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oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/393492025-12-30T03:32:15Zcom_10217_100532com_10217_100000com_10217_100418com_10217_100303col_10217_100538col_10217_100420

Flory, Abigail R., author Bachand, Annette M., advisor Duncan, Colleen G., committee member Reif, John S., committee member Stohlgren, Thomas J., committee member United States 2007-01-03T05:46:01Z 2007-01-03T05:46:01Z 2010 2010_Summer_Flory_Abigail.pdf ETDF2010100003ERHS http://hdl.handle.net/10217/39349 https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018776 Department Head: Jac A. Nickoloff. The emergence of mortality-causing bat White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in the Northeastern United States during 2006 prompted an immediate need for research surrounding possible causation factors influencing its spread. Due to the mysterious nature of fungal pathogens, it has been very difficult to determine how the WNS-related Geomyces destructans fungus is causing bat mortality. Several different hypotheses have been formulated by bat and ecological experts in the field, but major influencing factors remain undetermined. To initiate WNS environmental research, this study utilizes a new machine-learning modeling technique, Maxent modeling, along with a case-control study to assess the hypothesis that certain environmental variables may be associated with the occurrence and distribution of bat WNS. Maxent data uses presence-only data and bases its algorithms on the principal of maximum entropy. Maxent results using 58 environmental predictor variables revealed Slope, Growing-Degree Days, Annual Temperature Range, and Land-Cover as the top four predicting variables for WNS infected bat hibernacula locations. Similarly, the case-control study showed that two of these top four predictor variables (Growing-Degree Days and Annual Temperature Range) were statistically significantly associated with a hibernacula's WNS infection status. Cases had a slightly higher mean Average Temperature Range than controls (Cases=38.0, Controls=36.0) and lower mean Growing-Degree Days than controls (Cases=3419.1, Controls=3838.1). Both of these variables, along with their correlated terms, are largely temperature-dependent, suggesting a need for further research on the role of temperature in predicting the occurrence and distribution of Geomyces destructans. As a starting point for future research, this study has identified the most likely environmental variables related to the potential devastating ecological consequences of WNS-related bat mortality. masters theses English eng Colorado State University. Libraries 2000-2019 Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. Potential environmental factors associated with the newly emerging bat white-nose syndrome in the northeastern United States: an exploratory modeling approach and case-control study Text Master of Science (M.S.) Masters Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences Colorado State University This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). open.access