ScholarWolf
Welcome to ScholarWolf, the institutional repository for the University of Nevada, Reno. Managed by the University Libraries, ScholarWolf is an open access database and the home of scholarly works by University members, including the electronic theses and dissertations of our graduate students, journal articles, conference presentations, and more.
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Item Item Numu (Northern Paiute) Place Names: Retention and Reclamation of Place Name Knowledge in Kooyooe Pa'a Panunadu (Pyramid Lake, Nevada)(2024)This research examines how place name knowledge has been passed down generationally within the ancestral homelands of the Kooyooe Tukadu (Cui-ui Eaters) from Kooyooe Pa'a Panundu (Pyramid Lake, Nevada) and how this knowledge contributes to the retention and reclamation of Numu place names. As a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, I have an inherent connection to my homelands and this research is designed to uplift Numu (Northern Paiute) place names and narratives. The foundation of this research is framed within Indigenous methodologies and as a critique of settler-colonial imposed place naming processes, with its direct role in the erasure of Numu communities. As a speaker of the Kooyooe Tukadu dialect, I document current and past language revitalization efforts and emphasize the fluidity and adaptability of Numu yadooa (Northern Paiute language). From a decolonial lens, I examine the history of mapping and how settler land theft led to the violent application of settler place names within Kooyooe Pa'a Panunadu. Despite settler domination, Numu communities continue to communicate place names and the knowledge attached to them, both orally and in written form. This continues a cultural tradition that extends at least as far back as the Numu map created by Captain Dave Numana in 1885. In efforts to document place name retention, knowledge keepers from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe share their knowledge and stories of Numu place names, Numu connection to the land, and their hopes for retaining Numu identity for future generations. In conclusion, Numu place name knowledge systems are actively being reclaimed on the individual and community level and can further expand by returning names to the land, increasing Numu-centered mapping approaches, and speaking Numu yadooa in our ancestral homelands.Item The Preferences of Trade Unions in the United Kingdom's 2016 Brexit Referendum: An Evolving Actor(2024)The Brexit referendum in June 2016 marked a pivotal moment for the United Kingdom when citizens voted in favor of leaving the European Union (EU). While existing literature has extensively analyzed individual voting behaviors and the influence of political parties, notably absent is an examination of the role played by trade unions in shaping the Brexit outcome. This study addresses this gap by exploring the involvement of trade unions in the Brexit referendum. Contrary to existing theories of political economy, which often simplify trade unions' positions on trade policy based solely on economic indicators such as factor endowments and skill levels, this study reveals that contemporary trade unions consider a broader spectrum of economic, political, and social issues. Issues of sovereignty are particularly important, as elite interviews and social media analysis point out in this study. Unlike the conventional understanding of trade unions as singular entities representing specific industries or geographic regions, today's trade unions encompass diverse memberships, spanning multiple industries and geographical areas, while also advocating for social and political concerns alongside economic interests. By shedding light on the varying perspectives and influences of trade unions in the Brexit referendum, this study not only expands the understanding of trade unions' roles in shaping trade policy but also updates the scope of their membership, concerns, and influence within contemporary socio-political landscapes.Item Item Ant-plant Mutualism as a Driver of Caterpillar Community Abundance, Diversity, and Specialization(2024)Understanding how species assemble into diverse communities—and why some communities are more diverse than others—is a central goal of ecology. Much of this complexity is likely due to the interplay among species interactions, environmental resources, and community traits at different scales, ranging from individuals to landscapes. Over the past few decades, ecologists have begun to realize the importance of mutualistic interactions as drivers of diversity. This dissertation investigates how mutualism responds to resource availability, and how and when such responses lead to changes in the diversity and composition of the communities in which mutualisms are embedded. Specifically, we examined variation in ant-plant protection mutualism strength across multiple scales and the consequences for the abundance and diversity of ant-plant herbivore communities. Ant-plant protection mutualisms, in which plants host colonies of ants that defend plants from herbivory, are an ideal system in which to examine the effects of mutualism on community assembly. In tropical regions, ant-plants sustain a diverse community of caterpillar herbivores, which allowed us to test how ant defense affects caterpillar community diversity, specialization, and species traits. By experimentally manipulating ant presence on ant-plants, we were able to separately examine the direct effects of resource availability on caterpillar community assembly and the indirect effects of resource availability that operate through ant-plant mutualisms. In Chapter 1, I examine ontogenetic variation in an ant-plant mutualism. Young ant-plants often lack ant colonies, potentially due to constraints imposed by size and corresponding resource pools. We examined whether juvenile ant-plants have alternative defense strategies prior to ant occupation. We surveyed juvenile ant-plants of the genus Cecropia across a variable landscape in northwest Costa Rica, measuring ant colonization rates, defensive leaf traits, spider visitation, and caterpillar herbivory. Our results suggest that smaller, uncolonized juvenile Cecropia are resource-constrained and are generally unable to invest in alternative defenses. Spider abundance was high on ant-uncolonized trees, yet spiders did not reduce herbivory. In contrast, tree size, light, and soil fertility increased leaf defensive phenolic compounds, which were effective at reducing herbivory. This chapter suggests that defense strategies in young Cecropia do not trade off, but instead juvenile trees invest more in all defense strategies and in growth when resources are high. In Chapter 2, I investigate whether ant-plant interactions can promote the diversity and specialization of herbivore communities in a seasonally dry tropical forest in Mexico. We used a factorial, common-garden experiment with the ant-plant Cordia alliodora to test how ant defense and water addition affected the diversity and specialization of caterpillar communities. We found that although ant defense reduced caterpillar abundance and diversity at the scale of individual trees, ant defense increased caterpillar community diversity at the scale of forest plots. The presence of ant defense increased caterpillar community evenness and the abundance of dietary-specialist caterpillar species. Because caterpillar species appeared to have different levels of tolerance to ants, and ant defensive activity varied strongly among the ant-defended trees, our results suggest that variation in ant defense at the scale of individual trees allows for niche partitioning among caterpillar species. Finally, in Chapter 3, I examine whether the effects of ant defense on caterpillar community diversity that we observed in Chapter 2 are altered by the size and component traits of caterpillar species pools. We established two common garden experiments with Cecropia in two distinct forests, a seasonally dry forest and a rainforest in Costa Rica. Experimental trees had ants either excluded or introduced. We found that, similar to our results in Chapter 2, in the seasonally dry forest, ants increased caterpillar community diversity and evenness at the scale of forest plots. However, ants did not affect the diversity of caterpillar communities in the rainforest. Ant defense was equally effective at reducing caterpillar densities in both forest plots, but the caterpillar species pool was larger and more even in the rainforest than in the dry forest. Ant defense primarily increased the evenness of caterpillar communities by reducing the most abundant, gregarious caterpillar species, which represented a smaller proportion of the rainforest species pool. This study suggests that regional-level species pool characteristics can determine the impact of species interactions on community assembly. This dissertation provides evidence that mutualism shapes community assembly. Moreover, these results suggest that mutualism is an essential driver of biodiversity. This dissertation is also a testament to the value of field experiments and the careful consideration of scale in multitrophic interactions.
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