Salamander Fragmentation Essay

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

Our ecosystem is described depending on the location we are located in. There is different plants, animals, and environments in different environmental regions. For this paper we are focusing on the six different biomes structures we have in the state of Texas.

The reduction of vegetative cover during and after fire can have a severe negative impact on several different factors including: water quality, soil erosion, wildlife and threatened or endangered species, introduction or spread of invasive and exotic species, and economic or social impacts to the surrounding communities. We will implement a vegetation monitoring protocol that will help guide us in restoration and recovery efforts of the High Park fire scar and the surrounding areas and watershed. A collaboration with the US Forest Service will be aggressively pursued in the hopes that a combined use of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and our separate vegetation monitoring protocol can be utilized. We will use the burn severity field data collection points and cross-reference them with the FIA data points to see if there is any overlap between them. If there is then the FIA data points will be given preference as those points can possibly provide more information than solely High Park Fire data collection points. If there is not the ability to utilize the FIA data collection points, due to privacy, cost, or unforeseen reasons, then the High Park Fire data collection points will be

Habitat fragmentation, loss and degradation - fragmentation, loss, and degradation of natural habitats, and has also contributed to habitat and species isolation.

What made this location different than the other two locations was that it was set on private land rather than public land. The vegetation was dominated by sugar maple, with more red oaks than in the first site. The canopy was not as closed as the first location but still consisted of coverage of about 90%. Pleasant Mile Woods had less foot traffic than that of the Kettle Moraine State Park, being that it is a private land, and had more wind than the previous location due to the increase in farmland surrounding the patch of woods. The final location, Kohler-Andrae State Natural Area, is right off the shore of Lake Michigan and the part of the site which was surveyed was the woody area off of Black River Trail. Once again, this area was heavily shaded and dominated with sugar maple. This site had the most foot traffic due to the occurrence of more trails and surrounding lakeside suburbs along with having more wind than the other two locations. At each of the locations, square quadrats of 10 meters in length were sampled using a stratified random sampling technique. At each location, a total of 25 quadrats were analyzed leading to a total of 75 total

When a habitat is fragmented, the amount of edge habitat increases at the expense of interior habitat. Species dependent on interior habitat suffer, while edge-dependent species, including invasive species and predators, thrive. Highly fragmented forests cannot provide the food, cover, or reproduction needs of interior forest species. Predators such as crows and raccoons and nest parasites like the brown-headed cowbird find target nests more easily

It is commonly acknowledged that, in a biological ecosystem all species are closely affected each other through a food chain. However, what people don’t really recognize is how hugely one species can affect the entire ecosystem. The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park depicts a vivid example how one predator can contribute to the recovery of biodiversity and its astonishing impact on physical geography.

There are many environmental culprits that are causing species of amphibians to decline in numbers. Consequently, there are an alarming number of amphibians across the U.S. with deformities such as missing limbs or extra limbs due to environmental causes. Environmental scientists say that the widespread occurrence of amphibians with deformities might be due to water pollution or chemical pollutants in the water. There are other factors that might have caused these frogs to have missing or extra limbs such as parasites, ozone depletion, and weather patterns. However, Amphibians are not the only species that have declined in population. According to an article written by Beth Baker poor water quality is to blame for the decrease in population of sea grass, coral, and fish along with many other misfortunes.

Populations can be affected if any one of these habitats or connections are lost. Each habitat type provides unique resources. Since the northern leopard frog utilizes multiple habitat types, studies need to be performed at each resource patch, and connections to and from resource patches, to help develop management plans for each habitat. It would not be beneficial to the species if only a single habitat type were to be protected, rather all habitat types need to be protected in conjunction for the species to persist. By targeting each patch and the connecting land between patches, northern leopard frogs will be able to successfully perform each part of their life cycle. By studying the northern leopard frog and its ability to move across the landscape, insights into the connectivity of the Northern Plains landscape will

This species habitat is the longleaf pine-wiregrass flatwoods. The adult salamanders eat earthworms, insects, and are likely to eat other invertebrates as well. The larvae eat a variety of aquatic invertebrates, especially crustaceans. The Flatwood Salamander’s population is roughly several thousand, and is decreasing. Part of the community that the salamanders live in consists of decaying logs, vegetation, earthworms, and insects. Part of the ecosystem that they live in consists of decaying logs, vegetation, earthworms, insects, crayfish burrows, forest fires, and shallow ponds.

On Thursday October 19, 2017, at approximately 9:45 am, I visited the Wind Wolves Preserve to conduct my observations. The sun was shinning and the weather was beautiful hitting the high 70’s while I was out. It’s important to note that the Wind Wolves Preserve has many of the terrestrial ecosystems. This is one of the many interesting things that I discovered about this special place. I find it interesting that the preserve transitions from one terrestrial ecosystem lower in elevation and as you go higher in elevation you can enter into different types of terrestrial ecosystems. For example, the pamphlet informed me “The rolling grasslands rise from the valley floor and transition into the classic California oak and valley oak savanna with

The main reasons that they are endangered is urbanization taking over their habitats and pesticides like Atrazine are coming into ponds from agricultural runoff, which ruins their immune systems. Also, a parasite has been mutilating juvenile’s limbs which even lowers survival rate. Another reason is that an invasive species of trout has been moving into the salamander’s habitat and eating

The endangered species and habitats have hurt the most from the splitting, tells an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, Mr. Jesse Lasky. In 2011, he presented a report which explained that the barrier has decreased the range by a large value, for some species by 75 percent, and he also stated that the small range is coupled with the huge risk of wipe-out. Because of these walls an additional stress is placed on the endangered species like as Black-spotted newts and

The Tiger salamanders live in wetlands, rivers and streams of the United States of America. They have a carnivore diet of insects, worms and small frogs but they love insects. They have large eyes and long tail that they can detach from their bodies to get away from predators. They are least concern in the world. They have permeable skin meaning they can leave the water but they dry out fast.

The main purpose for the field trip was to assess and understand forest succession using fundamental field ecological techniques. Forest succession plays a role on the ecosystem, driving changes in the development of its contained environment. Time is a factor in succession since succession has a slow development rate. Furthermore, forest succession is categorized into two stages: Primary and secondary. The difference of both succession stages are noticeable due to its characteristics. Primary succession stage contains pioneer plants where low-height plants such as shrubs and lichens thrive because of its newly developed environment. On the other hand, secondary succession stage contains structured trees, developing a forest setting. The fieldwork