Formation of pools and Amphibian breeding

Research Plan

• Hurricane Patricia deposited a lot of organic material in the forest.

• My original plan was to see how organic material affected the formation of pools in streams

• But, it barely rained during June and July of 2017.

Formation of Ponds and data anylasis 

• Dr. Andres Garcia collected data on the pools in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

• When it rained,  pools formed in the arroyos. 

• As Dr. Garcia's research team had done previous years, I measured width, length, depth, color, substrate, presence of organic material, temperature, presence of amphibians, eggs, and tadpoles.

Data analysis from this and previous years

1) Precipitation events and pool formation at pool #2 in Arroyo Zarco

2) Precipitation in millimeters from 2013 - 2016 highlighting dry season from January - May vs rainy season from June - December. 

3) Precipitation in millimeters in 2017 highlighting dry season from January - June vs rainy season in July only. Early 2017 was an exceptionally dry year in the SDTF.

4) The Hydroperiod (period of time during which soils, waterbodies and sites are wet) is dependent on the substrate on which the pool forms.  Rocks had the greatest positive effect on hydroperiod while leaves had the lowest. 

5) The effect of Hydroperiod on the numbers of adult amphibians found in all pools within the study.  These results are interesting as adult amphibians apprear to have a preference for pools of short duration, vs pools that are present for a month or more.