KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 10, 2019 \u2013 It\u2019s easy to understand why 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Emma Paton has had a lifelong interest in wildlife. Her father is a 溏心vlog免费B站 professor who studies birds and amphibians, and her mother is a biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n
But when it came time to dive into her first independent research project, she left her parents behind and headed to New Mexico to study an endangered species, the Jemez Mountains salamander.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in salamanders since I was a kid. I just loved going outside and looking for them,\u201d said Paton, a wildlife and conservation biology major who lives in Hope Valley<\/strong>. \u201cSo when I heard about this project in New Mexico, I knew it was something I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Working in collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 Associate Professor Nancy Karraker, Paton spent 10 weeks this summer in the Jemez Mountains of northwest New Mexico surveying for the rare salamander.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re very rare because of human disturbance in the area, but there\u2019s also a lot that\u2019s unknown about them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s thought that they spend the majority of the year underground and only come to the surface during monsoon rains in the summer, when they like to hang out under cover of rocks and big decaying logs.\u201d<\/p>\n In previous years, those looking for the salamanders often damaged the decaying logs the amphibians preferred, destroying their habitat. So last year, Karraker set out a series of artificial cover objects \u2013 terracotta saucers, artificial rock piles, and boxes with wood chips inside to mimic natural logs \u2013 to provide additional habitat options.<\/p>\n It was Paton\u2019s job to periodically visit each of four locations where the artificial habitat was created to see if any salamanders were using them. She also sought them out at locations where they had previously been found and searched for them in other areas that looked promising.<\/p>\n \u201cWe only found 24 salamanders in 10 weeks, which means they\u2019re definitely still endangered, but that\u2019s up from just seven last year,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd only one was found under an artificial cover object. But our study wasn\u2019t conclusive. With such a small sample, we don\u2019t have a definite answer about the state of their population.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to her salamander survey, Paton also collected data about a disease that is killing many amphibians in the tropics and has been found in some salamanders in the Southwest. To learn how the disease had reached the mountains of New Mexico, she swabbed every salamander and frog she could find \u2013 even some invasive earthworms \u2013 to determine whether they had contracted the disease.<\/p>\n \u201cI liked every part of my experience this summer,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing in the field with Dr. Karraker was a really great experience. I got a lot of exposure to things I haven\u2019t been exposed to before. And the whole ecology of the West is so different from what it\u2019s like back in Rhode Island. I also got to work with a Park Service biologist who was studying mountain lions and bears, and that was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Paton\u2019s summer research was supported by 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Coastal Fellows program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 23rd year, the program pairs students with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe program definitely confirmed that I\u2019m on the right career path,\u201d Paton said. \u201cAnd it definitely gave me more of a sense of independence just being so far away from Rhode Island and living on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n It also convinced her to investigate internship opportunities with the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico next year. While she knows that graduate school is in her future eventually, probably on the West Coast, she hopes to get some additional research experience first.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say what\u2019s next,\u201d Paton admitted. \u201cI try not to plan too far in advance because I tend to change my mind. I could see myself going down many different paths. I\u2019m keeping my options open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 10, 2019 \u2013 It\u2019s easy to understand why 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Emma Paton has had a lifelong interest in wildlife. Her father is a 溏心vlog免费B站 professor who studies birds and amphibians, and her mother is a biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But when it came time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}