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VA Press: Salamander science

wes_von_papineäu

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WASHINGTON COUNTY NEWS (Abingdon, Virginia) 20 May 08 Salamander science (Mark Sage)
A squeal pierces the calm of Elk Garden at the foot of White Top Mountain. It was caused by a salamander lazing in the leaves. But the squeal wasn’t a running away kind of squeal. Instead the girl who let it out practically dives after the slippery creature, scooping it into a Tupperware container.
That was the first specimen Kevin Hamed recorded in the day’s salamander survey. Hamed, a biology teacher at Virginia Highlands Community College, and his team of high school and college students aren’t just hunting salamanders for fun. They’re conducting a 10-year study of the salamander population in an attempt to measure the effects of global warming. The study is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Hamed said salamanders are very sensitive to surrounding temperature and if the world is indeed getting hotter he hypothesizes that certain species of salamander will only be found at higher and higher elevations on Whitetop Mountain.
“If we see any kind of climate shift, the animal doesn’t move,” he said. “It just dies.”
Hamed said there were a number of other reasons for using salamanders for his study aside from their tendency to die off in warmer temperatures. For starters, they’re territorial creatures that don’t tend to wander far. Another trait that makes the wriggly amphibians good subjects for observation is their longevity.
“They’re long lived. They can live as long as 20 to 25 years,” he said. “More common animals like birds and small mammals don’t live as long. An effect like (global warming) can be observed more easily if the creature lives for 20 years.”
While Hamed may be looking for signs of global warming, he’s not counting out any other factors that might kill of the salamander population at a particular elevation. In addition to rounding the creatures up and taking roll, Hamed and his volunteers are also checking for signs of parasitic fungus, disease, moisture and habitat alteration. Hamed compares this uneasy mix of factors to a house of cards.
“Someone can just come up and pull one card,” he said. “There’s a lot going on at one time.”
Though Hamed is happy hunting his salamanders and thankful for the funding that allows him to do so, the students that accompany him are also walking away with something from the study.
Jane Fleenor, biology teacher and science department chair at John S. Battle High School, said her students aren’t getting any extra credit for their work. The experience is the reward.
“I’m just thrilled to have the opportunity to bring my kids into the field and do real science,” he said. “It gives them the opportunity to see what real science research is all about.”
Fleenor said students from Abingdon and John Battle high schools could get the chance to see the entire study through from start to finish as Hamed is using students from both high schools, Virginia Highlands Community College, the University of Tennessee and East Tennessee State University.
In addition to getting a glimpse into the world of field research, Fleenor said it also gives everyone in class a better understanding of the natural process.
“They understand the material so much better… it helps them grasp a lot of ideas,” she said. “A textbook will never teach them like this.”
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While Hamed may sound like the only guy interested in salamanders, he says that the spot he’s surveying is actually famous among researchers for its salamanders. Two previous salamander scholars, Emmett Dunn and James Organ studied the salamander populations of the area in the early 1900s and between 1950 and 1990, respectively.
http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/salamander_science/news/2570/
 
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