Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

Persons who exhibit high rates of sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS), known as Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs), tend to be very sensitive both to negative environmental exposures, including adversity, trauma, or disaster, and to positive environmental exposures including relational care. Studies suggest as many as 20-30% of a population rates “highly sensitive.” Researchers have come to identify HSPs metaphorically as “orchids;” persons who rate moderately sensitive as “tulips;” and persons who rate minimally sensitive as “dandelions.” Thus, when a population is impacted by disaster, as many as 20-30% of the population (i.e., orchids) might either be at high risk for struggling with posttraumatic stress or exhibiting strong adaptability. This study used six scales – a brief parent style questionnaire (PSQ12), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), Context Sensitivity Index (CSI), Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) scale, Life Events Checklist (LEC) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL), and Brief Resiliency Coping scale (BRC) – to explore participants' responses following natural disasters and the extent to which SPS correlated with either high rates of post-traumatic stress or adaptability. Participants were invited to be surveyed through email, and respondents represented regions of South Santa Barbara County: Carpinteria (n=17), Montecito (n=16), and Santa Barbara (n=68). The income of participants ranged from less than $50,000 to over $250,000, with approximately 60% of participants identifying themselves as female, and approximately 60% of participants identifying themselves as White. About 10% of participants identified themselves as mixed-ethnicity, and the remaining 30% of participants identified themselves as Hispanic, Latino/a, and Asian. Results reveal both high rates of struggling with post-traumatic stress (M=24.75, SD=2.685) and adaptability to adversity (M=15.84, SD=2.638) among participants (N=101). This study found interpersonal supp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Betsy Bates Freed PsyD (Committee Chair); Oliver Williams PhD (Committee Member); Erika Felix PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Personality Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Horticulture and Crop Science

An intensive production system is used to produce greenhouse floriculture crops, marketed for their flowers and attractive foliage. Chemical, environmental, and cultural methods are used to manage biotic and abiotic stresses during production. Additional tools are needed by growers because of growing concerns around the negative impact of plant production on humans and the environment. The objective of this research was to evaluate potential tools to improve floriculture crop resilience under stress during production and post-production. Botrytis cinerea causes disease in most major greenhouse crops and is resistant to several fungicides. Additional control methods, like plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) that can improve plant performance by increasing plant resilience to stress are needed. A collection of 60 bacterial strains was evaluated in a dual culture assay and an initial greenhouse trial with Petunia × hybrida `Carpet Red Bright' to identify strains for the biocontrol of B. cinerea. Daily flower disease severity ratings were used to select seven strains that were evaluated in the validation greenhouse trial. Three Pseudomonas strains were selected for the greatest reduction in B. cinerea infection. The efficacy of PGPB and the plant's susceptibility to B. cinerea were affected by fertilization. Petunia × hybrida `Carpet Red Bright' was treated with bacteria or a commercial biocontrol product and fertilized with synthetic chemical or organic fertilizer at a low or high rate. Measured plant growth and flower disease severity revealed that plants with the high rate synthetic fertilizer were the largest and had the lowest disease severity. Reduction of disease severity varied between bacterial and fertilizer treatment combinations. Plants treated with one bacterium had reduced disease severity at the high rate synthetic chemical fertilizer but not at the low rate organic fertilizer. Specific fertility programs provide crops with needed macro and mi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michelle Jones (Advisor); David Francis (Committee Member); Francesca Hand (Committee Member); Pablo Jourdan (Committee Member); Matthew Kleinhenz (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Horticulture

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Art

This writing and research shares an edited form of the dialogue presented in The Unknown and the Unnamed, a performance held at Urban Arts Space in Columbus, Ohio. The Unknown and the Unnamed is a hybrid performance drawing from a range of forms including the educational lecture, the artist talk, family slideshow evenings, the memoir and the scientific research paper. How do we live in the world knowing we could address climate breakdown? How are bodies—non-human and human—impacted by a culture of progress, human industry and capitalist expansion? Centering around a local Australian native orchid collection—created by self-described recluse and amateur botanist Philip John Branwhite—I investigate the natureculture narratives of Australian native orchids, and their ecological, scientific and political entanglements. Weaving local and academic forms of knowledge—through voice, images, video and sound The Unknown and the Unnamed speaks to the interconnectedness of experience, the way human and non-human bodies make and unmake each other and the memory of place in a time of post-colonial settlement. Please note, this writing relies heavily on images which are not depicted in this thesis.

