Habitat fragmentation can alter the conditions of natural plant populations, introducing novel selective pressures. The ability of a population to respond to environmental change can be inferred by assessing the population’s genetic diversity and the heritability of traits thought to be under selection.
Two experiments were conducted to assess the germination, growth, and survival of Cirsium pitcheri Torr. ex Eaton T & G in the Chicagoland region. The first experiment involved growing seeds from various native populations to determine tolerance for the current Chicagoland climate. The second experiment tested three of the populations...
Pollination is a reproductive necessity in the majority of the world’s flowering plants. Pollen limitation threatens plant reproduction, particularly in self-incompatible species. Although assessing pollen limitation usually requires pollen supplementation experiments, alternative methods support the findings of traditional pollen supplementation experiments.
Pollination is a reproductive necessity in the majority of the world’s flowering plants. Pollen limitation threatens plant reproduction, particularly in self-incompatible species. Although assessing pollen limitation usually requires pollen supplementation experiments, alternative methods support the findings of traditional pollen supplementation experiments.
Past efforts to reintroduce the native legume species Desmodium glutinosum and Lespedeza violacea into restored woodlands have not produced self-sustaining populations. Proposed factors preventing reintroduction include herbivory, persistent environmental effects of invasive shrubs, poor performance of commercial Rhizobium inoculants, and competitive displacement associated with elevated nitrogen availability. To address these...
Current ecological restoration efforts seek to restore a target community, maximize biodiversity or provide habitat for rare species. In practice, restoration ecology is often initiated and sustained without knowledge or reverence to the belowground ecosystem processes, though these processes often subtend the long-term sustainability of aboveground and belowground ecological communities.
The underutilized tropical fruit tree, “cempedak” (Artocarpus integer (Thunb.) Merr. , Moraceae), is a major crop in Malaysia but the distribution of genetic diversity in the crop and its putative wild progenitor, “bangkong” (Artocarpus integer var. silvestris Corner), have not been studied. To investigate the diversity and origins of cempedak,...
Autonomous Crack Monitoring (ACM) and Autonomous Crack Propagation Sensing (ACPS) are two types of structural health monitoring in which characteristics of cracks are recorded over long periods of time. ACM seeks to correlate changes in widths of cosmetic cracks in structures to nearby blasting or construction vibration activity for the...
This thesis summarized the qualification and testing of two commercial Autonomous Crack Monitoring (ACM) systems for use in measuring micrometer displacement of cracks. Qualification involved the assessment of both laboratory and field performance in a residential structure subjected to nearby quarry blasting for the production of roadway aggregate. Aggregate and...