Date of Award

2017

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Natural Resources Management

Department

Natural Resources Management

College

Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources

Faculty Advisor

Voldseth, Deirdre

Description

Increased disturbance from agriculture and the changing climate in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North Dakota may cause shifts in vegetation on wetland systems as well as increases in spider mite populations on soybeans. Part of this study focuses on wetlands functioning at the highest ecological state, or reference condition. Wetland plants serve as a good indicator for assessing wetland condition. The past and present Floristic Quality Index scores at each wetland site were significantly different (p < 0.05), indicating that vegetation at reference wetlands have declined in condition. Increased agriculture also leads to an increase in road dust on soybean fields, which increases the population of spider mites. Three separate experiments were completed on contained plaster arenas. These experiments produced mixed results. Spider mites produced more eggs on dusted arenas (p < 0.05) in experiment one while experiment two and three yielded the opposite result.

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0003-2788-6836

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28698

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