The Piping Plover Problem: A Review of Management Issues for a Threatened Shorebird

Andrew Lydeard and Gerry Harris The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) was federally listed in 1986. Since listing, Piping Plovers have been a focus of conservation and management efforts, particularly on their breeding grounds in the Northern Great Plains, Great Lakes, and northern Atlantic Coast. Despite management efforts that have resulted in range-wide population growth of the Piping Plover, growth in individual populations is often slow and reasons for this are poorly understood. A bias towards understanding drivers of declines on breeding sites compared to wintering and migratory stopover sites may be an underlying cause of this lack of understanding. Conducting studies on primarily an organism’s breeding grounds has implications that may lead to costly, ineffective management practices with little to no benefits to species conservation. We analyzed the scientific literature on Piping Plover management by systematically reviewing nine ecological journals and searching for all articles published from 1986 – 2019 including the terms “Piping Plover” and “Charadrius melodus”. The proportion of studies on Piping Plovers within their breeding range drastically outnumber those studies completed on wintering and migratory stopover sites. These seasonal sampling biases could have negative implications for Piping Plover conservation, and we suggest that research on migratory stopovers and wintering grounds should be prioritized to help reverse local population declines. Keywords: Piping Plover; Charadrius melodus; Shorebird Management; Threatened Specie

Diversity/Adaptations of The Galapagos Land Snails (Bulimulus) on The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos Land Snails, scientific species name Bulimulus, are native to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. There is varying climates and geography throughout the islands and these snails evolved and adapted to these variances. On our experience abroad trip, the goal was to find our selected animal we researched and try to prove whatever hypothesis we found to be correct. I researched and found that depending on the island/area the snails where their cones were shaped different from each other although they were the same species they had variances. I had set out to see if this was accurately depicted on the islands we visited (Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San Cristobal)https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2025/1028/thumbnail.jp

Mapping replication dynamics in Trypanosoma brucei reveals a link with telomere transcription and antigenic variation

Survival of Trypanosoma brucei depends upon switches in its protective Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat by antigenic variation. VSG switching occurs by frequent homologous recombination, which is thought to require locus-specific initiation. Here, we show that a RecQ helicase, RECQ2, acts to repair DNA breaks, including in the telomeric site of VSG expression. Despite this, RECQ2 loss does not impair antigenic variation, but causes increased VSG switching by recombination, arguing against models for VSG switch initiation through direct generation of a DNA double strand break (DSB). Indeed, we show DSBs inefficiently direct recombination in the VSG expression site. By mapping genome replication dynamics, we reveal that the transcribed VSG expression site is the only telomeric site that is early replicating – a differential timing only seen in mammal-infective parasites. Specific association between VSG transcription and replication timing reveals a model for antigenic variation based on replication-derived DNA fragility

Beetle Diversity within Ecosystems; Insight of the Order Coleoptera in the Eastern Kentucky Region

Having a multitude of definitions, biodiversity can most commonly be seen as the variety and diversity of life within an ecosystem. Its relevance is crucial for species survival and resource availability; a lack of biodiversity sets an ecosystem up for failure, reducing its productivity, species richness, and increasing organismal vulnerability. Measuring biodiversity is crucial for the understanding of an ecosystem’s health, giving scientists knowledge of its stability, productivity, and persistence. This collected information can be implemented in various ways outside the scientific field as well, such as with policy decisions and legal regulations. Biodiversity is most commonly analyzed through quantitative assessment of mammal and bird species, but the relatively low numbers of species and few individuals in defined areas tend to cause flawed statistical results. Beetles, however, can be found in large numbers in just about all ecosystems. Having an immense diversity of species, they play significant roles in environments, filling ecological roles as herbivores, decomposers, predators, coprophages, fungivores, etc. As beetles are tremendously diverse and very abundant, quantitative assessments of their diversity are more statistically rigorous. We are sampling beetles from 3 sites located near Morehead, KY. Beetles were collected using pan traps and leaf litter sifting. Collected beetles were then pinned or pointed and sorted by family groups. The primary focus of the study was to determine the various beetle species and their quantitative presence within the multiple sampling sites.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2022/1013/thumbnail.jp

Preliminary Study On Beetle Biodiversity And Its Role As A Metric For Ecosystem Heterogeneity In The Rowan County Area

Biodiversity is important for maintaining ecosystem function, including the adaptation of the organisms to reflect the change in the ecological community. Many ecological roles are performed by insects, including keystone organisms, ecosystem engineers and soil modifiers, part of the food chain, general symbionts, and pollinators, and creating a cumulative database of the variety of insect types allows for an effective overview of the different aspects of the environment from which samples are collected. With approximately 400,000 described species, beetles are immensely diverse in their lifestyles and ecological roles, thus making them valuable tools in environmental assessments of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. It also means that they provide a robust set of data for metrics of biodiversity. This preliminary study focuses on ground beetles, which are important as bioindicators of habitat conditions and ecosystem heterogeneity, in Rowan County, Eastern Kentucky across three locations. Methods of quantitatively collecting samples include light traps, pitfall traps, leaf sifting, and pan traps. The primary method used in this study was leaf sifting and Berlese funnel, which is used to extract small insects and arthropods from leaf litter and other debris. Collected data are often analyzed using statistical analysis (ANOVA) that emphasizes the abundance of individuals, functional analysis that explores the diversity of different functional groups, or through various indices, including the Simpson and Shannon indices, that measure the richness and abundance of species.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2021/1032/thumbnail.jp

