Browsing EEB Faculty Publications by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 67
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Above and below ground impacts of terrestrial mammals and birds in a tropical forest
(2008)Understanding the impact of losing trophic diversity has global significance for managing ecosystems as well as important theoretical implications for community and ecosystem ecology. In several tropical forest ecosystems, habitat fragmentation has resulted in declines and local extinctions of mammalian and avian terrestrial insectivores. To ... -
Adaptation of Enterococcus faecalis to Daptomycin Reveals an Ordered Progression to Resistance
(2013)With increasing numbers of hospital-acquired antibiotic resistant infections each year and staggering health care costs, there is a clear need for new antimicrobial agents, as well as novel strategies to extend their clinical efficacy. While genomic studies have provided a wealth of information about the alleles associated with adaptation to antibiotics, ... -
Amino Acid Repeats Cause Extraordinary Coding Sequence Variation in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum
(2012-09)Protein sequences are normally the most conserved elements of genomes owing to purifying selection to maintain their functions. We document an extraordinary amount of within-species protein sequence variation in the model eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum stemming from triplet DNA repeats coding for long strings of single amino acids. D. discoideum ... -
Balancing anti-herbivore benefits and anti-pollinator costs of defensive mutualists
(2014)Quantifying costs and benefits of ostensibly mutualistic interactions is an important step toward understanding their evolutionary trajectories. In food-for-protection interactions between ants and extrafloral nectar (EFN)-bearing plants, tending by aggressive ants may deter herbivores, but it may also deter pollinators. The fitness costs of pollinator ... -
Biodiversity maintenance in food webs with regulatory environmental feedbacks
(2007)Although the food web is one of the most fundamental and oldest concepts in ecology, elucidating the strategies and structures by which natural communities of species persist remains a challenge to empirical and theoretical ecologists. We show that simple regulatory feedbacks between autotrophs and their environment when embedded within complex and ... -
Chinese Tallow Trees (Triadica sebifera) from the Invasive Range Outperform Those from the Native Range with an Active Soil Community or Phosphorus Fertilization
(2013)Two mechanisms that have been proposed to explain success of invasive plants are unusual biotic interactions, such as enemy release or enhanced mutualisms, and increased resource availability. However, while these mechanisms are usually considered separately, both may be involved in successful invasions. Biotic interactions may be positive or negative ... -
Climate warming increases biological control agent impact on a non-target species
(2015)Climate change may shift interactions of invasive plants, herbivorous insects and native plants, potentially affecting biological control efficacy and non-target effects on native species. Here, we show how climate warming affects impacts of a multivoltine introduced biocontrol beetle on the non-target native plant Alternanthera sessilis in China. ... -
Co-pollinators and specialization in the pollinating seed-consumer mutualism between senita cacti and senita moths
(2002)Specialization of a plant on a particular pollinator may not evolve if co-pollinators are effective and abundant. This is particularly evident if fruit set is resource limited and cannot be increased above the levels produced by the actions of co-pollinators. The pollinating seed-consuming interaction between senita cacti and senita moths in ... -
Computational approaches to species phylogeny inference and gene tree reconciliation
(2013)An intricate relationship exists between gene trees and species phylogenies, due to evolutionary processes that act on the genes within and across the branches of the species phylogeny. From an analytical perspective, gene trees serve as character states for inferring accurate species phylogenies, and species phylogenies serve as a backdrop against ... -
Confronting climate change in the Gulf region: prospects for sustaining our ecological heritage
(2001-10)From Texas to Florida, the Gulf coast region is rich with ecological resources that support the region’s economic wealth. Over time, human activities from dam construction to shoreline development have dramatically altered natural landscapes, waterways, and ecological processes. Pressures from human activities remain the most important agents of ... -
Consequences of sex-selective harvesting and harvest refuges in experimental meta-populations
(2013)Harvesting for food or sport is often non-random with respect to demographic state, such as size or life stage. The population- level consequences of such selective harvesting depend upon which states are harvested and how those states contribute to population dynamics. We focused on a form of selective harvesting that has not previously been ... -
Conspecific Plasticity and Invasion: Invasive Populations of Chinese Tallow (Triadica sebifera)ﾠHave Performance Advantage over Native Populations Only in Low Soil Salinity
(2013)Global climate change may increase biological invasions in part because invasive species may have greater phenotypic plasticity than native species. This may be especially important for abiotic stresses such as salt inundation related to increased hurricane activity or sea level rise. If invasive species indeed have greater plasticity, this may reflect ... -
Daptomycin Resistance in Enterococci Is Associated with Distinct Alterations of Cell Membrane Phospholipid Content
(2012)Background: The lipopeptide antibiotic, daptomycin (DAP) interacts with the bacterial cell membrane (CM). Development of DAP resistance during therapy in a clinical strain of Enterococcus faecalis was associated with mutations in genes encoding enzymes involved in cell envelope homeostasis and phospholipid metabolism. Here we characterized changes ... -
Daptomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecalis Diverts the Antibiotic Molecule from the Division Septum and Remodels Cell Membrane Phospholipids
(2013)Treatment of multidrug-resistant enterococci has become a challenging clinical problem in hospitals around the world due to the lack of reliable therapeutic options. Daptomycin (DAP), a cell membrane-targeting cationic antimicrobial lipopeptide, is the only antibiotic with in vitro bactericidal activity against vancomycin-resistant enterococci ... -
Decomposition of Phragmites australis litter retarded by invasive Solidago canadensis in mixtures: an antagonistic non-additive effect
(2014)Solidago canadensis is an aggressive invader in China. Solidago invasion success is partially attributed to allelopathic compounds release and more benefits fromAMfungi, which potentially makes the properties of Solidago litter different from co-occurring natives. These properties may comprehensively affect litter decomposition of co-occurring natives. ... -
Disturbance Driven Colony Fragmentation as a Driver of a Coral Disease Outbreak
(2013-02-20)In September of 2010, Brewer’s Bay reef, located in St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), was simultaneously affected by abnormally high temperatures and the passage of a hurricane that resulted in the mass bleaching and fragmentation of its coral community. An outbreak of a rapid tissue loss disease among coral colonies was associated with these ... -
The Effect of Diet and Opponent Size on Aggressive Interactions Involving Caribbean Crazy Ants (Nylanderia fulva)
(2013)Biotic interactions are often important in the establishment and spread of invasive species. In particular, competition between introduced and native species can strongly influence the distribution and spread of exotic species and in some cases competition among introduced species can be important. The Caribbean crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, was ... -
Effects of above-ground herbivory on soil microbial biomass in conventional and no-tillage agroecosystems
(1995)The effects of above-ground herbivory on soil microbial biomass associated with maize (Zea muys) roots were measured in field experiments. Different grazing intensities were established by placing grasshoppers (0, 5, 10 and 20) in cages around individual maize plants, and allowing them to graze for 5 days. Soil samples were taken 12 days later at ...
