lake Tanganyika contain a much longer and continuous record of limnological response to climate change than have been previously observed in equatorial regions of central Africa. The new core site was first located through an extensive seismic reflection survey over the Kavala Island Ridge (KIR), a sedimented basement high that separates the Kigoma and Kalemie Basins in Lake Tanganyika. Proxy analyses of paleoclimate response carried out on core T97-52V include paleomagnetic and index properties, TOC and isotopic analyses of organic carbon, and diatom and biogenic silica analyses. A robust age model based on 11 radiocarbon (AMS) dates indicates a linear, continuous sedimentation rate nearly an order of magnitude slower here compared to other core sites around the lake. This age model indicates continuous sedimentation over the past 79 k yr, and a basal age in excess of 100 k yr. The results of the proxy analyses for the past ∼ 20 k yr are comparable to previous studies focused on that interval in Lake Tanganyika, and show that the lake was about 350 m lower than present at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Repetitive peaks in TOC and corresponding drops in δ13C over the past 79 k yr indicate periods of high productivity and mixing above the T97-52V core site, probably due to cooler and perhaps windier conditions. From ∼ 80 through ∼ 58 k yr the δ13C values are relatively negative (−26 to −28 l) suggesting predominance of algal contributions to bottom sediments at this site during this time. Following this interval there is a shift to higher values of δ13C, indicating a possible shift to C-4 pathway-dominated grassland-type vegetation in the catchment, and indicating cooler, dryer conditions from ∼ 55 k yr through the LGM. Two seismic sequence boundaries are observed at shallow stratigraphic levels in the seismic reflection data, and the upper boundary correlates to a major discontinuity near the base of T97-52V. We interpret these discontinuities to reflect major, prolonged drops in lake level below the core site (393 m), with the lower boundary correlating to marine oxygen isotope Stage 6. This suggests that the previous glacial period was considerably cooler and more arid in the equatorial tropics than was the last glacial period.

An association of high sunspot numbers with rises in the level of Lake Victoria, East Africa, has been the focus of many investigations and vigorous debate during the last century. In this paper, we show that peaks in the ~11-year sunspot cycle were accompanied by Victoria level maxima throughout the 20th century, due to the occurrence of positive rainfall anomalies ~1 year before solar maxima. Similar patterns also occurred in at least five other East African lakes, which indicates that these sunspot-rainfall relationships were broadly regional in scale. Although irradiance fluctuations associated with the sunspot cycle are weak, their effects on tropical rainfall could be amplified through interactions with sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation systems, including ENSO. If this Sun-rainfall relationship persists in the future, then sunspot cycles can be used for long-term prediction of precipitation anomalies and associated outbreaks of insect-borne disease in much of East Africa. In that case, unusually wet rainy seasons and Rift Valley Fever epidemics should occur a year or so before the next solar maximum, which is expected to occur in 2011-2012 AD.

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