Browsing by Author "Taylor, Brian"
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Item Open Access Redevelopment Plan for Barrang Lompo, Indonesia(2018-04-27) Taylor, BrianBarrang Lompo, Indonesia is a tiny island located off the coast of Makassar, Indonesia. The island has minimal development, no sanitation system, limited natural resources, and a bleak future. It is home to around 5,000 people, most of whom are fishermen who employ a practice known as "dynamite fishing" that uses explosives to capture fish, but destroys habitats and the fishes' ability to repopulate. The environmental destruction and the public health problems from the lack of a sanitation system threaten the future viability of the island. To help solve these problems, I performed a public health assessment on Barrang Lompo to gauge the feasibility of installing a bioreactor that converts human waste into usable product, then prepared a proposal to establish a cell phone refurbishment plant on the island. By mitigating the public health problems and providing alternative employment, this project aims to reduce stress on the environment and redevelop Barrang Lompo into a more sustainable community with a promising future.Item Open Access Tool Use by a Predatory Worm(2016-05-10) Taylor, BrianTool use in non-human organisms represents one of the most fiercely contested topics in animal behavior research. Tool use by an animal has been claimed to represent an evolutionarily significant jump in rational thought and ability. Here, I test the hypothesis that Diopatra cuprea are stay-at-home predators who use algae, shells, and sticks as a tool to decorate their tubes in order to serve as an advertisement for attracting prey. Diopatra are a sedentary, tube-dwelling annelid found in great abundance along the intertidal zone. These worms construct and live in long tubes, with the majority of the tube below the sediment surface and a small portion exposed above ground. They then decorate the exposed portion with three different materials: algae, shells, and sticks. To test this hypothesis, I determined what microorganisms took up residence on Diopatra tubes, analyzed the rate at which the worms rebuilt their tubes, and observed the feeding behavior of Diopatra. I found that the same group of microorganisms lived on all three decoration types, but in differing quantities. I also found that if a worm had the exposed portion of its tube destroyed by a disturbance event, it would rebuild the tube almost immediately. I was able to observe Diopatra eating off of their tubes in the laboratory setting and then experimentally determine what their likely food sources are, leading me to the conclusion that the decoration on their tubes serves as a tool for the worms and plays a vital role in their feeding behavior.