Committee: Gina Osterloh (Advisor); Ann Hamilton (Committee Member); Michael Mercil (Committee Member); Juno Salazar Parreñas (Committee Member) Subjects: Botany; Ecology; Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies; Evolution and Development

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology

Corallorhiza is a genus of obligately mycoheterotrophic (fungus-eating) orchids that presents a unique opportunity to study phylogeography, taxonomy, fungal host specificity, and photosynthesis gene evolution. The photosysnthesis gene rbcL was sequenced for nearly all members of the genus Corallorhiza; evidence for pseudogene formation was found in both the C. striata and C. maculata complexes, suggesting multiple independent transitions to complete heterotrophy. Corallorhiza may serve as an exemplary system in which to study the plastid genomic consequences of full mycoheterotrophy due to relaxed selection on photosynthetic apparatus. In an investigation of molecular and morphological variation in Corallorhiza striata—a species complex distributed from Mexico to Canada—four plastid DNA clades were identified, displaying statistically significant differences in floral morphology. The biogeography of the C. striata complex is more complicated than previously hypothesized, with two main lineages present in both Mexico and northern North America; this study adds to a growing body of data on organisms sharing this common distribution. To investigate fungal host specificity in the C. striata complex, we sequenced plastid DNA for orchids and nuclear DNA for fungi, and found four plastid clades that associate with divergent sets of ectomycorrhizal fungi; all within a single, variable species, Tomentella fuscocinerea. This is perhaps the most extensive investigation of specificity for any mycoheterotroph, and has conservation implications for these rare orchids. To address taxonomy, conservation, and phylogeography within the C. striata complex, I analyzed continuous floral characters, plastid DNA, and nuclear DNA for 155 individuals across North America. The main finding was that C. striata s.s., C. bentleyi, and C. involuta are separate species. Within the highly variable and widespread C. striata s.s., there are furthermore three evolutionarily distinct units, which are (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Freudenstein Ph.D (Advisor); John Wenzel PhD (Committee Member); Andrea Wolfe PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Botany; Ecology; Genetics; Geography

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2009, Botany

Some plant species have abandoned an autotrophic life style and obtain their carbon and mineral nutrition exclusively from mycorrhizal fungi. Although myco-heterotrophic species have evolved in many plant families, they are most common in the Orchidaceae. Several myco-heterotrophic orchid species have been shown to associate with a very narrow range of ectomycorrhizal forming fungi, revealing a high degree of mycorrhizal specificity. However, these studies have often investigated single or few, often unrelated, species without support for their monophyly or knowledge of their phylogenetic relationships. Using primarily molecular methods and phylogenetic analyses, this dissertation investigates i) the monophyly and circumscription of Hexalectris species, ii) interspecific phylogenetic relationships within Hexalectris, iii) the identities of the mycorrhizal fungi that associate with each Hexalectris species, iv) the breadth of mycorrhizal associations within Hexalectris and within each of its species, and v) uses a Hexalectris phylogeny as a framework for investigating mycorrhizal specificity and patterns of associations. The monophyly of H. warnockii, H. grandiflora, H. brevicaulis, and H. nitida, plus the H. spicata species complex, are well supported. The remaining species are not monophyletic, prompting the recircumscription of H. spicata s.l. as H. spicata and H. arizonica, H. revoluta s.l. as H. revoluta and H. colemanii, and H. fallax as a synonym of H. parviflora. Extreme specificity with ectomycorrhizal agaricomycete fungi was identified in each Hexalectris species. Hexalectris warnockii associates exclusively with members of the Thelephoraceae; H. brevicaulis and H. grandiflora associate exclusively with members of Russulaceae and Sebacinaceae subgroup A; the remaining species, all members of the H. spicata complex, associate strictly with members of Sebacinaceae subgroup A. Optimizing these associations onto a Hexalectris phylogeny reveals that, with one ex (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Linda E. Watson (Advisor); Dr. Nicholas P. Money (Committee Member); Dr. R. James Hickey (Committee Member); Dr. D. Lee Taylor (Committee Member); Dr. David J. Berg (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Botany

