Where the crawdads sing: Examining biogeographic patterns of burrowing crayfish through diet and habitat use

A subset of North America’s diverse crayfish fauna has evolved to become semi-terrestrial by creating and inhabiting deep and complex burrows, where they spend most of their lives. This subterranean habitat makes burrowing crayfish difficult to sample and results in a paucity of data on their distributions, habitat use, and natural history. In this dissertation, I examined the biogeographical patterns of burrowing crayfish species in the Midwestern United States. In chapter 1 I reviewed relevant literature and quantified the knowledge gaps on these species globally. In chapters 2 and 3 I evaluated the impact of land management on local distributions and found that burrowing species, as non-target taxa, can still benefit from conservation practices. In chapter 4 I used ecological niche modeling to explore if generalist burrowing species display niche conservatism and can act as distributional surrogates. I found that even wide-ranging generalist species with sympatric ranges could not be used as surrogates for each other. Further, these crayfish exhibited species-specific habitat associations and using a supraspecific model could not predict the presence of these species better than their single-species models. Finally, in chapter 5, I tested the niche breadth – range size hypothesis on wide-ranging and narrowly endemic species. I found that burrowing crayfish do not always exhibit patterns expected from traditional ecological theory. The studies in this dissertation provide empirical data on crayfish distributions as well as build theoretical knowledge on the evolution of biogeographical patterns in a historically under-examined group of organisms.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Natural Res & Env Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Bloomer, Caitlin Claire

Contributors dc:contributor

• Chu, Maria L
• Larson, Eric R
• Peterman, William E
• DiStefano, Robert J
• Taylor, Christopher A

• Burrowing Crayfish
• Crayfish
• Cambaridae
• Biogeography
• Distribution
• Range Size
• Diet
• Habitat
• Land Management

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Caitlin C. Bloomer

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121227

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121227