Abstracts

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Ecological response to landscape level removal of amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) at a nature preserve in Fayette County, Kentucky

Troy Evans

Abstract
Throughout eastern North America, invasive exotic plants are becoming a major management issue, and in central Kentucky amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is of concern due to its ability to easily invade, and persist in ecosystems.  Many public and private land owners, are currently treating and removing amur honeysuckle, and so this project was designed to evaluate the ecological response to such removal efforts.  My research took place the Floracliff State Nature Preserve and Raven Run Nature Sanctuary in Fayette County, KY.  Thirty treatment plots were established divided between two treatment types, and eleven control plots installed. The two treatments types were current treatment, where only large honeysuckle shrubs were removed, and retreatment, where all honeysuckle shrubs and seedlings were removed. Data were collected to quantify the response to honeysuckle removal from native and invasive herbaceous species, shrubs, and tree seedlings..  Also, light availability and herbaceous cover data were collected.  The research took place from Spring 2006 through August 2007.  Data were analyzed separately for both years using ANOVA’s for each variable.  For both 2006 and 2007, significant differences (alpha=.05) among plot types were found for the following variables; light availability, tree seedling density, tree seedling diversity, and L. maackii resprouts, seedlings, and shrub densities.  Post hoc Tukey’s comparisons were run for significant variables, and differences among treatment types examined.  These results will be important for better understanding efficacy and management design for invasive species removal.

Thermal Tolerance of Tadpoles of Three Temperate-zone Anurans

Patrick gaskin

Abstract

Tail-wagging behavior in Eastern Phoebes

Michelle Carder

Abstract:


Natural History and Crevice Characteristics of Green Salamanders (Aneides aeneus) in the Red River Gorge, KY

Jason Ritzert

Abstract

 The green salamander, Aneides aeneus, is a Plethodontid, crevice dwelling salamander that occurs along most of the Appalachian Mountains.  Being lungless requires that A. aeneus live in an environment that is conducive to maintaining its normal physiological functions which as been previously described as ‘moist, but not wet’ crevices.  However, there have been no quantitative studies to determine which characteristics make a good crevice.  My study took place in the Red River Gorge KY from June 2006 until June 2007.  Nineteen used crevices were measured and the three closest unused crevices to each of the used crevices were measured identically.  Height off ground, width, length, aspect and depth of all crevices were measured and on a weekly basis, temperature and humidity’s were measured to get weekly averages for all crevices.  Weekly averages for temperature and humidity were calculated and run through ANOVA on SAS.  ANOVA of the temperature indicates no weekly difference between used and unused crevices (p = 0.6002).  ANOVA of the humidity indicates a difference between the used and unused crevices (p < 0.0001).  The humidity of the used crevices are stable year round with a low variance while the humidity of the unused crevices varies from week to week with a higher variance.  This would mean used crevices are providing a stable environment for A. aeneus to carry out its normal physiological functions.  Discriminate function analysis is currently underway to determine the relationship of the physical characteristics.