https://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/44217 2026-04-24T07:43:19Z https://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/50760 Wasted Efforts Impair Random Search Efficiency and Reduce Choosiness in Mate-Pairing Termites Random search theories predict that animals employ movement patterns that optimize encounter rates with target resources. However, animals are not always able to achieve the best search strategy. Energy depletion, for example, limits searchers’ movement activities, forcing them to adjust their behaviors before and after encounters. Here, we investigate the cost of mate search in a termite, Reticulitermes speratus, and reveal that the costs associated with mate finding reduce the selectivity of mating partners.After a dispersal flight, termites search for a mating partner with limited reserved energy. We found that their movement activity and diffusiveness progressively declined over extendedmate search.Our data-based simulations qualitatively confirmed that the reduced movement diffusiveness decreased the searching efficiency. Also, prolonged search periods reduced survival rate and the number of offspring. Thus,mate search has two different negative effects on termites. Finally, we found that termites with an extended mate search reduced the selectivity of mating partners, where males immediately paired with any encountering females. Thus, termites dramatically changed their mate search behavior depending on their internal states. Our finding highlights that accounting for the searchers’ internal states is essential to fill the gap between random search theories and empirical behavioral observations. https://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/50546 Practical Evaluation Tool and Logic Model Framework for Extension Educators and Grant Writers Extension evaluation is a relatively young field of knowledge. Much of what we know today in program evaluation comes from the public education and health fields resulting in difficulties in adapting the methods to agricultural Extension. This article is based on long-term evaluation experiences of the authors that established a strong feedback system for two large grant-based programs in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES). Discussion on steps to evaluation strategy and electronic polling systems for data collection should appeal to new and experienced Extension educators. Several ideas for reporting are also included along with thoughts on improving response rates and capacity-building. https://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/50545 Alabama Extension Commercial Horticulture Virtual Events and Social Media Evaluation System During the COVID-19 Pandemic Alabama has a rapidly growing specialty crop industry valued at $165 million in direct sale and $103 million in value-added products. The demand for fresh fruits and vegetables remained high during the COVID-19 pandemic. To support producers with timely information, the Alabama Extension Commercial Horticulture Team used three different social media (SM) events along with a unique monitoring and evaluation system as formative evaluations. Overall, 120 virtual events via a Facebook channel and a farmer group page reached 2,271 direct and 57,000 indirect participants with many new clients and beginning farmers that found the information useful and timely. https://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/50523 Dataset for "Genetic and functional diversity help explain pathogenic, weakly pathogenic, and commensal lifestyles in the genus Xanthomonas" The genus Xanthomonas has been primarily studied for pathogenic interactions with plants. However, besides host and tissue specific pathogenic strains, this genus also comprises nonpathogenic strains isolated from a broad range of hosts, sometimes in association with pathogenic strains, and other environments, including rainwater. Based on their incapacity or limited capacity to cause symptoms on the host of isolation, nonpathogenic xanthomonads can be further characterized as commensal and weakly pathogenic. This study aimed to understand the diversity and evolution of nonpathogenic xanthomonads compared to their pathogenic counterparts based on their co-occurrence and phylogenetic relationship and to identify genomic traits that form the basis of a life-history framework that groups xanthomonads by ecological strategies. We sequenced genomes of 83 strains spanning the genus phylogeny and identified eight novel species, indicating unexplored diversity. While some nonpathogenic species have experienced a recent loss of a type III secretion system, specifically, the hrp2 cluster, we observed an apparent lack of association of the hrp2 cluster with lifestyles of diverse species. We gathered evidence for gene flow among co-occurring pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains, suggesting the potential of nonpathogenic strains to act as a reservoir of adaptive traits for pathogenic strains and vice versa. We further identified traits enriched in nonpathogens that suggest a strategy of stress tolerance, rather than avoidance, during their association with a broad range of host plants.