We have been studying the relationships between anthropogenic land use, aquatic microbiomes, and their resulting effects on amphibian resilience to global change. Small, temperate ponds are local catchments for environmental microbes, pollutants, and landscape conditions (e.g., urbanization, habitat fragmentation). Ponds also serve as important habitat for amphibians, which acquire their own microbiome from pond sources and serve as sentinel species for environmental stressors. We have been inventorying the microbial communities of ponds and resident amphibians to understand how environmental factors shape the membership of these communities. We hope to use this data to inform lab studies focusing on tadpole responses to stressors. Collectively, these results will shed light on how environmental factors may have cascading effects on environmental microbial communities and animal hosts.
Publications:
Coming Soon
Publications:
Coming Soon
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