One century later: Species richness and temporal turnover in mammals and amphibians on a small, temperate island
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Department/School
Biology
Publication Title
Northeastern Naturalist
Abstract
Islands can be proxies for understanding species-occupancy dynamics—like rates of immigration, extirpation, and persistence—in a world of increasingly isolated habitat patches. These dynamics have been investigated extensively at short and long timescales (e.g., a few versus tens of thousands of years), but intermediate periods are less frequently considered. Here, we report a resurvey of the amphibians and mammals of Charity Island, in Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron, ∼100 years after the island was first surveyed in 1910. We conducted surveys via visual and auditory monitoring, as well as targeted trapping. We found 7 species not previously documented on the island, although it is likely that only Tamias striatus (Eastern Chipmunk), Lithobates catesbeianus (= Rana catesbeiana) (American Bullfrog), and Hyla versicolor (Gray Treefrog) are genuinely new arrivals. In contrast, the previously detected Lepus americanus (Snowshoe Hare), Sylvilagus floridanus (Eastern Cottontail), Anaxyrus americanus (Eastern American Toad), and Lithobates (= Rana) palustris (Pickerel Frog) were not detected in our surveys. These findings indicate that modest but detectable species turnover occurs on isolated, high-latitude islands, even among otherwise common species.
Recommended Citation
Auteri, G. G., Navis, C. J., Greenwald, K., & Kurta, A. (2024). One century later: Species richness and temporal turnover in mammals and amphibians on a small, temperate island. Northeastern Naturalist, 31(4). https://doi.org/10.1656/045.031.0401
Comments
K. Greenwald and A. Kurta are faculty members in EMU's Department of Biology.
*G. G. Auteri and C. J. Navis are EMU students.