Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Carl Thurman

Abstract

Organisms are distributed differentially across world’s surface based on many environmental characteristics. What part do physical characteristics play in demarcating the distribution of species? Using several international fiddler crab collections and GIS-linked sets of habitat factors, I sought an answer to this question. Geographic distribution data for 23 species from over 1700 collecting sites situated along the coasts of Europe, Africa, North America, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and South America were used to characterize coastal biogeographic biomes around the perimeter of the North and South Atlantic Ocean. As an initial objective, the exact geographic distribution of each species based on collecting records with latitude and longitude was determined from museum collections. The resulting range distributions were then overlaid, resulting in six distinct biogeographic regions shared by groups of species, which are referred to as cohorts. ArcGIS Pro 3.1 software was used to characterize each biome climate through analysis of several physical factors (average sea surface temperature, Ecological Marine Unit [EMU], chlorophyll concentration, erodibility, river discharge, tidal range, slope). As expected, correlations were found between specific physical properties and biogeographical distribution. The physical factors characterized five of out the six cohorts into uniquely specialized environments. Overall, this provides a broader geographical perspective for defining fiddler crab biomes or biogeographic regions. In the future, this project is expected to contribute to a predictive global model of coastal community performance under anticipated climate changes.

Year of Submission

2024

Department

Department of Biology

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

5-2024

Object Description

1 PDF (ix, 119 pages)

Language

en

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Available for download on Sunday, June 21, 2026

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