Natural History Student Awards

Natural History Undergraduate Awardee: Ahmee Smith

Faculty Advisor & Agency Advisor: Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Gizelle Hurtado

This California Condor Skeletal Articulation is a senior project with the goals of creating a museum display, scientific poster, and guide about the process of bird skeleton articulation and the ecology of the endangered California Condor. A California Condor Skeletal specimen will be turned into a skeletal articulation, a type of display where bones are glued and wired together to pose the skeleton in the animal’s most natural position. The finished skeleton will be put on display as a museum exhibit at the Norris Center. Because of the Condor’s damaged state, some bones are missing. Ahmee Smith will be using their experience from the taxidermy internship, the arts, and 3D printing to replace bones and restore the skeleton. This outreach project will highlight the importance of California Condors, which were once extinct in the wild. Ahmee will use an interdisciplinary view of taxidermy that leverages technology and creativity to create realistic condor diorama.

Natural History Undergraduate Awardee: Danica Keepper

Faculty Advisor: Eric Palkovacs

Understanding the natural history of the Santa Cruz long toed salamander (SCLTS) provides insight on how to manage and conserve this important endangered species. Over the past year, I have gotten to be a part of the SCLTS propagation project, where we breed adult salamanders in captivity and release their larvae into protected habitats. In past observations, I have discovered that some larvae bite or swallow other smaller larvae whole. They also have the incredible ability to regenerate entire limbs, and heal quickly from tail bites. My project examines the relationship between population density and the frequency of cannibalistic behavior in larval Santa Cruz long toed salamanders. It also seeks to explore cell regeneration and how quickly it can occur during healing from bites. Studies such as these help us solidify our understanding of animal behavior, improve conservation efforts, and unravel the natural history of a unique, endemic species of salamander.

Natural History Undergraduate Awardee: Cricket Clark

Faculty Advisor & Agency Advisor: Rachel Meyer and Alex Jones

Environmental DNA extraction from webs of the cave spider Meta dolloff Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is DNA that persists in the air, water, or on a substrate like sediment and cave walls that can tell us more about the unique environment where it was found, including what species live in that habitat. Spider webs are an excellent source of eDNA because they capture free floating DNA in the air and collect it in one place.

Conclusion: Using eDNA as a biodiversity sampling tool is a novel process prone to inaccuracies, but it has the potential to be a helpful method for detecting rare and cryptic species. The web samples detected eDNA, meaning that in the future eDNA from M. dolloff webs could be further studied. I believe this project and future related projects could benefit from a clear standardization of methods to improve accuracy.

Natural History Undergraduate Awardees: Dylan Pereira, and Theadora Block

Faculty Advisor:  Bruce Lyon

Project: Using Feathers to Investigate Cross-Seasonal Effects of Nutrition

Why traits vary among individuals in populations is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. In some cases, this variation reflects genetic effects. It makes sense that differences in genetics will lead to differences in certain phenotypic traits like body size, but genetic variation between individuals is not the only factor fueling trait variation. Some trait variation is influenced by the differences between individuals in their condition or environment. Not all variation is caused by genetics alone.

Golden crowned sparrows are migratory birds that breed in the far north and winter in the western USA. The amount of gold and black plumage on golden-crowned sparrows’ heads  functions as  ‘badges of status’ that are used to signal their relative fighting ability to each other. Is feather variation at least partly condition-dependent.

I used tail feather growth rate of individual golden-crowned sparrows as an indication of their relative nutritional condition during the period when the tail feathers grew.

Natural History Undergraduate Awardee: Cassandra Giannousis

Advisor: Regina Spranger

Project: Acclimation temperature affects skin resistance of Southern long-toed salamander

Amphibians are a critically important group of animals in many ecosystems, yet they are also one of the most vulnerable. Amphibians have porous skin (their skin allows moisture to enter and leave), which puts them at risk of dehydration due to increased temperatures and drier weather conditions caused by climate change.

One way to measure the impact of climate change on amphibians is with skin resistance. Skin resistance is a numerical measurement defined as an organism’s resistance to evaporative water loss through the skin.

For my senior thesis project, I measure whether skin resistance exhibits plasticity in response to environmental change in salamanders local to California.

My research suggests that increasing acclimation temperature can cause a response in salamander skin resistance, but that this response can differ depending on how much warmer the acclimation temperature is.