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2018. Humans move in. Evict animals to snag trees

December 03, 2018

By Germain Meza, Sean Sandell, and Robert Bertolacci

Ecology students research the effects of urbanization on distribution of wildlife on campus, and find there is a difference between vertebrates and invertebrates

Did you ever wonder what those dead trees without any branches are called? Those are called snag trees and they are key players in our forest ecosystems. They provide nutrients to the soil through decomposition. This decomposition also softens the wood- allowing for burrowing invertebrates to obtain shelter. Snag trees can also act as bird signal posts. Putting it lightly, these dead trees are a hub for activity throughout many trophic levels in forest ecosystems. Urbanization removes these critical trees from our ecosystems.

The group of students (Kennah, Toby, Aly) went out and surveyed various forested locations throughout the SUNY Purchase campus and identified a few choice snag trees with respect to the distance from human activity. They surveyed the amount of animal activity at these snag trees and determined that more fragmented forest areas had less animal and bird activity whilst also having more insect activity. They would like people to know that edge effects are bad and that you probably shouldn’t karate kick those trees down when you see them. (You probably wouldn’t want someone karate kicking your house down.)