Catenazzi Lab
  • Home
  • Research
    • New species
  • Education
  • Members
  • Publications
  • News
  • Contact

News

Cloud forest leaf litter quickly warming up

3/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Last year was the warmest year on record but our data from Manu National Park in the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes show that January and February 2016 might shatter previous records in the region (January-March are typically the warmest months in this region). We only started tracking leaf litter temperatures (where our study critters the amphibians live) in January of 2014, and thus only have data since that time, but this is probably compensated by the fact that 2014 and 2015 are among the warmest years since records began. Our data for the first two months of 2016 along the elevational transect in Manu from 550 to 3450 m show that January and February 2016 are nearly a degree Celsius warmer than the same months in 2014, and ~0.8 Celsius warmer than the same months in 2015 (see graph below).  
Picture
What is remarkable in these data is that the sensors do not record air temperatures, but temperatures amphibians are likely to experience in their thermally buffered microhabitats, under layers of mosses (at high elevations) and leaf litter (at mid and low elevations). These data suggest that amphibians are unlikely to easily escape warming, even under layers of mosses and leaf litter. The photo shows sensors embedded in agar models being buried under the leaf litter in the montane forest at 900 m, which is the wettest among our monitoring sites.
Picture
The sensors placed under the deepest layers of mosses (and thus, possibly more buffered against changes in air temperatures) recorded larger increases in warming than sensors placed under the thinner leaf litter. This is possibly caused by higher degree of warming at high elevations, as shown by the graph below which illustrates that average temperatures in the high-elevation cloud forests (above 2000 m) this year exceed by up to 1.4C the January-February averages of 2014.
Picture
0 Comments

Hands on learning in the costa rican jungle

3/21/2016

1 Comment

 
Alex just got back from spending 2 weeks in Costa Rica with the Forman School Rainforest Project. This project, now in its 24th year, teams up high school students from Litchfield, Connecticut with researchers to conduct studies in the rainforest.  This year students conducted projects examining the strength of spider silk, banded neotropical migrant birds, tracked mammals throughout the preserve, recorded animal sounds for Cornell's Macaulay Library, and conducted surveys of the herpetofauna in the buffer zone of Braulio Carrillo National Park. This research was all conducted within the neighboring reserves of Selvatica and Rara Avis. These sites are home to an incredible diversity of plants and animals, and neighbor one of the largest and most unexplored national parks in Costa Rica. 
Picture
The 2016 Spider Team extracting silk from a ​Nephila clavipes. The silk of these spiders is one of the strongest natural fibers. These students, and the teams before them, have been investigating the sustainable extraction and use of this silk. 
Picture
The 2016 Bird Team mist netted birds throughout the reserve.  This year they banded a number of migrants, and recaptured one that was first banded more than 5 years ago. 
Picture
This year's mammal team placed radio collars on a bat and 2 possums this year and tracked their movements. They also mist netted bats to begin assembling a species list for the area, deployed camera traps (capturing a puma and a margay!), and began mapping tapir and peccary movements along the trails.  
Picture
The Bioacoustics Team records bird, frog, and insect songs for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  These recordings can be used in the future for remote biodiversity assessments using auto-identification software (think Shazam for nature!). 
Picture
And last, but certainly not least, the 2016 Reptiles and Amphibians Team! This years team worked alongside Alex and Dr. Twan Leenders (Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History) to survey the herpetofauna of the reserve and collect data on the prevalence of chytrid.  They swabbed over 200 frogs, salamanders, and tadpoles in less than 2 weeks.  
1 Comment

A CAecilian Expedition...

3/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Here are hopeful herpetologist armed with digging tools before heading to a site where caecilians (likely Oscaecilia) had previously been found. From left to right: Alessandro Catenazzi, Kerry Kriger (savethefrogs.com), Vanessa Luna (Science Coordinator at Villa Carmen), Alex Ttito and Consuelo de las Nieves. 

Surveying caecilians is hard work. Even the late afternoon sun feels hot when digging. Unfortunately we could not find any of these elusive amphibians this time.
0 Comments

New "cold frog" from the Valley of the Bears

3/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
A lab contribution and collaboration with Alex Ttito published today in PeerJ adds one species to the genus Psychrophrynella, a group of highly endemic, high-Andean leaf litter and moss frogs. The name of the new species, chirihampatu, comes from the Quechua words hampatu = toad, and chiri = cold, in reference to the cold environments inhabited by this frog in the upper cloud forest of the eastern slopes of the Andes. This name is also a wordplay with the genus name, which has the same meaning but is composed of Greek words. 

Picture
The new species was found during a quick biological survey (see our post from last year) in the Private Conservation Area Ukumari Llaqta, in the Japumayo Valley of southern Peru. Ukumari Llaqta, which means "place of the bears", is a legally recognized protected area owned by the Community of Japu Qeros. This beautiful valley is likely to hold additional treasures and new species, including other species of terrestrial-breeding frogs.

The new species (1st row) is most similar to P. usurpator (2nd row) from Manu National Park, of which is likely a sister taxon, but can easily be distinguished by its ventral coloration yellow with brown flecks (gray or brown with cream flecks in P. usurpator). Most specimens of P. chirihampatu were found under rocks (many males were calling) during the day in areas of disturbed montane forest vegetation, such as the sides of the trail and natural landslides. An egg nest found under a rock contained 11 eggs, and similarly to P. usurpator (where egg nests are usually found unattended), we don't know whether parents (and if so, which of the parents) attend nests.
0 Comments

Recording marsupial frogs

3/8/2016

0 Comments

 
This video shows the habitat of the marsupial frog Gastrotheca excubitor and the direct-developing Psychrophrynella usurpator in the highlands near Manu National Park. The misty and drizzly afternoon boosted the calling activity of both species, and a couple of males of the marsupial frogs can be heard in this video. 
0 Comments

Especies nuevas del 2015

3/8/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Articulo publicado por el periódico Correo el 6 de marzo 2016 sobre nuevas especies de fauna descubierta en Perú durante el 2015, incluyendo a la rana dorada de Huancavelica (Telmatobius ventriflavum). 
0 Comments

Getting Ready

3/1/2016

0 Comments

 
Here's a quick overview of working tools for a night of frogging in the Amazonian Andes.
Picture
0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    CATENAZZI LAB

    News from the lab

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Catenazzi Lab

11200 SW 8th Street, Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University
Miami, FL 33199

Contact Us