Eastern Student Brian Lisk of Fairfield Participates in Biology Professor's Ongoing Salamander Research

2017 Feb 13

Eastern Connecticut State University Biology Professor Kristen Epp is participating in an ongoing research project in the form of a salamander survey that is taking place at a local eastern Connecticut location. A number of her students participated in a series of survey events during the fall semester.

In 2013, the Salamander Population and Adaptation Research Collaboration Network (SPARCnet) started as a collaboration between researchers at Penn State University and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Northeast Amphibian and Research Monitoring Initiative. The goal of SPARCnet is to understand salamander population dynamics and climate adaptation across multiple scales.

Since 2013, additional researchers from across the region have volunteered to establish salamander monitoring plots and to monitor populations in their region. Eastern's Biology Department has joined this network, and established monitoring plots during the summer of 2016; the research will be ongoing. Using a common monitoring technique, the collaborators survey their plots for red-back salamanders three times each spring and fall, then contribute the data to SPARCnet for analysis.

Amphibians such as frogs, toads and salamanders are often considered to be indicator species because they are sensitive to environmental change. Due to this sensitivity, scientists have been documenting declines in amphibian populations around the world for 30 years, and they estimate that about 3 to 4 percent of populations go extinct annually (Grant, et al. 2016). While numerous causes have been identified, it appears that each location poses its own threats to local amphibian populations. By monitoring local amphibian populations, ecologists may be better able to identify reasons behind local declines.

Brian Lisk '18 of Fairfield is one of the students who has participated in Epps' salamander surveys. Lisk's major is Biology.

The red-back salamander is among the most widespread species of salamander in North America, making them a prime candidate for long-term population monitoring. Unlike many amphibians, they spend their entire life on land, hiding under rocks and logs and migrating deep into the soil during cold or drought. Like many other salamander species, red-backs do not have lungs so they exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide through membranes in their mouth and skin. To breathe this way, their skin needs to remain moist at all times.

"In ecology, it is useful to determine the characteristics, or parameters, of a population such as population size or density, the average size of individuals in the population and mortality rates/survival probabilities, along with other factors. In order to measure these characteristics, researchers need to be able to sample the population of interest, often multiple times, and use those data to estimate these parameters. While this information can be very valuable, it only gives researchers a snapshot of that population during a certain space and time. Long-term monitoring of populations gives us the added benefit of determining whether the population parameters change over time and also assists in terms of providing possible causes for the changes," said Epp.

According to Epp, "We are definitely still in the data-gathering phase and will be for quite a while. Spring and fall are survey seasons so this research will continue for a few years. We are monitoring populations to look for effects of climate change and other environmental issues."