Submitted by Ian Wang on
Salamanders are an understudied vertebrate group despite containing species with the highest vulnerability and risk for population decline. For dispersal-limited species, microhabitats provide refuge and are critical for survival, yet these locations are acutely sensitive to environmental change. Within California, climate change threatens to increase temperatures, altering microhabitats and requiring that salamanders adapt to new environmental conditions. This project explores variation within local populations of ensatina salamanders in the Bay Area, linking microhabitat conditions to thermal phenotypes and adaptation. Ensatina are an iconic group of terrestrial California salamanders, displaying ample phenotypic and genetic variation across their range. Specifically, the student researchers on this project will assist in fieldwork to collect microhabitat environmental variables, such as temperature, canopy cover, and humidity, where ensatina salamanders are located throughout the Bay Area. Additionally, the student researchers will also participate in laboratory experiments using ensatina to assay thermal adaptation and phenotypic variation from individuals sampled across the study area. Through this hands-on data collection, the student researchers will generate and answer hypotheses about this system, developing an understanding of how these populations will fare under climate change. Opportunities also exist to learn photographic data collection techniques at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
The principal role of the student researchers involved in this project will be to partake in the research process by collecting and analyzing data obtained from both the field and in controlled laboratory experiments with salamanders. Specifically, the responsibilities of the student researcher include the following: 1) Gather environmental and microhabitat data where ensatina is located, 2) Assist in generating phenotypic data in the laboratory, and 3) Analyze microhabitat and thermal phenotypic data using R software. All the responsibilities outlined above will be completed after training from the graduate student leading the project, with a biweekly group check-in for technical support and guidance. All of the fieldwork and laboratory experiments outlined in this project (2 and 3 above) will be completed in a group under the supervision of the graduate student leading the project.
There are no qualifications or technical skills that the student researchers must have to partake in this project, although the student researcher must be willing to conduct fieldwork outdoors and be able to handle vertebrates. Some experience in statistical analysis and animal handling is recommended, but not required.