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Biological Sciences

Hybridization has been shown to be an important process in plant speciation. Ascertaining the lineage of suspected hybrid individuals can be complicated when using morphological characters alone. This study examined morphological characters as well as nuclear-ribosomal internal transcribed spacers of Cypripedium candidum, C. parviflorum var. pubescens and C. x favillianum in order to test the hypothesis that suspected hybrid individuals growing along a prairie/woodland ecotone in Resthaven Wildlife Area, Castalia, Ohio indeed had hybrid ancestry. Furthermore, we examined whether C. parviflorum var. pubescens was extirpated from the site. Fifteen morphological characters were employed in a discriminant function analysis which revealed clear separation between the hybrids and the parental taxa. Additionally, analysis of the morphological data showed ten of the fifteen variables measured in the hybrids were intermediate between the parental taxa. Three ITS types were detected in the hybrid populations, two of which were identical to the parental taxa and a third which was identical to C. parviflorum var. pubescens with the exception of a single nucleotide substitution. The results support the hypothesis that the suspected hybrid individuals were indeed hybrids, and C. parviflorum var. pubescens is extirpated from the Resthaven site.

Committee: Helen Michaels PhD (Advisor); Moira van Staaden PhD (Committee Member); John Freudenstein PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Biological Sciences

This dissertation is focused on three main questions addressing the reproductive and demographic effects of pollen limitation, seed predation and deceit pollination in the food deceptive orchid Cypripedium candidum. We conducted two hand pollination field experiments to quantify pollen limitation and inbreeding. Both studies showed strong pollen limitation, with supplemental hand pollinations increasing fruit set in 2009 by 41% and 2011 by 30-35%. Taller plants in the study were more likely to be pollinated, while all other size variables did not influence pollination or fruit set. The 2011 study demonstrated a reduction in seed mass in selfed capsules by 63%. We found high levels of fruit predation in 2009 with 73% of the fruit experiencing pre-dispersal seed predation resulting in an 89% reduction in seed mass. Of the size variables analyzed, shorter plants were more likely to be attacked by weevils. In a nectar addition study we manipulated plants to provide a nectar reward, dyed their pollinia for tracking and compared their reproduction against control plants with no reward. Nectar reward, which had no effect on fruit production, however did result in a nearly threefold increase in selfing. Approximately 26% of non-rewarding C. candidum pollination events result in selfing, while the addition of nectar increased selfing to 78%. Selfed seed capsules had a decreased seed mass as demonstrated in the previous experiment. Finally, we conducted a four year demographic study and produced matrix models that estimated the population growth rate at λ = 1.01 under an average of 22% pre-dispersal seed predation. Elasticity values of the models indicated the stasis and growth of one-flowered individuals to be the most important factors to the population growth rate. A model simulating the effects of nectar addition with the average rate of seed predation resulted in λ = 0.99. These studies demonstrate the complex reproductive dynamics of deceptive plants and provide evidenc (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Helen Michaels Ph.D. (Advisor); Timothy Murnen Ph.D. (Committee Member); Moira van Staaden Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karen Root Ph.D. (Committee Member); Randy Mitchell Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Botany; Ecology