Boiga irregularis has caused the extinction of several native vertebrate species on the island of Guam. Information on movement is critical to the management of the species. B. irregularis is active at night and spends daylight hours in secluded refuges (from 10 m up in the forest canopy to 1 m underground). There appears to be no preferences for any particular refuge type. Nighttime movement (distance) was related to distances between daytime refugia. The average net movement ranged from 26.9-97.7 m/day (N = 11). The maximum distance moved from the first daytime location following release to subsequent locations ranged from 142.8-1809.4 m. The activity area (minimum convex polygon) ranged from 1.9-99 ha; the cumulative activity area periodically increased and did not reach an asymptote. Direction of snake movements were random. The data suggest that Boiga lacks a defined activity area, and moves randomly and continuously searching for resources.

After 6-10 years of mark-recapture observations, I studied seven desert tortoises by radio-telemetry during 1990-1992 in a desert-grassland community in Pinal County, Arizona. Six estimated home-range areas averaged 14.7 ha. Winter-spring (Nov-Jun) use areas (overline x=0.7 ha) were significantly smaller (P = 0.002) than summer-fall (Jul-Oct) use areas (overline x=10.7 ha). A correction formula inflated 1-2 summer-fall use areas of five tortoises 4-41% larger than their corrected home-range areas. Extended movements by females were significantly more frequent (P = 0.0001) than those of males during Mar-Jul, significantly less frequent (P = 0.0057) than males during Aug-Oct, and most frequent by both sexes in September. Use of two slopes and terraces was not season-dependent (P = 0.9159). Tortoises variably used four shelter types (rock, soil burrow, wood rat nest, vegetation), significantly with south-facing entrance aspects (P 0.0005). Hibernaculum structure and location varied. Hibernation ranged from 88-315 days. Radio-equipped tortoises included reuse of mark-recapture locations.

Geographic variation in life-history and reproductive traits is frequently assumed to reflect localized, genetically based adaptation to the environment. In this study, I examine variation in the reproductive characters of house wrens breeding at two elevations in Colorado during the 1985-1987 breeding seasons. Egg and nestling transplant experiments were performed in an attempt to discover the relative contributions of environmental and genetic factors to the observed variation between sites. / Wrens breeding at low (1100 m) and high (3000 m) elevations differ in a number of reproductive characters. Wrens breeding at the high-elevation site initiated egg laying later in the season, produced larger clutches containing bigger eggs, and incubated them longer than did wrens breeding at the low-elevation site. Nestling periods were also longer at high elevation. Reproductive success (number of chicks fledged/eggs laid) was 0.5 young higher at the high site. Chicks hatched from high-site eggs were larger than were low-site chicks. This size difference was maintained throughout the nestling period. / Patterns of within-population variation in traits differed between elevations. At the low site, fitness-related traits, such as clutch size and reproductive output, were strongly influenced by date of initiation. Reproductive success was greatest for early, above-modal-sized clutches. At the high site, hatching failures associated with above-modal-sized clutches significantly reduced reproductive output. There, modal-sized clutches initiated late in the season produced the most young. / In experiments in which eggs were transplanted between sites, incubation times shifted toward those of the foster population. Although nest environment influenced incubation period, transplanted eggs rarely hatched in synchrony with eggs originating in the foster nest. In nestling-transplant experiments, chicks reared at the high-elevation site showed greater weight gain and tarsus growth than did their sibs reared at the low elevation, but, genetically unrelated chicks reared together did not differ significantly in growth. Observed differences between natural populations in embryo and nestling development are, partly, attributable to the direct effect of environmental differences. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: B, page: 3444. / Major Professor: Frances Crews James. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Intraspecific variation in plumage was used to test the null hypotheses that geographic variation of 280 species of elevationally-restricted Andean forest birds is independent of elevation and is not a function of patchy geographic distribution. Both null hypotheses were rejected. / At most taxonomic levels, geographic variation in plumage is positively correlated with both the mean of its elevational distribution and the size of its geographic range. Vertical amplitude of elevational distribution is not a significant predictor of geographic variation in plumage. Independently of these elevational correlates, patchily distributed species show significantly more geographic variation than continuously distributed species. / These results show that geographic variation and presumably on-going speciation phenomena are greater at higher elevations. The decreased species richness at high elevations may be attributable to a higher rate of extinction from catastrophic disturbance as well as to ecological factors that limit sympatry in newly-formed species. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: B, page: 3275. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The ecological consequences of storage allocation was studied in the euryhaline topminnow Poecilia latipinna, the sailfin molly. In the first study, fish raised in the laboratories at different temperatures had the highest triacylglycerol levels in the liver and viscera. Liver and testis size were greater in fish from the cold rearing. These effects of juvenile history on tissue size were permanent. In the second study, phenotypic plasticity of tissue biomass and storage level was measured in fish reared under different environmental conditions. Liver-viscera mass was larger, but testis mass smaller in fish reared at 23$\sp\circ$C, and the opposite pattern occurred for fish reared at 29$\sp\circ$C. Triacylglycerol level and content were affected by a population by temperature interaction. Finally, whether differences in resource allocation produce differences in fitness was tested by coupling manipulations of resource allocation in the sailfin molly to field measurements of its fitness. In experiment 1, with a longer photoperiod, fish from the high food level grew the most, and larger fish grew less than smaller fish. Fish from the high food level had the highest storage level, fish from the low food level the least, and untreated fish had an intermediate level. Gonad mass was greatest for fish on the high food level. Food level and size class interacted to affect survivorship in the freshwater pond. Storage level decreased over the winter, and differences caused by the food treatment persisted. In experiment 2, with a shorter photoperiod, fish from the high food level grew the most, and the larger fish grew the least, but there was also an interaction between food level and size class. Fish on the high food level had a greater storage level than the low food level and untreated fish, which had the same storage levels. Fish on the high food level had / greater liver-viscera and soma masses than the low food level and the untreated fish. The acute mortality in the freshwater pond was not related to storage. Storage levels declined in all fish in the saltwater pond over the winter, but the storage differences caused by the food treatment persisted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: B, page: 6031. / Major Professor: Joseph Travis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

