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Browsing Graduate School by Issue Date "2016-10-18T16:13:06Z"

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    Characterization of injuries and health of injured loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in coastal waters of the southeastern U.S.
    (2014-08-21) Alderson, Jesse Elizabeth; Owens, David Wm.; Arendt, Michael D.; Segars, Al; Strand, Allan
    This study utilized a standardized characterization system to describe injuries observed on loggerhead sea turtles captured by the SCDNR in-water sea turtle study between 2000 and 2009. At least one injury was noted among 27.4% (n = 433 of 1,579) of collected loggerheads. Injury rates were higher in adults than in sub-adults and juveniles, but were comparable between males and females. Loggerheads collected from shipping channels had higher injury rates than those captured elsewhere from comparable distances from shore. Observed injuries were not evenly distributed on the body, with the carapace exhibiting the highest proportion of injury (40.4%). Types of injuries were not evenly distributed, with amputations comprising 50.9% of all injuries. Significantly more injuries were healed (87.2%) relative to other injury ages, and a significant proportion of injuries could not be attributed to any source (85.1%). These finding collectively suggest that sub-lethal injuries are common among free-swimming loggerheads, with the highest proportion of injuries affecting the posterior carapace; however, the predominantly healed state of injuries suggests low annual infliction rates and a high resiliency to injuries among loggerheads. Analysis of several blood parameters in injured and non-injured loggerheads suggested that injuries had no detectable long-term effect on health; however, corticosterone analyses suggested that the injury healing process may affect the physiological stress response. Concentrations of circulating corticosterone were significantly different between loggerheads with healing injuries and their controls. Additionally, initial corticosterone concentrations were significantly higher in loggerheads with partially healed relative to healed injures, and the corticosterone response to capture stress was suppressed in loggerheads with partially healed injuries relative to loggerheads with healed, fresh, and stingray injuries.
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    Foraging habitat selection and nesting success of wood storks in South Carolina
    (2014-08-21) Tomlinson, Bree Anne; Murphy, Thomas; Hughes, Melissa; Owens, David
    This study was conducted to increase knowledge of foraging habitat selection and nesting success of Wood Storks nesting in South Carolina during the 2008 season. Results from this study were intended to aid the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in the recovery, protection, and management of the species. During the foraging habitat selection survey, Wood Storks from the coastal colonies of Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, Pon Pon Lakes, and White Hall II were found to forage primarily at forested and nonforested habitats with a mean travel distance of 10.25 km. Wood Storks from these three colonies foraged along their associated river drainage and primarily in separate foraging regions, by colony. I monitored nesting success during 2008 for the three focal colonies from the foraging study, with the addition of the Dungannon Heritage Preserve colony. Nest monitoring from the four South Carolina colonies documented an overall success rate near two young per successful nest, which is above the standard set by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in the Wood Stork Recovery Plan of 1997.
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    Hail Columbia! Happy land!: Southerners in Europe and American nationalism, 1830-1860
    (2014-08-18) Smith, Miles, IV; Advisor; Gleeson, David; Gigova-Ganaway, Irina; Speelman, Jennifer
    This thesis examines the opinions of seven southerners who visited Europe between 1830 and 1860. Europe was experiencing the great nationalist upheavals of the nineteenth century, and these seven southerners (five men, two women) recorded their own thoughts and opinions about Europe. At the end of the same period, the United States was dividing along sectional lines. This work explores whether there really was a southern nationalism, an idea proposed to explain the southern states’ motivation for secession. Using the diaries, journals, and letters of the seven studied here, it is clear that they viewed themselves as Americans first and foremost. When these southern men and women were exposed to the aspirations of oppressed nationalities in Europe, they were sympathetic but they did not see any commonality between the oppressed minorities and the South. They were not reminded of a southern need for liberty. Instead, they gloried in their freedoms they had as Americans. As late as 1859, a South Carolina Methodist minister visiting Europe extolled his American nationality by writing "Hail Columbia! Happy land!" in contrast to the unhappy and divided "Old World."