Student Type

Undergraduate

College Affiliation

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Geographic Information Systems

Submission Type

Poster

Abstract

Over the past decade, amphibian populations have been noticeably declining. As struggles between climate change, human development, and sustaining healthy ecosystems grows, it is vital to understand how these threats impact amphibians. Missouri has a rich diversity of toads, frogs, and salamanders but some of these species are struggling, such as the spring peeper and Ozark hellbender. Projects such as the St. Louis Zoo’s Frog Watch and iNaturalist observations have been implemented to involve citizens of Missouri in collecting valuable data pertaining to where amphibians are present and establishing where populations are struggling to thrive. The goal of this project is to involve conservationists and citizens alike in restoring Missouri’s natural biodiversity by showing the decline of amphibian populations in Missouri over the past decade and present where these species are still thriving through an interactive GIS map containing data collected by both researchers and involved residents of the state.

Share

COinS
 

GIS Observations of Missouri Amphibian Diversity

Over the past decade, amphibian populations have been noticeably declining. As struggles between climate change, human development, and sustaining healthy ecosystems grows, it is vital to understand how these threats impact amphibians. Missouri has a rich diversity of toads, frogs, and salamanders but some of these species are struggling, such as the spring peeper and Ozark hellbender. Projects such as the St. Louis Zoo’s Frog Watch and iNaturalist observations have been implemented to involve citizens of Missouri in collecting valuable data pertaining to where amphibians are present and establishing where populations are struggling to thrive. The goal of this project is to involve conservationists and citizens alike in restoring Missouri’s natural biodiversity by showing the decline of amphibian populations in Missouri over the past decade and present where these species are still thriving through an interactive GIS map containing data collected by both researchers and involved residents of the state.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.