Research Description:

Summer Survey of Amphibians in Gainesville Urban Headwater Streams

Recent reports of amphibian declines have caused great concern among the public and scientific communities. Globally, over the past decade, more than 200 amphibian species have experienced population declines, with reports of 32 species extinctions. Climate change, pollution, and anthropogenic habitat loss are among the variety of reasons that have been offered to explain this unprecedented loss. Because of their narrow range of environmental requirements and acute sensitivity to environmental stresses, amphibians have long been touted as one of nature’s best indicators of environmental health. Much like the canary in a coal mine, amphibians in decline may indicate a much larger globally scaled crisis.

Researchers at the UF Howard T. Odum Center for Wetlands are working with amphibians in an effort to characterize trends for the implementation of watershed management. As a University Scholar, I will be working with a team of scientists in order to collect baseline data and evaluate amphibian health in Gainesville urban headwater streams.

Gainesville headwater streams have a variety of origins such as seeps, springs, wetlands, lakes and ponds. We will visit an excess of 24 streams of various headwater types in urban Gainesville in order to collect data and compare it to pristine sites of the same headwater classification. Information on habitat characterization, physical and chemical parameters of water quality and local land use will be collected. The streams will be dipnetted for salamander and anuran species during the day, and manual anuran calling surveys will be conducted in the evening. With this data we will look for correlations of the effects of urbanization on amphibian species along a pollution gradient.

Amphibian responses to human activities are important to characterize and understand in order to develop sustainable watershed management regulations. Not only do these sensitive species aid us in indicating the health of our watersheds, but they may also provide valuable insight on the general health of the biosphere.