Beetle Diversity: A Comparison of the Biodiversity of Ecotone vs. Woods Surrounding Morehead State’s Eagle Lake

https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/student_scholarship_posters/1200/thumbnail.jp

Repeat expansion in the budding yeast ribosomal DNA can occur independently of the canonical homologous recombination machinery

Major eukaryotic genomic elements, including the ribosomal DNA (rDNA), are composed of repeated sequences with well-defined copy numbers that must be maintained by regulated recombination. Although mechanisms that instigate rDNA recombination have been identified, none are directional and they therefore cannot explain precise repeat number control. Here, we show that yeast lacking histone chaperone Asf1 undergo reproducible rDNA repeat expansions. These expansions do not require the replication fork blocking protein Fob1 and are therefore independent of known rDNA expansion mechanisms. We propose the existence of a regulated rDNA repeat gain pathway that becomes constitutively active in asf1Δ mutants. Cells lacking ASF1 accumulate rDNA repeats with high fidelity in a processive manner across multiple cell divisions. The mechanism of repeat gain is dependent on highly repetitive sequence but, surprisingly, is independent of the homologous recombination proteins Rad52, Rad51 and Rad59. The expansion mechanism is compromised by mutations that decrease the processivity of DNA replication, which leads to progressive loss of rDNA repeats. Our data suggest that a novel mode of break-induced replication occurs in repetitive DNA that is dependent on high homology but does not require the canonical homologous recombination machinery

Quantitative Sampling Of Ant Populations In Rowan County As A Measure Of Biodiversity In Rowan County Woodlands

Biodiversity is an important metric used for conservation efforts and ecological assessments. Biodiversity is defined as the measure of taxonomic diversity within an area. Several groups of organisms have been used as surrogates to assess overall biodiversity for an area, for example plants, mammals, birds, beetles, etc. Ants represent another surrogate taxon for assessing biodiversity because ants are found in many types of habitats, fulfill a variety of ecological roles, are diverse, and are numerous. Leaf-litter samples were collected from three wooded sites in Rowan County: Eagle Lake, Stoney Cove, and Rodburn Hollow between the months of August and October in both 2019 and 2020. Ants were extracted from the leaf-litter using Berlese funnels which are used to extract arthropods from soil. The ant specimens were organized, identified, counted, and labeled to analyze the biodiversity among the different ant habitats collected. A total of 6,225 ants, and 15 genera were collected across the samples. Additionally, there are several useful indices for ant alpha and beta diversity evaluation including, Shannon and Simpson indices. The Shannon index is used to find diversity of a species or genera within a certain environment. The Simpson index is used to find proportional abundance within a given area. Alpha diversity is the diversity at one site and beta diversity is the difference in diversities between sites. The values calculated from these indices can be used to assess ant biodiversity within Rowan County.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2021/1009/thumbnail.jp

Impact of Dreissena fouling on the physiological condition of native and invasive bivalves : interspecific and temporal variations

The impact of Dreissena fouling on unionids has hardly been studied in Europe, despite the fact that in some ecosystems (e.g. Lake Balaton, Hungary) infestations of several hundreds to a thousand individuals per unionid have been observed. At present, the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha is a dominant species in Lake Balaton and in the last decade three other invasive bivalves were introduced, potentially increasing the pressure on native unionid survival. We examined whether the fouling of dreissenids (zebra and quagga (D. rostriformis bugensis) mussels) has a negative impact on native (Anodonta anatina, Unio pictorum and U. tumidus) and invasive (Corbicula fluminea and Sinanodonta woodiana) bivalves and whether there are any interspecific and temporal variations in fouling intensity and physiological condition measured by standard condition index and glycogen content. A significant negative impact was detected on native unionids only in July and September (no impact was detected in May), when the fouling rate was high. For invasive species, a significant negative impact was detected on S. woodiana with a high level of dressenid infestation; whereas no significant impact was detected on C. fluminea. Overall, this study confirms that Dreissena may threaten unionid species including the invasive S. woodiana, although high interspecific and temporal variations were observed. This situation should be taken into account in future ecological and conservational assessments because species respond differently to Dreissena fouling and effects seem to be more pronounced in late summer/early autumn. In addition, this study provides the first evidence that the invasive C. fluminea appear to be less vulnerable to dressenid fouling.The study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Fund (KTIA-OTKA) under the contract No. CNK80140