Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-7-2016 An Ecological Study of the Anurans in Tea Plantations in a Biodiversity Hotspot Lilly M. Eluvathingal Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC001204 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Biodiversity Commons, Other Animal Sciences Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Life Sciences Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Eluvathingal, Lilly M., "An Ecological Study of the Anurans in Tea Plantations in a Biodiversity Hotspot" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3029. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3029 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF ANURANS IN TEA PLANTATIONS IN A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in BIOLOGY by Lilly Margaret Eluvathingal 2016 To: Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts, Sciences and Education This dissertation, written by Lilly Margaret Eluvathingal, and entitled An Ecological Study of the Anurans in Tea Plantations in a Biodiversity Hotspot, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Kenneth Feeley _______________________________________ Evelyn Gaiser _______________________________________ Joel Heinen _______________________________________ Karthikeyan Vasudevan _______________________________________ Maureen A. Donnelly, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 7, 2016 The dissertation of Lilly Margaret Eluvathingal is approved. _______________________________________ Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts, Sciences and Education _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii © Copyright 2016 by Lilly Margaret Eluvathingal All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents and to the late Dr. M. S. Mayilvahanan. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have had the honor of interacting with some of the most inspiring people I have ever met, as a part of this dissertation. To each and every one of them I am very grateful. I thank Dr. Maureen A. Donnelly for recognizing the enthusiasm in 18-year old me, and inspiring a relationship that has long transcended one of just a student and a mentor. Her patience, motivation, and inspiration, through her own example have guided me through this dissertation journey. I thank all my committee members Dr. Evelyn Gaiser, Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Dr. Joel Heinen, and Dr. Kenneth Felley for all their support and inputs in my project. To past and present labmates at FIU, Vivian Maccacharro, Monica Isola, Seiichi Murasaki, Kelsey Reider, Luke Linhoff, Michelle Thompson, Micheal Britton, Edward Metzger III, Matt Holden, James Watling, Ralph Saporito and Steven Whitfield for all the wonderful times through the years. All my field work in India was possible because of the infinite trust I had in my field assistant and handyman, Elangovan, a kadar tribal. When faced with elephants and gaurs not once was I left in the lurch. I thank several of my colleagues Sandeep Das, Arun Kanagavel, Sethu Parvathi, Sandeep Varma, Dr. Deepak Veerapan, and Sneha Dharwadkar for helping in various steps along the way and for encouraging me to keep going when I was stagnating. My parents, Alice and Jemmis, embraced my project as their own and helped me at every step along the way. Sebastian, my brother has been a pillar of moral support through this project and through all my life. v To Dr. Mayil Vahanan Muthuswami, an extra ordinary man, whose gentle yet persistant encouragement made me take up photography. I wish I could have shared this finished product with him. He will be with me in spirit through every endeavor in life. I hope to learn to conduct myself with the grace and gentleness that he showed everyday of his life. To all the people from the tea plantations of Munnar who welcomed me into their community and taught me the life lessons of being content and happy with whatever little one has and to never forget that one doesn’t need to have a lot to share and bring a smile on someone else’s face. I have to mention the old gentleman with the carrot stand whose handsome smile never wilted; nurse aunty, a selfless individual working for the welfare of everyone around her; and Kaka, the estate elder, whose stories about the life in the plantations would keep me occupied for hours on days which were too wet to go to field, over endless cups of black tea. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF ANURANS IN TEA PLANTATIONS IN A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT by Lilly Margaret Eluvathingal Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Maureen Donnelly, Major Professor Increasing human population size is increasing the demand for resources like timber, oil, tea, coffee, and other crops. Plantation crops mimic some aspects of native habitats, and there are studies that report the presence of some native anuran biodiversity in plantations. I focused on tea plantations in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot and studied the diversity and health of anurans in different habitats found within a tea cultivation area, near Munnar region in the Western Ghats, India. The landscape includes tea bushes, native evergreen shola forest patches, and eucalyptus forest stands. I reviewed 40 studies comparing amphibian species richness in plantations and primary forests. The age of the plantation, type of plantation, presence in a biodiversity hotspot, number of species in the dominant plantation type, number of species in the paired forest habitat, and latitudinal zone of the study, did not correlate with species richness, but plantations that had periodic harvesting had higher species richness than plantations that practiced clear-cut harvesting. I tested different methods of standard amphibian sampling vii in the field season 2012 in Munnar, and found that Visual Encounter Surveys (VES) in the shola habitat and Stream Transects (ST) were the most efficient. Using the VES and ST methods, I sampled amphibians in three upland habitats (tea, shola, and eucalyptus) at four different sites, and 150m of stream transects at each site, for two consecutive monsoon seasons. Fourteen species were encountered in both years and the community structure was similar across the years. The community structure at the four sites that was driven by the presence of exclusive species at each site and species composition in streams was similar across the landscape and was driven by the presence of similar species in streams across the four sites. Two hundred and sixteen anurans of 17 species, were tested for the presence of the lethal fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The preliminary results from the Polymerase Chain Reactions were negative. My study provides baseline data for anuran diversity, composition, and health in the Munnar region of India and results of this project can be compared with tea plantations around the world. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction.…...……………………………………………….………………….1 Literature Cited……...…………………………………………………………….4 II. CHAPTER 1: A Global Analysis of Factors Driving Amphibian Diversity in Plantations……........................................................................................................6 Introduction……………………………………………………………………......7 Literature Survey……..………………………………………………………….16 Study Site……..………….………………....……………………………............16 Field Methodology……………………………………………………………….17 Results……………………………………………………………………………18 Discussion………………………………………………………………………..21 Literature Cited……………………..……… ……………………………….......28 Appendix 1.1. Forty papers used for the review in chapter 1……………………46 Appendix 1.2 Table with information from 40 studies used for the review in chapter 1………………………………………………………………………….50 III. CHAPTER 2: A Comparative Study of Standard Methods for Surveying Anurans in Tea Plantations in the Southern Western Ghats……..…………...….51 Introduction and Background ………..………………………………………….52 Study Area…………………………………………………………………….....62 Methods…………………………………………………………………………..64 Analysis and Results……..…………………………………………………........67 Discussion……..……………………………………………………………........70 Literature Cited………………………………………………………………......74 IV. CHAPTER 3: Patterns of Anuran Community Structure in a Tea Plantation Landscape..............................................................................................................95 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...96 Study Area……………………………………………………………………...103 Methods………………………………………………………………………...105 Analysis………………………………………………………………………...107 Results………………………………………………………………………….109 Discussion………………………………………………………...…………….113 Literature Cited……………………………………………………………........120 V. CHAPTER 4: Testing for Chytrid Infection in Tea Plantations in the Southern