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theses

In recent decades, anuran amphibians have suffered unprecedented declines throughout many parts of the world. In the eastern United States, one example of an enigmatic extirpation has emerged over recent decades in which leopard frogs disappeared from parts of New York City, Long Island, and surrounding mainland areas in New York and Connecticut. I conducted research into the causes of this extirpation and focused specifically on Long Island where the southern leopard frog, Rana (Lithobates) sphenocephala, was recognized to occur. This included work at two regionally extant populations outside the extirpation zone. Over time, I observed unusual differences between those two populations; at one, in southern New Jersey, frogs appeared typical for R. sphenocephala, at the other, on Staten Island, New York, frogs exhibited several atypical characteristics. Further research was needed to explore the reasons behind these differences. Here, I present results from that research. The first stage (Chapter 1) was a molecular examination that focused on leopard frogs from Staten Island and three other regional populations later found to exhibit similar atypical characteristics. The results, supported by strong nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenetic evidence, revealed that all four populations were part of a cryptic genetic lineage that was distinct from R. sphenocephala and two other regionally similar congeners, the northern leopard frog, R. pipiens, and pickerel frog, R. palustris. The discovery of this novel genetic lineage was followed by a subsequent study (Chapter 2) comparing bioacoustic and morphological characters between the same four congeners from chapter 1. The results revealed additional separation between the new species and its congeners and allowed us to taxonomically diagnose and describe the new species and name it formally as the Atlantic Coast leopard frog, R. kauffeldi. The new species is visually similar to R. sphenocephala and bioacoustically similar to the wood frog, R. sylvatica, which was also included in the bioacoustic analysis. In the midst of this discovery, in October 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall across the same area where many known R. kauffeldi populations were located. This created cause for concern and prompted a study of the hurricane’s impact on several of the most vulnerable populations in the New York City area (Chapter 3). Rana kauffeldi survived at all study locations, suggesting that this species is capable of withstanding large-scale coastal-flooding events and rapid salinity increases.

ETD_6863

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Jeremy Adam Feinberg

doi:10.7282/T3K35WNK

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.