Bloomsburg University Biology Master's student Jamie Shinskie won the Best Student Research Award for the poster she presented at the 2016 Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC) Meeting that occurred Aug 9 - 11 in Poultney, Vermont. Jamie's poster highlighted the interdisciplinary ecological research she has been conducting under the guidance of Dr. Amber Pitt (Department of Biological & Allied Health Sciences) and Dr. Tina Delahunty (Department of Environmental, Geographical, and Geological Sciences) in which she used a combination of field-based ecological research and remote sensing to evaluate the effects of reach-scale land use and land cover change and within-stream habitat quality on hellbender salamander population persistence and extirpation in the Susquehanna River drainage of Pennsylvania. Her research demonstrated that deforestation and the subsequent increases in siltation, sedimentation, and turbidity in stream channels were linked with hellbender population loss.
NEPARC is part of the national Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) which is a partnership-based organization dedicated to the conservation of amphibians, reptiles, and their habitats. NEPARC is comprised of representatives from academia, state, federal, and local government agencies, non-government conservation organizations, and the private sector from the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Virginia.
Jamie will be graduating in 2016 with a Master of Science degree in Biology from Bloomsburg University. Her graduate committee consists of Drs. Amber Pitt, Tina Delahunty, and Steve Rier.
Citation: Shinskie, J.L., A.L. PItt, and T. Delahunty. 2016. Historic and Recent Canopy Cover and Stream Habitat Variables affecting Eastern Hellbender Persistence within the Susquehanna River Drainage of Pennsylvania. 2016 Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Meeting, 9-11 August 2016, Poultney, Vermont.
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