Browsing by Author "Blake, Amy"

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    Abundance and Diversity of Small Mammals Found in Forest Habitat Compared with Prairie Habitat
    (2010-03-10) Blake, Amy; Shaughnessy, Lorraine; Strelow, Desiree
    Many factors can influence the biodiversity in a particular habitat. In this study, we looked at the biodiversity of small mammals in four forested habitats and four prairie habitats. We predicted that heterogeneous habitats would be more diverse, while disturbed areas would be less diverse. We set up a 5 x 10 trap-grid in each of the eight habitats, using a combination of Sherman, Russian, and Longworth traps. We checked traps in the forest habitats once a day for three consecutive days and traps in the prairie habitats twice a day for three consecutive days. Results indicate that biodiversity of small mammals is greater in most of the forested sites than in prairie sites. We also observed that the red-backed vole and the deer mouse were present in both forest and prairie habitat while other species found were only common in prairie or forest.
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    Impacts of Geomys Bursarius on vegetation patterns found in an old field in Clearwater County, MN
    (2010-03-10) Blake, Amy; Strelow, Desiree; Kraft, Tanner
    The effects of the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) mound building on plant species diversity were investigated in an old field in June 2008. Past studies have shown conflicting results that mound building negatively impacts plant species diversity or that mound building positively impacts plant species diversity. To conduct our study we compared vegetation on new mounds, abandoned mounds, old mounds, and control areas with no mounds. Our results support our hypothesis that G.bursarius activity in an old field increases plant species richness. It also agrees with historical studies that gopher mound building can generate a prairie ecosystem in disturbed areas and increase plant heterogeneity present.