Assessing disturbance-mediated microclimate quality for thermally-sensitive ectotherms
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Junior
Major
Wildlife Biology
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Matthew Carroll
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Plethodontid salamanders are highly sensitive to thermal and hydric variation given that they breathe via cutaneous respiration. Because fine-scale environmental patterns remain mostly unquantified across forest landscapes, the ways that disturbance processes (e.g., fire, habitat fragmentation) interact to produce the microclimates that plethodontids inhabit are poorly understood. Our objectives were to characterize microclimates across forest disturbance gradients at scales relevant to plethodontid salamanders. At the Hancock Biological Station in western KY, USA, we collected thermographic images (n = 160; >2,000,000 temperatures) and habitat data among time since fire treatments and distance from road intervals in spring and summer 2025. We observed that the forest landscape was thermally heterogenous (range: 1.1 – 62.3°C and 7.0- 40.9°C at the ground-surface and in sub-surface retreats, respectively) during diurnal periods, yet sub-surface retreats (hereafter, retreats) were 3.7°C cooler on average than the ground-surface (p < 0.001). Average temperatures, 1) routinely exceeded thresholds of avoidance for plethodontids (i.e., 25.6°C) at the ground-surface (66%) and in retreats (25%), and 2) were > 25.6°C for 47-60% of retreat measurement collected during June and July (compared to 2% reported in mountain forests in Pennsylvania, USA). Distance and habitat treatment interacted to influence temperatures for the ground-surface and retreats (p < 0.05), but further analysis is ongoing. No differences in coarse woody debris, rock abundance, or basal area were observed across habitat treatments (p > 0.05). These findings demonstrate that thermal landscapes in western KY forests are complex, heterogenous, and may frequently inhibit surface or near-surface activity by plethodontids.
Spring Scholars Week 2026
Sigma Xi Poster Competition
Assessing disturbance-mediated microclimate quality for thermally-sensitive ectotherms
Plethodontid salamanders are highly sensitive to thermal and hydric variation given that they breathe via cutaneous respiration. Because fine-scale environmental patterns remain mostly unquantified across forest landscapes, the ways that disturbance processes (e.g., fire, habitat fragmentation) interact to produce the microclimates that plethodontids inhabit are poorly understood. Our objectives were to characterize microclimates across forest disturbance gradients at scales relevant to plethodontid salamanders. At the Hancock Biological Station in western KY, USA, we collected thermographic images (n = 160; >2,000,000 temperatures) and habitat data among time since fire treatments and distance from road intervals in spring and summer 2025. We observed that the forest landscape was thermally heterogenous (range: 1.1 – 62.3°C and 7.0- 40.9°C at the ground-surface and in sub-surface retreats, respectively) during diurnal periods, yet sub-surface retreats (hereafter, retreats) were 3.7°C cooler on average than the ground-surface (p < 0.001). Average temperatures, 1) routinely exceeded thresholds of avoidance for plethodontids (i.e., 25.6°C) at the ground-surface (66%) and in retreats (25%), and 2) were > 25.6°C for 47-60% of retreat measurement collected during June and July (compared to 2% reported in mountain forests in Pennsylvania, USA). Distance and habitat treatment interacted to influence temperatures for the ground-surface and retreats (p < 0.05), but further analysis is ongoing. No differences in coarse woody debris, rock abundance, or basal area were observed across habitat treatments (p > 0.05). These findings demonstrate that thermal landscapes in western KY forests are complex, heterogenous, and may frequently inhibit surface or near-surface activity by plethodontids.