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Ecological and Life History Factors Influence Habitat and Tool Use in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops sp.)
(Georgetown University, 2012)
While it has long been known that individual animals behave quite distinctively from other conspecifics, only recently has this intraspecific behavioral variation itself been the subject of investigation rather than a ...
The Population and Ecological Genetic Effects of Habitat Fragmentation
(Georgetown University, 2017)
Maintaining intraspecific variation is important for populations’ long-term success and is increasingly being recognized as an important conservation goal. Populations in anthropogenically fragmented habitats may lose ...
Exploring Variation in Learning Ability in Pieris rapae, the Cabbage White Butterfly
(Georgetown University, 2013)
Learning abilities allow animals to modify their behaviors based on experience; such plasticity provides an adaptive mechanism for responding to environmental unpredictability. As with any heritable trait subject to natural ...
Social factors affecting female behavior, ecology, and fitness in wild bottlenose dolphins
(Georgetown University, 2016)
In humans and non-human animals alike, the social environment presents context-dependent costs and benefits. Some species face extreme pressures resulting from divergent fitness traits among the sexes, leading to pronounced ...
Molecular basis of photoperiodic diapause in the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus
(Georgetown University, 2016)
My dissertation examines the molecular basis of photoperiodic diapause in the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, using high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies. Photoperiodic diapause is a developmental arrest in ...
Interactions Between Social Structure, Contact Networks, and Infectious Disease Spread in Wildlife Populations
(Georgetown University, 2017)
Socially complex species that live in large groups are traditionally considered to have elevated risks of disease transmission. Beyond group size, it is being increasingly recognized that the dynamics of infection spread ...
No Longer Forgotten: Pupation as a Critical Link in the Lepidopteran Life Cycle
(Georgetown University, 2021)
Holometabolous insects, those that undergo complete metamorphosis, owe their tremendous evolutionary success in large part to an efficient division of labor between a larval phase that focuses on feeding, and an adult phase ...
Lifetime Stability, Maternal Effects, and Fitness Outcomes of Socio-Ecological Strategies in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins
(Georgetown University, 2021)
Individuals within a population differ in behavior along both social and ecological axes. These differences are proposed to be governed by niche theory at the individual level, but empirical evidence is sparse, especially ...
Molecular Mechanisms and Rapid Adaptation of Photoperiodic Diapause in the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus
(Georgetown University, 2019)
Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to respond to environmental variation over space and time by altering their physiology, morphology, development, and/or behavior. A fundamental aim of biology is to elucidate the ...
No Longer Forgotten: Pupation as a Critical Link in the Lepidopteran Life Cycle
(Georgetown University, 2021)
Holometabolous insects, those that undergo complete metamorphosis, owe their tremendous evolutionary success in large part to an efficient division of labor between a larval phase that focuses on feeding, and an adult phase ...