Oak Openings Research Forum 2018

This year the Oak Openings Research Forum happened yesterday, Feb. 4th. There was a great lineup of speakers, including our own Tyler Turner. I think some of the best presentations were given by G.T. Watters on Ohio Mussels and Brendan Shirkey on Marshland Rails. The keynote was Dr. Stanley D. Gehrt from OSU who has done extensive research on coyotes in the urban/suburban environment. An excellent event all around.

Above is Tyler during his presentation, revealing how bat activity decreased  as distance from forested areas increased.
If you saw our instagram post (@root_conservation) you saw how the diversity of bats was highest in the forested areas, decreased in the forest/ag mosaic, and was least in the agricultural areas he surveyed.  All his surveys were done from the roads near these habitat types.

 Amanda Martin had a beautiful poster comparing the original landcover map of the Oak Openings Region with her updated version. Overall, natural/semi-natural land covers increased by 5.8%, with a decrease in forests/woodlands and and increase in prairies/meadows. 

 

Greg Gustafson also had a poster with his research on land management effects on terrestrial vertebrates. 
He surveyed locations with different land management history. There was a higher avian abundance, and more 
tree snags (standing dead trees) in locations with more management history/actions.  
He also found that percent oak savanna surrounding sites had a correlation with white-tail deer abundance.

 
Here is the whole lab (From Left to Right) Greg. G, Karen Root, Amanda M., Tyler T., Rachel Kappler and Jake Schoen