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My REU Experience in China Iwo P. Gross Eastern Illinois University Charleston, IL |
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Institutions |
How it all Began My first aspirations
of coming to do research in China began in late November of 2011. I received an
email from a former colleague whose friend was looking for undergraduate
assistants to aid him in his PhD research in China. I could hardly believe my
luck; I thanked my buddy for recommending me, then quickly cc’ed him in an email I composed to the PhD student I
would quickly come to know as Kevin Messenger. The next few months were
tumultuous as Kevin and I exchanged longer and longer email threads,
concerning the status of his grant and other delicate logistics. In that time
I began research on China’s herpetofauna, I found a
Mandarin Chinese tutor, and anxiously waited for a call or email guaranteeing
my ticket. Finally, Dr. Elica Moss ended my torment
with a phone call, and I could not help dancing around the lab as she
confirmed my assigned research project.
My project in a Nutshell Hainan Island is an
island directly south of Mainland China. With the ever-expanding tourism
market, Hainan’s enormous biodiversity could be at risk to increasing trends
in human disturbance. In our study, we examined the effects anthropogenic and
elevational gradients may have on herpetofaunal community composition, richness, and
diversity. After surveying several
sites using basic opportunistic encounter methods, we determined percent
community similarity between sites, as well as species richness and diversity
using Simpson’s diversity index. These
three calculations are commonly used when judging the overall condition of an
area’s floral and faunal communities. Species richness is simply the total
number of species found within a certain site. Species diversity,
specifically Simpson’s Index of Diversity, is only one measure of diversity
that factors in both species richness and evenness (similarity of population
sizes of each species in a given community). We discovered that
at our field sites, neither disturbance nor elevation had significant effects
on species richness, diversity, or community similarity. High amphibian
abundance at higher elevations skewed our results from the more commonly
observed pattern best explained by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.
Previous studies have shown that moderate levels of disturbance may increase
relative biodiversity in an area. This
hypothesis has also been found to explain shifts in biodiversity along elevational gradients as well. In our study, we have found that it is
important to include other factors when determining levels of biodiversity in
an area, since elevation and disturbance are not the only variables at play.
I would urge land managers and the Chinese government to enforce more
stringent conservational laws on both pristine and slightly disturbed areas
that may encroach more on the virgin habitat still present on Hainan Island. |
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