It is often proposed that the shape of animals evolves as a correlated response to selection on life history traits such as whole body growth and differentiation rates. This scenario is certainly true for shape variation that is an allometric consequence of body size variation, because body size is determined by growth and differentiation rates. However, we are aware of few examples in which development rate variation is correlated with body size-independent shape variation. In this study on the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea, we test whether that fraction of the variance in tibiofibula length and head width that is left after removing snout vent length as a covariate is correlated with either genetically or environmentally based variation in development rates. / Size-adjusted tibiofibula length and head width at metamorphosis are both positively genetically correlated with larval period length. Thus, relative limb and head proportions in adult treefrogs could evolve as a correlated response to selection on a larval life history trait. Neither larval growth rate nor juvenile growth rate is significantly genetically correlated with the morphological traits. The two size-adjusted morphological traits are strongly genetically correlated with each other, a situation which could either hinder or accelerate their joint evolution, depending on the directions of selection. / The growth rate of larvae raised under different food levels and temperatures had no effect on their size-adjusted head width or tibiofibula length at metamorphosis. The food-controlled rate at which small juveniles became large ones also had no influence on their shape. However, the head width versus snout vent length relationship among metamorphs has a shallower slope than the same relationship within growing juveniles. Thus, size at metamorphosis alone controls head width at a given larger body size. To our knowledge, we are the first to identify this difference in allometries as a potential source of size-independent shape variation in adult frogs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: B, page: 0106. / Major Professor: Joseph Travis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Satellite 2 is a 330 base pair repetitive element in the newt, Notophthalmus viridescens (Family: Salamandridae). This element is unusual in that tandemly repeated blocks of satellite 2 are dispersed throughout each of the newt's 11 chromosomes, and transcripts homologous to satellite 2 are present in all newt tissues that have been examined. A function for these transcripts has not yet been found, and it is possible that they are involved solely in the propagation and evolution of this unusual element. Other properties of satellite 2, including its ability to promote transcription and the ability of synthetic satellite 2 transcripts to catalyze their own site-specific cleavage, may also be involved in the mechanism of satellite 2 propagation. We have extensively studied these properties with the idea that a complete description of the molecular biology of satellite 2 will help elucidate its mode of evolution. To complement these studies, we initiated a phylogenetic analysis of satellite 2. Satellite 2 elements were cloned from representatives of three additional salamander families: Ambystoma talpoideum (Ambystomatidae), Amphiuma tridactylum (Amphiumidae), and Eurycea longicauda (Plethodontidae). Despite considerable divergence between the sequences of these elements, several regions are noticeably conserved. Some of the conserved regions correspond to portions of the transcriptional and self-cleavage domains, while others have not yet been assigned a function. The conservation of satellite 2 observed in these studies suggests that this element arose early during salamander evolution and that the nature of the progenitor of modern day satellite 2 can be inferred from the analysis of this element from a more diverse sample of salamander families. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: B, page: 4148. / Major Professor: Lloyd M. Epstein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Sheepshead minnows, Cyprinodon variegatus, an estuarine fish, is heavily parasitized in the bulbus arteriosus by the heterophyid trematode Ascocotyle pachycystis, in channels and sloughs throughout the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Florida. I conducted laboratory experiments to examine the morphological and physiological effects of parasites on these fish. Unparasitized and parasitized fish were compared for differences in ventricle weight, cardiac performance, swimming performance, and oxygen consumption. / Parasitized fish hearts were hypertrophied, had larger contractile forces and shorter contractile periodicity, and decreased bulbal expansion. Swimming performance was significantly reduced at cold temperatures and low dissolved oxygen levels. Oxygen consumption increased in parasitized fish whiled swimming times to exhaustion decreased. / Field experiments were conducted in St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge to determine seasonal variation in recruitment rates of A. pachycystis parasites into caged sheepshead minnows. Monthly fish collections were examined for intensities of infection and dispersion patterns. / Recruitment of parasites into caged fish is a warm-weather phenomenon, peaking in mid-summer and declining to zero over the winter. Susceptibility to infection is age-related. Mean intensities and prevalences are highest in the largest size classes; overdispersion is recruitment-induced, rather than mortality induced, except during the winter when it is specific to the oldest fish. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1190. / Major Professor: Joseph Travis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 35-08, Section: B, page: 3741. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1974.

<p> Habitat use by federally threatened California Red-Legged Frogs (CRLF; <i>Rana draytonii</i>) is incompletely understood. I captured, PIT-tagged, and radio-tracked CRLFs (n = 20) at Waddell Creek, Santa Cruz County, from July&ndash;December 2012. Limited tracking for movements was also conducted in 2013. Frogs were clumped in deep, complex habitats along the stream within 2 km of breeding ponds near the stream mouth, but most adults were concentrated in the lagoon. Marked and tracked frogs had very small summer home ranges, and most returned to the same home range after breeding. Frogs tended to use good aquatic (e.g., wood, undercut banks, dense willows) and bank cover (e.g., ground vegetation, wood) at all times but used open habitats more at night than during the day. Visual night surveys were biased against cryptic frogs compared to radio-tracking results. Early fall rains increased upland habitat use, but later heavy winter rains were needed to trigger migration to breeding sites and subsequent breeding. Site-specific studies using radio-tracking are needed to design protections for breeding, migration, and nonbreeding habitats.</p>