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Description
Testosterone (T) is a steroid hormone that affects behavior and reproductive traits (e.g. spermatogenesis and ornamentation) in vertebrates. In addition to long-term influences, T can rapidly increase in males following aggressive male-male encounters. Less is known how females directly influence male T and behavior, though research with humans suggests that sexually attractive females elicit a greater increase in male T and reproductive behavior than unattractive females. In birds, the influence of female attractiveness on male T and behavior is currently untested. We hypothesized that T and courtship behavior in male zebra finches would correlate with female attractiveness. We used red leg bands to make females "attractive" and green bands to make them "unattractive" (unbanded females were controls) as previous research suggests that zebra finches prefer red colors over green in mating contexts. We collected blood from males before and after "speed-dating" trials to measure changes in plasma T and analyzed male courtship behaviors from trial video recordings. The likelihood of plasma T increasing after a trial was significantly greater in males who were with red-banded females compared to control females, suggesting males may find them more attractive than green or control females. Additionally, independent of band color, males who exhibited greater T differences initiated courtship sooner and spent more time closest to females. However, courtship initiation and time spent near females were not correlated with band color. Overall, our results suggest that female attractiveness can influence male reproductive physiology, but the presence of a female may trigger male courtship behavior.
ContributorsBero-Buell, Brianna Danielle (Author) / McGraw, Kevin (Thesis director) / Deviche, Pierre (Committee member) / Ligon, Russell (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The following Student Sustainability Consultant's Portfolio was created with the intention of being duplicated and utilized by Arizona State University (ASU) students to build their own Portfolio and to help prepare them for success after graduation. Student Consultants in GreenLight Solutions (GLS) are in a unique position to prepare themselves to create value for organizations while in school, and then continue to after graduation. When I enrolled in the School of Sustainability as an undergraduate transfer student I heard some constructive criticism from graduates of the school. Those students shared that while they had attained a great theoretical understanding of the science of sustainability, they lacked the ability to apply their knowledge in a practical way. They were struggling with finding work in their field because they could not communicate to employers how their knowledge was useful. They did not know how to apply their sustainability knowledge to create value for an organization. I did not want to have that same problem when I graduated. Enter GreenLight Solutions.
ContributorsKeleher, Kevin Robert (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Basile, George (Committee member) / Buch, Rajesh (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Historically, the study of cognition has focused on species-specific learning, memory, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities, and emphasis was placed on the few high-performing individuals who successfully completed cognitive tasks. Studies often deemed the success of a small fraction of individuals as suggestive of the cognitive capacity of the entire species. Recently though, interest in individual variation in cognitive ability within species has increased. This interest has emerged concomitantly with studies of variation in animal personalities (i.e. behavioral syndromes). Cognitive ability may be closely tied to personality because the mechanisms by which an individual perceives and uses environmental input (cognition) should influence how that individual consistently responds to various ecological demands (personality). However, empirical support for links between animal cognition and behavioral syndromes is currently lacking. I examined individual variation in cognition and personality in male veiled chameleons, Chamaeleo calyptratus. I considered three axes of personality (aggression, activity, and exploratory behavior) and cognition in a foraging context using visual cues − specifically, the ability to associate a color with a food reward. I found that aggression was positively correlated with the proportion of correct choices and number of consecutive correct choices. Also, one measure of exploration (the number of vines touched in a novel environment) was correlated negatively with the proportion of correct choices and positively with the number of consecutive incorrect decisions. My investigation suggests that more aggressive, less exploratory chameleons were more successful learners, and that there exists a shared pathway between these personality traits and cognitive ability.
ContributorsBruemmer, Sarah Adele (Author) / McGraw, Kevin (Thesis director) / Rutowski, Ronald (Committee member) / Ligon, Russell (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
My project is an examination of the process ASU Tempe campus took to institute an organics collection program. Working from a sustainability science perspective I demonstrate the structural and logistical barriers faced during program creation and expansion. My examination lead to the creation of a manual designed as a tool for other organizations in which I document ASU's process and provide information on key steps and procedures necessary to implement a unique organics collection program.
ContributorsSchumacher, Katherine Marie (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Brundiers, Katja (Committee member) / Levine, Alana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Urbanization exposes wildlife to many unfamiliar environmental conditions, including the presence of novel structures and food sources. Adapting to or thriving within such anthropogenic modifications may involve cognitive skills, whereby animals come to solve novel problems while navigating, foraging, etc. The increased presence of humans in urban areas is an additional environmental challenge that may potentially impact cognitive performance in wildlife. To date, there has been little experimental investigation into how human disturbance affects problem solving in animals from urban and rural areas. Urban animals may show superior cognitive performance in the face of human disturbance, due to familiarity with benign human presence, or rural animals may show greater cognitive performance in response to the heightened stress of unfamiliar human presence. Here, I studied the relationship between human disturbance, urbanization, and the ability to solve a novel foraging problem in wild-caught juvenile house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus). This songbird is a successful urban dweller and native to the deserts of the southwestern United States. In captivity, finches captured from both urban and rural populations were presented with a novel foraging task (sliding a lid covering their typical food dish) and then exposed to regular periods of high or low human disturbance over several weeks before they were again presented with the task. I found that rural birds exposed to frequent human disturbance showed reduced task performance compared to human-disturbed urban finches. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that acclimation to human presence protects urban birds from reduced cognition, unlike rural birds. Some behaviors related to solving the problem (e.g. pecking at and eying the dish) also differed between urban and rural finches, possibly indicating that urban birds were less neophobic and more exploratory than rural ones. However, these results were unclear. Overall, these findings suggest that urbanization and acclimation to human presence can strongly predict avian response to novelty and cognitive challenges.
