by Christopher Gerstle
Sometimes the most important animal species in any ecosystem is the most unassuming one. Sometimes the most abundant animal is the most inconspicuous one. One such animal is the salamander. This animal is not quite as well-known or beloved among animal species. Even among amphibians people tend to be more interested and concerned about the salamander’s close relative, frogs. Yet these animals play a very critical role in forest ecosystems. They help control certain insect populations, provide a food source for higher level predators, and through their underground burrows keep soil aerated the full of nutrients for plant growth.
Salamanders also are important ecological indicators, which is a species who health is sensitive to the environment and so can be used to ascertain the health of an environment. Because of their importance in keeping an ecosystem healthy, protecting salamanders in whatever environment they live in will also help protect all of the other animals and plants living in those same environments.
In order to protect these animals, however, you must first understand them. Not only do you have to know how they affect their environment, you also need to know how their environment affects them. Salamanders in particular are vulnerable to the effects of the physical environment. Salamander skin is very thin and loses water much faster than mammalian skin. Also, whereas mammals have an internal heating system that keeps our body temperature relatively constant, salamanders are ectotherms which means that their body temperature varies with their environment. These kind of physiological limitations become especially important given that no environment is constant. There is variation in temperature, humidity, light, and other factors in an environment that all animals have to deal with. We experience this variation every day. As we walk from one side of a school campus or a town to another we experience fluctuations in both temperature as well as humidity. We also experience this variation as the day progresses, from a cool and humid morning to a warm and dry afternoon. Humans have very large bodies, endothermic, and have skin that is fairly resistant to water loss.
To us, these variations in our environment are little more than an annoyance. Salamanders, however, are small, ectothermic, and have skin that has little to no resistance to water loss. For them, even slight variations in environmental factors like temperature and humidity can make a major difference in how well they can function, perhaps to the point where they can’t even survive. Unfortunately, salamanders are not as well-known or as popular as frogs or other animals. As a result the exact nature of the interactions between a salamander’s physiology and its environment and how it affects the animal’s ability to carry out its ecological role is poorly understood.
Given that these animals play a very important part in the health of forest ecosystems and our changing climate forces us to have to predict how these animals will behave in a warmer and drier climate, it is important that we learn as much as we can about these animals. That is the mission of the Michael Sears lab at Clemson University: to understand to complex interactions between an animal’s environment and its physiology, so that we can protect these important animals for generations to come.
Sometimes the most important animal species in any ecosystem is the most unassuming one. Sometimes the most abundant animal is the most inconspicuous one. One such animal is the salamander. This animal is not quite as well-known or beloved among animal species. Even among amphibians people tend to be more interested and concerned about the salamander’s close relative, frogs. Yet these animals play a very critical role in forest ecosystems. They help control certain insect populations, provide a food source for higher level predators, and through their underground burrows keep soil aerated the full of nutrients for plant growth.
Salamanders also are important ecological indicators, which is a species who health is sensitive to the environment and so can be used to ascertain the health of an environment. Because of their importance in keeping an ecosystem healthy, protecting salamanders in whatever environment they live in will also help protect all of the other animals and plants living in those same environments.
In order to protect these animals, however, you must first understand them. Not only do you have to know how they affect their environment, you also need to know how their environment affects them. Salamanders in particular are vulnerable to the effects of the physical environment. Salamander skin is very thin and loses water much faster than mammalian skin. Also, whereas mammals have an internal heating system that keeps our body temperature relatively constant, salamanders are ectotherms which means that their body temperature varies with their environment. These kind of physiological limitations become especially important given that no environment is constant. There is variation in temperature, humidity, light, and other factors in an environment that all animals have to deal with. We experience this variation every day. As we walk from one side of a school campus or a town to another we experience fluctuations in both temperature as well as humidity. We also experience this variation as the day progresses, from a cool and humid morning to a warm and dry afternoon. Humans have very large bodies, endothermic, and have skin that is fairly resistant to water loss.
To us, these variations in our environment are little more than an annoyance. Salamanders, however, are small, ectothermic, and have skin that has little to no resistance to water loss. For them, even slight variations in environmental factors like temperature and humidity can make a major difference in how well they can function, perhaps to the point where they can’t even survive. Unfortunately, salamanders are not as well-known or as popular as frogs or other animals. As a result the exact nature of the interactions between a salamander’s physiology and its environment and how it affects the animal’s ability to carry out its ecological role is poorly understood.
Given that these animals play a very important part in the health of forest ecosystems and our changing climate forces us to have to predict how these animals will behave in a warmer and drier climate, it is important that we learn as much as we can about these animals. That is the mission of the Michael Sears lab at Clemson University: to understand to complex interactions between an animal’s environment and its physiology, so that we can protect these important animals for generations to come.