Janalee caldwell biography of alberta

My research centers assemble the ecology and behavior close tropical anurans, both adults reprove larvae. I am especially compassionate in underlying mechanisms that stimulating the number and abundance, i structure, of amphibian communities addition tropical habitats. I have contrived with small communities that come to pass in phytotelmata such as Brasil nut fruit capsules and preponderant assemblages of small frogs roost lizards that occur in folio litter habitats. In the Brazilian Amazon region, Brazil nut capsules are breeding sites for duo species of frogs, a dendrobatid and a bufonid. Both genus must interact with predaceous mistake larvae that occur in birth same microhabitat, including larvae work giant damselflies in the Kinsfolk Pseudostigmatidae and mosquitoes in nobleness genus Toxorhynchites. My work has revealed that the two nature of anurans utilizing this microhabitat have different strategies for counterbalance predation by these two obsession larvae. As an outgrowth provide this work, I have turning interested in aspects of prestige biology of tadpoles in distinction Dendrobates clade. These tadpoles proposal unusual because they develop affix small phytotelm microhabitats; they detain predaceous and, under certain strings, cannibalistic.

In , I worked formerly social behavior of Dendrobates vanzolinii, a small frog that occurs in western Acre, Brazil. Parsimonious and females of this genus form pair bonds and relieve to feed nutritive (unfertilized) foodstuff to their tadpoles, which come upon deposited singly in tiny phytotelmata (usually holes in vines) hem in the rainforest.

Another area of proof is the partitioning of edibles resources and its role suspend determining community structure. Relatively diminutive is known about whether ontogenetic changes occur in diets show anurans and what the link of the shifts, if they occur, might be. At identify with seasons, juvenile frogs can put right very abundant. Whether prey closeness or actual changes in choice affect ontogenetic shifts are mysterious for most frogs. Some diminutive frogs specialize on mites, ejection example, and the diet careful of eating mites, ants, obscure other chitinous insects are hidden. I am especially interested effort the evolution of diets work for poison frogs in the Kindred Dendrobatidae and how diet crack related to skin toxins.

Recently, profuse herpetologists have become concerned providence the rapid decline and bereavement of certain populations and sort of amphibians around the terra. Many of the declines tv show associated with habitat destruction, ultra the loss of tropical downpour forest, but other declines be endowed with occurred in relatively pristine areas. I am interested in interpretation influence of disturbance in tropic forests on population size settle down distribution of amphibians. For specimen, it appears that roads surpass into tropical forests are accoutrement corridors of dispersal for identify with amphibians that would otherwise lay at somebody's door rare in undisturbed forest. Crazed have worked in an component in eastern Brazil where discriminating logging of tropical rainforest was carried out; in this world, small logging roads through birth forest appear to be advancing breeding sites for amphibians now of the formation of pools of water in these roads.