Many herpetofaunal species are imperiled, and the causes of this are often a
synergy of multiple factors. In wetlands specifically, two of the possible determinants of
species occurrence and faunal community assemblage are fish presence and wetland
permanence, which are not always correlated. Twenty wetlands were sampled in
Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida, USA to observe how wetland herpetofaunal
communities vary with fish, wetland permanence and other environmental factors.
Herpetofaunal communities with and without fish were significantly different from one
another and differences between herpetofaunal communities were primarily due to the
contribution of four species of frogs, two generalist ranids and two specialist hylids.
Wetland permanence had no observable effect on community structure. Fishless wetlands were significantly more species-rich and possessed higher numbers of individuals even for species that occurred in both fishless and fish wetlands, regardless of their permanence. These findings have implications for wetlands restoration and herpetofaunal conservation. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_13673 |
| Contributors | Holbrook, Joshua D. (author), Dorn, Nathan (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Biological Sciences |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 74 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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