Journal of Undergraduate Research

JanaLynn Franke and Dr. Brad Geary, College of Life Sciences, Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Background Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is one of the leading causes of premature wildfires in the Great Basin and is almost always the establishing species following a fire. Fire has historically been an important part of the Great Basin ecosystem […]

Heather Finch and Dr. Phil Allen, Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Invasive species such as Bromus tectorum, commonly known as cheatgrass, occupy over 40 million hectares of land within the interior portion of the United States. The naturally occurring pathogen Pyrenophora semeniperda has been discovered to kill the seeds of this invasive species. We […]

J. J. Joyal, L. D. Hansen, D. R. Coons, G. M. Booth, B. N. Smith and D. D. Mill Introduction Evolutionary fitness [1, 2] and physical activity [3] are related to the metabolic activity of organisms. The metabolic rate of an organism may be measured as the rates of CO2 or heat production, or of […]

Alison Swindle and Dr. Michael F. Whiting, Zoology Fleas are laterally compressed, wingless insects with small helmet shaped heads, and mouthparts specialized for feeding on the blood of their hosts. These morphological specializations make it possible for fleas to be entirely ectoparasitic, but they also make it difficult to find distinguishing characters on which to […]

Matthew D. Robbins and Dr. Mikel R. Stevens, Agronomy and Horticulture Fusarium crown and root rot, or “crown rot”, is a disease caused by the fungus Fusarium Oxysporum f.sp. radicis-lycopersici (FORL) and infects 36 different species of plants of at least four families.1 Crown rot was first detected in the cultivated tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) […]

Alisa Paulsen and Dr. Daniel Fairbanks, Botany and Range Sciences In the Western United States, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum, introduced from Eurasia) is often considered to be an undesirable, invasive weed. When cheatgrass is introduced into an area, it can rapidly establish itself as the dominant species, inhibiting reestablishment of native plants, competing with important grain […]

J. Jacob Parnell and Dr. Richard E. Terry In the 1930’s, O. Arrhenius was contracted by a Swedish sugar beet company to test soil fertility levels for fertilizer applications. While testing a specific area, he realized a peculiar occurrence associated with phosphorus levels and an area of ancient habitation. Since that time, other studies have […]

Laura F. Newell and Dr. Randy L. Bennett, Zoology Recently, considerable emphasis has been placed on the similarity, or homology, of genes in different organisms. By comparing gene sequences, one can see that a large proportion of genes in a fly, for example, has unequivocal homologues in vertebrates, and vice versa. Homologies have been found […]

Ryan D. McAllister and Dr. David Kooyman, Animal Science Threonine is one of the 20 common amino acids found in nature. It is a limiting factor for the growth of many non-ruminant animals such as swine and mice and must be obtained from their diet. When threonine is absent from the diet of these animals, […]

Taylor Maxwell and Dr. Duke Rogers, Zoology Mexico is classified as a “megadiversity” country, which means that it has more species of plants and animals than the vast majority of other countries in the world. For example, there are ca. 4,750 species of mammals known to science, and more than one of every seven can […]