Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of New Orleans, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3226955. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3559.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: B, page: 2737. Adviser: Patrick J. Weatherhead. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: B, page: 7081. Adviser: Patrick J. Weatherhead. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2008. / Adviser: David Cundall.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3291282. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-12, Section: B, page: 7770. Adviser: Lee A. Fuiman.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [123]-139).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6162. Adviser: George O. Batzli. Includes bibliographical references. Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6167. Adviser: Patrick J. Weatherhead. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-104) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> Marine ecosystems are one of the world&rsquo;s most heavily used and valuable natural systems. However, over the past decades, they have seen changes in the oceans&rsquo; pH, temperature, salinity, and other abiotic factors - all of which appear to have impacted the health of these systems, and there seems to be a global trend indicating that diseases in marine environments are emerging at an increased rate. Infection by a disease can result in a variety of negative effects on the health of a host, all of which are especially relevant in instances where commercially important hosts are infected. Disease can lead to changes in growth, longevity, reproduction, embryo survival, and marketability of a host. One ecologically and commercially important species that appears to have been impacted by this trend of increased disease emergence is the Caribbean spiny lobster, <i>Panulirus argus</i>. <i> Panulirus argus</i> plays host to a number of previously described and newly emergent pathogens. However, here, a new species of nemertean worm belonging to the genus <i>Carcinonemertes</i> is described from egg masses of <i>P. argus</i> from the Florida Keys, Florida, USA. Though <i> P. argus</i> ranges throughout the Caribbean, this worm has thus far only been observed infecting gravid female lobsters in the Florida Keys. This is the first species of <i>Carcinonemertes</i> reported to infect <i>P. argus</i> or any other lobster species in the greater Caribbean and western Atlantic Ocean. To determine the host use, infection prevalence, and infection intensity of this new parasite on <i>P. argus </i>, male, non-gravid female, and gravid female lobsters were captured along the Florida Key reef tract from and examined for infection. Furthermore, infected gravid females were also used in estimating the impact that infection by this nemertean had on three levels of reproductive performance (reproductive output, fecundity, and brood mortality).</p><p>

Global change is expected to accelerate extinction rates substantially. Accurately predicting species responses to future climate and land use changes and the conservation effectiveness of protected areas are critical. Here, I test whether species distribution models can predict how species' ranges shift through time and if protected areas are more robust to recent global change impacts than areas lacking formal protection. Purely spatial species distribution models are able to predict how species' distributions have changed over the 20th century for many species. However, because this predictive ability was not strongly related to biological or sampling characteristics considered here, there is no a priori way to determine which species' models will accurately predict range shifts through time. Protected areas rarely performed differently than randomly selected, unprotected areas in terms of species richness change and species composition change over the past century. Conservation strategies should focus on improving landscape connectivity to facilitate species' geographical responses to future global changes and should account for uncertainty in predictions of those responses.