Relationship between instream habitat characteristics, emergent insects, and riparian bird communities

Streams and riparian areas can be intricately connected via physical and biotic interactions that influence habitat conditions and supply resource subsidies between these ecosystems. Streambed characteristics such as the size of substrate particles influence the composition and the abundance of emergent aquatic insects, which can be an important resource for riparian breeding birds. We predict fine sediment abundance in small headwater streams directly affects the composition and number of emergent insects while it may indirectly affect riparian bird assemblages. Streams with abundant fine sediments that embed larger substrates should have lower emergence of large insects such as phemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera. Streams with lower emergent insect abundance are predicted to support fewer breeding birds and may lack certain bird species that specialize on aquatic insects. This study examined relationships between streambed characteristics, and emergent insects (composition, abundance and biomass), and riparian breeding birds (abundance and richness) along headwater streams of the Otter River Watershed. The stream bed habitats of seven stream reaches were characterized using longitudinal surveys. Malaise traps were deployed to sample emergent aquatic insects. Riparian breeding birds were surveyed using fixed-radius point-counts. Streams differed within a wide range of fine sediment abundances. Total emergent aquatic insect abundance increased as coverage by instream substrates increased in diameter, while bird community was unresponsive to insect or stream features. Knowledge of stream and riparian relationships is important for understanding of food webs in these ecosystems, and it is useful for riparian forest conservation and improving land-use management to reduce sediment pollution in these systems.

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF GENOMIC RESOURCES FOR TWO NORTH AMERICAN HARDWOOD TAXA

Hardwoods comprise about half of the biomass of forestlands in North America and present many uses including economic, ecological and aesthetic functions. Forest trees rely on the genetic variation within tree populations to overcome the many biotic, abiotic, anthropogenic factors which are further worsened by climate change, that threaten their continued survival and functionality. To harness these inherent genetic variations of tree populations, informed knowledge of the genomic resources and techniques, which are currently lacking or very limited, are imperative for forest managers. The current study therefore aimed to develop genomic microsatellite markers for the leguminous tree species, honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos L. and test their applicability in assessing genetic variation, estimation of gene flow patterns and identification of a full-sib mapping population. We also aimed to test the usefulness of already developed nuclear and gene-based microsatellite markers in delineation of species and taxonomic relationships between four of the taxonomically difficult Section Lobatae species (Quercus coccinea, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. rubra and Q. velutina. We recorded 100% amplification of G. triacanthos genomic microsatellites developed using Illumina sequencing techniques in a panel of seven unrelated individuals with 14 of these showing high polymorphism and reproducibility. When characterized in 36 natural population samples, we recorded 20 alleles per locus with no indication for null alleles at 13 of the 14 microsatellites. This is the first report of genomic microsatellites for this species. Honey locust trees occur in fragmented populations of abandoned farmlands and pastures and is described as essentially dioecious. Pollen dispersal if the main source of gene flow within and between populations with the ability to offset the effects of random genetic drift. Factors known to influence gene include fragmentation and degree of isolation, which make the patterns gene flow in fragmented populations of honey locust a necessity for their sustainable management. In this follow-up study, we used a subset of nine of the 14 developed gSSRs to estimate gene flow and identify a full-sib mapping population in two isolated fragments of honey locust. Our analyses indicated that the majority of the seedlings (65-100% - at both strict and relaxed assignment thresholds) were sired by pollen from outside the two fragment populations. Only one selfing event was recorded confirming the functional dioeciousness of honey locust and that the seed parents are almost completely outcrossed. From the Butternut Valley, TN population, pollen donor genotypes were reconstructed and used in paternity assignment analyses to identify a relatively large full-sib family comprised of 149 individuals, proving the usefulness of isolated forest fragments in identification of full-sib families. In the Ames Plantation stand, contemporary pollen dispersal followed a fat-tailed exponential-power distribution, an indication of effective gene flow. Our estimate of δ was 4,282.28 m, suggesting that insect pollinators of honey locust disperse pollen over very long distances. The high proportion of pollen influx into our sampled population implies that our fragment population forms part of a large effectively reproducing population. The high tendency of oak species to hybridize while still maintaining their species identity make it difficult to resolve their taxonomic relationships. Oaks of the section Lobatae are famous in this regard and remain unresolved at both morphological and genetic markers. We applied 28 microsatellite markers including outlier loci with potential roles in reproductive isolation and adaptive divergence between species to natural populations of four known interfertile red oaks, Q. coccinea, Q. ellpsoidalis, Q. rubra and Q. velutina. To better resolve the taxonomic relationships in this difficult clade, we assigned individual samples to species, identified hybrids and introgressive forms and reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among the four species after exclusion of genetically intermediate individuals. Genetic assignment analyses identified four distinct species clusters, with Q. rubra most differentiated from the three other species, but also with a comparatively large number of misclassified individuals (7.14%), hybrids (7.14%) and introgressive forms (18.83%) between Q. ellipsoidalis and Q. velutina. After the exclusion of genetically intermediate individuals, Q. ellipsoidalis grouped as sister species to the largely parapatric Q. coccinea with high bootstrap support (91 %). Genetically intermediate forms in a mixed species stand were located proximate to both potential parental species, which supports recent hybridization of Q. velutina with both Q. ellipsoidalis and Q. rubra. Analyses of genome-wide patterns of interspecific differentiation can provide a better understanding of speciation processes and taxonomic relationships in this taxonomically difficult group of red oak species.

THE FANNED FLAMES OF DISCONTENT: A SOLIDARITY-INSPIRED HISTORY OF THE IDENTITY/IDEOLOGY, CULTURAL HISTORY, AND RHETORICAL STRATEGIES OF THE WOBBLIES DURING THE 1916 MINNESOTA IRON ORE STRIKE

Rooted in critical scholarship this dissertation is an interdisciplinary study, which contends that having a history is a basic human right. Advocating a newly conceived and termed, Solidarity-inspired History framework/practice perspective, the dissertation argues for and then delivers a restorative voice to working-class historical actors during the 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike. Utilizing an interdisciplinary methodological framework the dissertation combines research methods from the Humanities and the Social Sciences to form a working-class history that is a corrective to standardized studies of labor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Oftentimes class interests and power relationships determine the dominant perspectives or voices established in history and disregard people and organizations that run counter to, or in the face of, customary or traditional American themes of patriotism, the Protestant work ethic, adherence to capitalist dogma, or United States exceptionalism. This dissertation counteracts these traditional narratives with a unique, perhaps even revolutionary, examination of the 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike. The intention of this dissertation's critical perspective is to poke, prod, and prompt academics, historians, and the general public to rethink, and then think again, about the place of those who have been dislocated from or altogether forgotten, misplaced, or underrepresented in the historical record. Thus, the purpose of the dissertation is to give voice to historical actors in the dismembered past. Historical actors who have run counter to traditional American narratives often have their body of "evidence" disjointed or completely dislocated from the story of our nation. This type of disremembering creates an artificial recollection of our collective past, which de-articulates past struggles from contemporary groups seeking solidarity and social justice in the present. Class-conscious actors, immigrants, women, the GLBTQ community, and people of color have the right to be remembered on their own terms using primary sources and resources they produced. Therefore, similar to the Wobblies industrial union and its rank-and-file, this dissertation seeks to fan the flames of discontented historical memory by offering a working-class perspective of the 1916 Strike that seeks to interpret the actions, events, people, and places of the strike anew, thus restoring the voices of these marginalized historical actors.