Analyzing anuran diversity in urban and rural wetlands using frog call citizen science data

Amphibians are currently experiencing a crisis of high extinction rates because of habitat destruction, and climate change. Citizen science, the incorporation of citizens in data collection or management of scientific research, has become necessary to monitor populations widely. The Tennessee Amphibian Monitoring Program is a citizen science program, at the state-level that conducts manual calling surveys in Tennessee. The TAMP dataset was analyzed to see if there was a difference in diversity and abundance of anurans in urban wetlands compared to rural wetlands in the Ridge and Valley ecoregion. A Hutchenson’s t-test and a Mann-Whitney U test found that the diversity scores of the two groups were not equal, with the rural wetlands having significantly higher diversity than the urban wetlands. Occupancy modeling found that rural wetlands appear to contain more sensitive and rarer anurans. The TAMP data can further facilitate our understanding of land use impacts on amphibian conservation.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Rhodes, Jeremiah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wilson, Thomas P.
• Beasley, DeAnna E.; Hunt, Nyssa
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Amphibians--Monitoring--Tennessee
• Anura--Counting--Tennessee
• Frogs--Habitat--Conservation--Tennessee
• Environmental impact analysis--Tennessee--Citizen participation
• Wetland biodiversity conservation

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2052