Presenter(s)

Grace Litavsky, Leeha Calaff Marrero, Ailish Luby

Comments

Presentation: 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Kennedy Union Ballroom

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Description

Old River Park is a park located in Dayton, Ohio, an ecosystem supporting many types of life. Within the park, the company, National Cash Registry (NCR), used to have a recreational area for employees to use, but it is no longer managed and has naturally grown over with naturally colonizing plants and wildlife. Some of the man-made structures within the NCR park are still there but have been adopted into the natural woodland ecosystem around it. Because of this, we sought to understand how accustomed to the man-made structures the species living in this area are, and we decided to ask the question of whether seed-eating animals that live in this area have a preference for where they collect and/or eat their food. We hypothesized that seed predators would prefer and take more seeds from the natural areas compared to the man-made structures. We set out ten total bowls of 2,000 seeds, each in different locations, five at other man-made structures, and five in natural wooded areas without structures. We counted how many seeds were eaten from each bowl after two days. This process was repeated twice for a total of three replicates. This study is important because it gives insight into urban ecology and how the human footprint that is left on different environments can impact predation.

Publication Date

4-19-2023

Project Designation

Course Project 202310 BIO 459L 01

Primary Advisor

Chelse Prather

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Urban Structures’ Effect on Seed-Eating Predators at Old River Park

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