Vernal Pool Research Cited in MPBN Report on Wood Frogs
Vernal pool research being conducted at the University of Maine was cited in a Maine Public Broadcasting Network report titled “Maine scientist: Wood frogs at risk after unprecedented die-off.” Nat Wheelwright, a professor of biology at Bowdoin College, who has found evidence of a mass die-off of wood frog tadpoles says the deaths underline the importance of stepping up monitoring efforts and mobilizing citizen scientists. “There’s a wonderful program of monitoring vernal pools done by the University of Maine at Orono, and mostly they look at egg-laying, but maybe we want to be involving citizen scientists to go back to those same vernal pools to see how the tadpoles actually do, just to understand if this pattern of die-off is common,” he said. The report also linked to more information on UMaine’s vernal pool monitoring efforts.