William Drabble

• Bsc (Hons) Biology (Ecology & Environmental Ecology)
• How Threatening is the Edge Effect? Analysing the Threat to Herpetofaunal Communities in Tropical Environments from Habitat Fragmentation.

Deforestation in tropical regions has led to patchy forests. This has caused transitional habitats called edges to form between forest and farmland, resulting in unpredictable effects to the abundance of species present. To study the effects of fragmentation on amphibians and reptiles I used two sets of data, collected in Mexico and Brazil. I examined the effect of distance to nearest edge and edge influence on the number of threatened species. I then explored the effect that closeness to roads and buildings had on diversity of wildlife in Mexico. The results help to form a more complete picture of how fragmentation effects communities, and in particular threatened species. Patterns were seen in relation to edge influence and distance to edge against diversity. However, more information is needed on species abundance and threat status in order to find patterns and create conservation tactics.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Marion Pfeifer