Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Maine
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Maine Project

Of Pools and People: Small natural features with large ecosystem functions in urbanizing landscapes (Collaborators: A.Calhoun, M.Hunter, K. Bell, M. Kinnison, C. Loftin, K. Capps, D. Bauer, E. Nelson)

January 2014 - December 2019

Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • NSF-Coupled Human Natural Systems

The value of natural landscape features is not necessarily reflective in their size, and some small features play a significant role in maintaining biodiversity or providing ecosystem services. Conserving these features and the functions they provide while developing tools that help reconcile property rights and rules of environmental protection across scales and jurisdictions provides novel opportunities for resource management. Seasonally inundated wetlands (vernal pools) are a model system to study the dynamics of small natural feature management. This project is a collaboration of the University of Maine, US Geological Survey Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Clark University, and Bowdoin College. This project brings together a team of ecologists and economists from multiple sub-disciplines and institutions to explore the biophysical and socioeconomic components of one type of small natural feature, vernal pools, as a coupled-systems model for management of these features; improve strategies for conserving vernal pools and other small natural features with large significance; and create novel and cutting-edge research, training, and educational experiences.

Presentations Presentation Date
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinneson, C.S. Loftin, A.J.K. Calhoun, K.P.Bell, K.Capps, M.L. Hunter, D.M. Bauer, and E.J. Nelson. 2014. Of pools and people: application of vernal pool amphibian landscape genetics in a socio-environmental coupled-systems model. Poster presentation at the 70th Annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference, April 13-15, Portland, ME. April 2014
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2015. Adapting to transforming environments: consequences of climate change and urbanization on vernal pool amphibians. Maine Association of Wetland Scientists Annual Meeting, Brunswick, ME, 24 March. March 2015
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2015. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians in a developing landscape. 71st Annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference, 19-21 April, Newport, RI. April 2015
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2015. Ecoevolutionary responses of spatially structured species experiencing climatic changes. Harold W. Borns Symposium, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 9-10 April. April 2015
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Oral presentation at the University of Maine Graduate and Undergraduate Research Symposium, Bangor, ME. 27 April 27. April 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Presentation at the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit's Annual Coordinating Committee Meeting, Orono, ME. 23 March. March 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Presentation at the Northeast Natural History Conference, Springfield, MA. April 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2017. Comparative landscape genetics of two vernal pool amphibians in an urbanizing landscape. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 5-8 June. June 2017
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2017. Comparative population structure of two pool breeding amphibian species in an urbanizing landscape. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of Evolution, Portland, OR, 23-27 June. June 2017
Homola, J.J., S.L. Belknap, K.R. Tanaka, C.S. Loftin, and M.T. Kinnison. 2017. Differential gene expression associated with epizootic shell disease infection in wild-caught American lobster. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, Tampa, FL. 20-24 August. August 2017
J.J. Homola, M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Poster. Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit's Annual Coordinating Committee Meeting, Orono, ME. 23 March. March 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Presentation at the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit's Annual Coordinating Committee Meeting, Orono, ME. 23 March. March 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2016. Comparative population structure of vernal pool amphibians across a changing landscape. Presentation at the Northeast Natural History Conference, Springfield, MA. April 2016
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2017. Comparative landscape genetics of two vernal pool amphibians in an urbanizing landscape. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 5-8 June. June 2017
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2017. Comparative population structure of two pool breeding amphibian species in an urbanizing landscape. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of Evolution, Portland, OR, 23-27 June. June 2017
Homola, J.J., M.T. Kinnison, and C.S. Loftin. 2018. Landscape genetics reveals differing effects of urbanization for two sympatric pool-breeding amphibian species. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Freshwater Science, 20-24 May, Detroit, MI. May 2018
Theses and Dissertations Publication Date
Homola, J.J. 2018. Eco-evolutionary implications of environmental change across heterogeneous landscapes. Doctoral Dissertation, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine, Orono. 217 pp. August 2018