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Assessment Of Land Use And Neotropical Herpetofauna Along Steep Gradients Of Elevation In An Ecuadorian Ramsar Wetland Site #1143, Nicholas K. Henke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using a comparative ecological approach, over the course of 18 days at the transition from a particularly wet to dry season in 2010, I assessed herpetofaunal assemblages and related abiotic parameters (i.e., photosynthetically active radiation, specific conductance, temperature and coarse woody debris) between contiguous forest and human impacted areas along three paired transects across the steep elevation gradient at Laguna de Cube, Ramsar site # 1143. Visual encounter surveys were used to capture herpetofauna with species being processed (e.g., weight, digit length, photographed) and identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. After evaluating transect data for pooling (i.e., no significant …