I was a featured speaker for the recent Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings webinar series, where I got to talk about one of my favorite subjects – the wonderful, exciting world of vernal pools!
Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 5:00-6:30pm
Brief Description: This webinar will provide an in-depth look at vernal pools and their importance for a special group of amphibians that live in the forest. How do these small, seemingly insignificant wetlands play such an important role in our forest ecosystems? How have amphibians adapted to use the temporary abundance of water in vernal pools to breed?
Webinar 1: Vernal Pools
Our speaker, Dr. Mary Beth Kolozsvary, will share her knowledge of vernal pools, of the salamanders and frogs that rely on this critical breeding habitat, and some of the threats to vernal pools that warrant our conservation attention. We’ll also share a brief update from the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings project.
Speaker: Dr. Mary Beth Kolozsvary is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Siena College. She is broadly interested in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem ecology. Much of her research has focused on pool-breeding amphibians and the ecological importance of vernal pools as key habitats for those species and has included evaluating the effectiveness of vernal pool construction and state-regulatory policies and approaches. Mary Beth is a member of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative steering committee and co-leads the Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation’s Vernal Pool working group.
Link to a recording of the webinar is here. My talk begins at 17:16.
This webinar series focused on the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings (AM&RC) project, a program of the NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program and Cornell University. For more information on the AM&RC project and how you can get involved, please check out their website.