Kristen Cecala's Home Page

Kristen Cecala
Wellington, NZ	I am a junior at Davidson College, and I have been a member of the Herpetology Laboratory since the fall of my sophmore year participating in checking the drift fence and assisting other members with their research. In the spring of my sophmore year, I began to work in the lab and was responsible for operating the drift fence and assisting with the Stream Salamander Study. I spent my junior, fall semester in New Zealand at Victoria University in Wellington. Upon my return to Davidson, I continue to work as the student point person for the Stream Salamander Study as well as taking Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and working on two independent research projects.	Arthur's Pass, NZ
Desmognathus fuscus Local Stream	The Effects of Urban Development on Stream Salamander Populations: A Landscape-Level Experiment With this project, I am involved by dipnetting, funnel trapping; testing stream characteristics; anesthetizing adult salamanders; individually marking captured salamanders with Visual Implant Elastomer (Northwest Marine Technology); ensuring equipment is working correctly; and assisting Steve Price in organizing and running the study. Interesting initial findings from this project are the presence of rare or previously undetected species in this region and the presence of soil mites in Desmognathus fuscus. See More Information and Preliminary Results Pseudotriton montanus-Gyrinophilus porphyriticus-Eurycea guttolineata Measuring and Comparing the Effectiveness of MS-222 and Orajel® as Amphibian Anesthesia I am completing this project as part of an Independent Research Class at Davidson College. Traditionally, researchers have used MS-222 to anesthetize amphibians, but Orajel® (active ingredient: Benzocaine) has the potential to be a much more attractive anesthetic because of availability, cost, and ease of transportation. Therefore, I am researching the effectiveness of MS-222 and Orajel® in amphibians by anesthetizing Acris crepitans, Desmognathus fuscus, and Ambystoma maculatum. Competition and Predation in a Stream Salamander Guild I am also completing this project for my Independent Research Class. Piedmont stream salamander guilds often have coexisting species of many different sizes, particularly in the larval age class. I am interested in investigating the mechanisms controlling species abundance within this guild using larvae. I will test behavioral responses of Desmognathus fuscus to Pseudotriton ruber to determine if competition is controlling species composition. To test if predation is occurring, I will stomach flush all newly caught Pseudotriton ruber larvae the laboratory finds.	Eurycea cirrigera Pseudotriton ruber 2 engorged soil mites
D.fuscus under anesthesia	Acris crepitans Ambystoma maculatum
Pseudotriton ruber Larvae	Desmognathus fuscus Larvae
Queen Charlotte Sound, NZ Kaiteriteri, NZ Onetahuti Beach, NZ	Email Me: Krcecala@davidson.edu Davidson College Herpetology Lab Homepage All Herp Photographs by M.E. Dorcas	Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook, NZ View from Mt. Sealy, NZ Arthur's Pass, NZ
Mt. Cook, NZ

Kristen Cecala

Wellington, NZ

I am a junior at Davidson College, and I have been a member of the Herpetology Laboratory since the fall of my sophmore year participating in checking the drift fence and assisting other members with their research. In the spring of my sophmore year, I began to work in the lab and was responsible for operating the drift fence and assisting with the Stream Salamander Study. I spent my junior, fall semester in New Zealand at Victoria University in Wellington. Upon my return to Davidson, I continue to work as the student point person for the Stream Salamander Study as well as taking Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and working on two independent research projects.

Arthur's Pass, NZ

Desmognathus fuscus

Local Stream

The Effects of Urban Development on Stream Salamander Populations: A Landscape-Level Experiment

With this project, I am involved by dipnetting, funnel trapping; testing stream characteristics; anesthetizing adult salamanders; individually marking captured salamanders with Visual Implant Elastomer (Northwest Marine Technology); ensuring equipment is working correctly; and assisting Steve Price in organizing and running the study. Interesting initial findings from this project are the presence of rare or previously undetected species in this region and the presence of soil mites in Desmognathus fuscus.

See More Information and Preliminary Results

Pseudotriton montanus-Gyrinophilus porphyriticus-Eurycea guttolineata

Measuring and Comparing the Effectiveness of MS-222 and Orajel® as Amphibian Anesthesia

I am completing this project as part of an Independent Research Class at Davidson College. Traditionally, researchers have used MS-222 to anesthetize amphibians, but Orajel® (active ingredient: Benzocaine) has the potential to be a much more attractive anesthetic because of availability, cost, and ease of transportation. Therefore, I am researching the effectiveness of MS-222 and Orajel® in amphibians by anesthetizing Acris crepitans, Desmognathus fuscus, and Ambystoma maculatum.

Competition and Predation in a Stream Salamander Guild

I am also completing this project for my Independent Research Class. Piedmont stream salamander guilds often have coexisting species of many different sizes, particularly in the larval age class. I am interested in investigating the mechanisms controlling species abundance within this guild using larvae. I will test behavioral responses of Desmognathus fuscus to Pseudotriton ruber to determine if competition is controlling species composition. To test if predation is occurring, I will stomach flush all newly caught Pseudotriton ruber larvae the laboratory finds.