Committee Chair

Wilson, Thomas P.

Committee Member

Gaudin, Timothy; Schorr, Mark S.

Department

Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Long-term investigations are needed to adequately assess herpetofaunal community structure and dynamics, and habitat alteration remains the most critical threat to these communities. Herein, I report on a 32-month study investigating species richness, abundance, sex ratios, and body sizes of amphibians and reptiles in a Hamilton County, Tennessee, wetland. Utilizing drift fencing in conjunction with pitfall arrays, a total of 14 reptile species and 16 amphibian species was recorded. Evenness was low among all study years due to large sample sizes of ambystomatid salamanders relative to all other species. Body sizes of Ambystoma were larger in females, and sex ratios of all Ambystoma were significantly male-biased in all study years except one female-biased sample of Ambystoma opacum (2009). This study is the first wetland community assessment for the southeastern Tennessee region and provides baseline data for future comparisons regarding changes in community structure and dynamics.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2013

Subject

Amphibians -- Tennessee; Reptiles -- Tennessee; Wildlife conservation -- Tennessee

Discipline

Environmental Sciences

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xii, 79 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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