A study related to finding out a relationship between the abundance of salamanders and the flow of water in the Arcata community forest

Vignery, Chris

English

Digital Commons@Humboldt State University (HSU)

Cal Poly Humboldt Digital Commons @ Cal Poly Humboldt IdeaFest 2023 2023 Salamander Habitat Abundance Based on Water Flow Chris Vignery Cal Poly Humboldt, crv4@humboldt.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest2023 Recommended Citation Vignery, Chris, "Salamander Habitat Abundance Based on Water Flow" (2023). IdeaFest 2023. 35. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest2023/35 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Cal Poly Humboldt. It has been accepted for inclusion in IdeaFest 2023 by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Cal Poly Humboldt. For more information, please contact kyle.morgan@humboldt.edu. www.PosterPresentations.comF2Salamander Habitat Abundance Based on Water FlowChris VigneryCAL POLY HUMBOLDTINTRODUCTIONThe Arcata community forest supports many resident salamander species due to its variety of ecological differences such as different water flow ecosystems, extreme fluctuations and our local weather patterns changing constantly. This makes it a good study system to measure salamander abundance and focusing on even one of the above examples which was water flow was able to yield robust results.OBJECTIVESThis focus of this study was to determine whether salamanders more frequently utilized habitat at running water sites over stagnant sites. Observed differences in abundance  could potentially be attributed to adaptations that allowed species to more frequently utilize different habitat ranges.Methods• This study utilized 153 beltline point count surveys evenly distributed between Fern lake and Campbell creek both located in the Arcata community forest, Arcata, California. • Sampling utilized randomized beltline transect based methods at each location for maximum nonbiased data collection• Each beltline was 30 meters starting at the base of the water and 10 meters wide RESULTSThere was no significant difference in salamander habitat abundance between running water and stagnant water•Observed p-value was p=0.1729 (p>0.05).• Found 60 salamanders, 43 Ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii) and 17 Slender salamanders (Batrachoseps attenuatus)Fig 1. Two sample t test depicting the relationship between salamander abundance and water flow across the running and stagnant habitats.Figure 2. The pier at fern lake, Kemper 2018igure 3. Map of the Arcata Forest, Jimbobrides009CONCLUSIONS• These findings do not indicate that there is a clear relationship between passerine abundance and habitat salinity.• A more robust sampling method could have incorporated species identifications to more closely estimate how each species’ natural history might lead it to be more abundant at one salinity over another.• Testing for a correlation between distance from the water the salamanders were seen, temperature of the surface of the soil the salamanders were on, abundance of paired salamanders at each sampling site and sampling at different times of day may also have yielded more definitive results.CITATIONSJimbobrides. 2009. MTB-Arcata Community Forest. <http://northcoastbikerides.blogspot.com/2009/07/mtb-arcata-community-forest.html> Accessed 20 Apr 2023. Kemper, N. 2018. Hidden Treasures. photograph, Arcata California. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis project and the poster that is accompanying it was able to be done because of hard work and dedication of both the student and the teacher figuring out the many problems that showed up while never giving up no matter how many times we had to reset. I also thank the many writing studio helpers who had to help fix said mistakes.

Salamander Habitat Abundance Based on Water Flow

https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1102&context=ideafest2023

Salamander Habitat Abundance Based on Water Flow

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital Commons@Humboldt State University (HSU)