Joel Mota Lecture

Joel Mota Lecture

Ecological communities

  • What is an ecological community?

    • collection of different species interacting with each other in a certain environment

  • Studying communities focuses on seeing how the structure and composition of species change

    • research on removing a species from the environment, which affects its prey and predators

      • if fox removed → rabbit increases

      • if tree removed → birds decrease

Frogs (Anurans) and Frog Communities

  • What defines a frog?

    • tailless amphibian, with a short squat body, moist smooth skin, and large hind limbs for humping (leaping or hopping)

Why study frogs?

  • Frogs are relatively short-lived

  • Sensitive to changes in the environment (indicator species)

  • Frogs are prey to many different taxa and are predators to many different taxa

Turtles (Chelonians) and Turtle Communities

  • What defines a turtle?

    • a shelled reptile that is usually semi-aquatic or fully aquatic, which can retract their head into their shells

      • shell made by the rib cage

Why study turtles?

  • Most endangered vertebrate taxa

  • Long lived

    • accumulates changes → gives a glimpse into how environment has changed over time

  • Ecological services

    • cleans streams and rivers/wetlands in general

    • eats fish before algal blooms

Hofmann Forest

  • located in southeastern coastal plain of NC

  • roughly 79,000 acres

  • Roughly 54,000 acres are managed pine plantation

  • acidic soil → carnivorous plants

Community Occupancy

  • 2 things need to be true when you detect an organism

    • the individual is present

    • you detect the individual

  • Community occupancy models allow info from common species to inform rare species

  • Species sharing info should be similar in some way

Anuran Community

  • Autonomous Recording Unit (ARU)

  • Recording for 5 minutes every hour for 24 hours

  • Over 1.3 million minutes recorded so far

  • 15-16 species of frog recorded so far

  • Sensor that collects temp and humidity (clue to when the frogs are calling)

ARU Detection Distance

  • How far can an ARU detect a frog call?

  • 1 km detection transects

  • Test a subset of frog species detected at Hofmann

  • Test across open, managed, and unmanaged forest

Chelonian Community

  • Trap-based surveys

  • Traps are in the water for 48 hours

  • Multiple trap sizes to account a large variety of turtle sizes