ContributorsCook, Meghan Olivia (Author) / McGraw, Kevin (Thesis director) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Committee member) / Weaver, Melinda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This research paper assesses the effectiveness of a remote garden-based learning curriculum in teaching elementary students’ basic systems thinking concepts. Five remote lessons were designed, covering different garden topics, and in order to integrate systems thinking concepts, the Systems Thinking Hierarchical Model was used. This model includes eight emergent characteristics of systems thinking necessary for developing systems thinking competency. Five students were given the remote garden-based learning lessons. Student work was evaluated for systems thinking understanding and student outcomes were compared to anticipated learning outcomes. Results suggest that elementary students are able to understand basic systems thinking concepts because student work met anticipated outcomes for four systems thinking characteristics and exceeded anticipated outcomes for one characteristic. These results are significant because they further confirm that elementary-aged students do have the ability to understand systems thinking and they contribute to a growing movement to integrate sustainability education into elementary curriculum.
ContributorsDussault, Ashley (Author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Schoon, Michael (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
In this synthesis, we hope to accomplish two things: 1) reflect on how the analysis of the new archaeological cases presented in this special feature adds to previous case studies by revisiting a set of propositions reported in a 2006 special feature, and 2) reflect on four main ideas that are more specific to the archaeological cases: i) societal choices are influenced by robustness–vulnerability trade-offs, ii) there is interplay between robustness–vulnerability trade-offs and robustness–performance trade-offs, iii) societies often get locked in to particular strategies, and iv) multiple positive feedbacks escalate the perceived cost of societal change. We then discuss whether these lock-in traps can be prevented or whether the risks associated with them can be mitigated. We conclude by highlighting how these long-term historical studies can help us to understand current society, societal practices, and the nexus between ecology and society.
ContributorsSchoon, Michael (Author) / Fabricius, Christo (Author) / Anderies, John (Author) / Nelson, Margaret (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2011
Description
Rock Doves (Columba livia), also known as pigeons, are a common sight to city dwellers around the world. Often overlooked as urban pests, these birds have intriguing iridescent coloration on their necks that has been the subject of few studies. Previous studies have documented the multimodal reflectance spectra of the iridescence and the keratin cortex microstructures responsible for those properties, but do not address questions about the biological context of this coloration. In this study, I explore the factors that affect how this directional signal might appear to intended receivers (assumed to be females). Pigeon neck feathers were obtained from captive-raised birds and measured for reflectance values at numerous angles in the hemisphere above the feather to obtain a directional reflectance distribution. Each feather was mounted individually, and measurements were taken at a consistent location on the feather using a spectrophotometer; the collector was positioned directly above the feather, while we moved the light source in both azimuth and elevation on a Carden arm to simulate changes in pigeon movements during courtship. Depending on the elevation and azimuth of the light source, pigeon neck feathers shift in appearance from green to purple, with an accompanying shift in the location and intensity of reflectance peaks. Additionally, this unique coloration is due to multiple reflectance peaks in the avian vision field between 300 and 700nm. These data coupled with qualitative behavioral observations of Rock Dove courtship inform our understanding of how the color signal is displayed and how it appears to a potential mate; as a female observes the movements in a male courtship display, properties of the iridescence utilize multiple viewing angles to create a dynamic color array.
ContributorsFankhauser, Kaci Lynn (Author) / Rutowski, Ronald (Thesis director) / McGraw, Kevin (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to compare ecolabeling to conservation easements for facilitating multi-use land between food production and conservation. Biodiversity has been on the decline as human agriculture uses more land. According to Encyclopedia Britannica “Half of the world’s habitable land (some 51 million square km [19.7 million square miles]) has been converted to agriculture, and some 77 percent of agricultural land (some 40 million square km [15.4 million square miles]) is used for grazing by cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock. This massive conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other terrestrial ecosystems has produced a 60 percent decline (on average) in the number of vertebrates worldwide since 1970”(Rafferty 2010). The purpose of this paper is to explore ways individual landowners and private businesses can continue to operate profitably on their land while reversing the harmful loss to biodiversity observed in the past 50 years. Two of the most popular methods of achieving conservation on workable land are ecolabeling and conservation easements.
ContributorsWilcox, Christopher James (Author) / Leonard, Brian (Thesis director) / Schoon, Michael (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
“Tell It to the Frogs: Fukushima’s nuclear disaster and its impact on the Japanese Tree Frog” is a representation of the work from Giraudeau et. al’s “Carotenoid distribution in wild Japanese tree frogs (Hyla japonica) exposed to ionizing radiation in Fukushima.” This paper looked to see if carotenoid levels in the tree frog’s vocal sac, liver, and blood were affected by radiation from Fukushima’s power plant explosion. Without carotenoids, the pigment that gives the frogs their orange color on their necks, their courtship practices would be impacted and would not be as able to show off their fitness to potential mates. The artwork inspired by this research displayed the tree frog’s degradation over time due to radiation, starting with normal life and ending with their death and open on the table. The sculptures also pinpoint where the carotenoids were being measured with a brilliant orange glaze. Through ceramic hand building, the artist created larger than life frogs in hopes to elicit curiosity about them and their plight. While the paper did not conclude any changes in the frog’s physiology after 18 months of exposure, there are still questions that are left unanswered. Why did these frogs not have any reaction? Could there be any effects after more time has passed? Is radiation leakage as big of a problem as previously thought? The only way to get the answers to these questions is to be aware of these amphibians, the circumstances that led them to be involved, and continued research on them and radiation.
ContributorsWesterfield, Savannah (Author) / Beiner, Susan (Thesis director) / McGraw, Kevin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05