Dan Ardia is a professor of biology at Franklin & Marshall College and serves as a member of the Lancaster Conservancy’s Board of Directors. In a recent Nature Hour presentation, he shared how he and his students are conducting wildlife research in collaboration with the Conservancy, using a range of monitoring techniques to assess mammal and bird populations in Lancaster and York counties.
Check out the Nature Hour presentation:
In our rapidly shifting environment, wildlife faces challenges of urbanization, climate change, and poor habitat quality. Healthy and connected natural lands play an increasingly important role in supporting biodiversity and aiding in restoring ecosystem function. Dan’s research helps provide the empirical evidence needed so the Conservancy can study the impacts of our restoration efforts and make the best management decisions possible for the lands that we steward.
Dan looks for three metrics to determine the health of an ecosystem:
- Biodiversity – Typically, healthier ecosystems have a greater variety of species.
- Ecological function – A healthy ecosystem has many ongoing processes, such as decomposition, herbivory, predation, and photosynthesis.
- Ecosystem resilience – This is an ecosystem’s ability to recover from a disturbance such as a heat wave or prolonged drought.
To support those goals, Dan explains, landscapes need large blocks of forest and connected areas of wildlife habitat, cared for with restoration practices that support healthy ecosystems. Lancaster County is the least forested county in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, so these large, healthy, connected blocks of forest can be difficult to find here – and those that do exist are even more important to protect and steward.
Red fox caught on a trail camera through Dan Ardia’s research (Photo from Dan’s Nature Hour presentation: Wildlife Research on Lancaster Conservancy Preserves)
To study mammals, Dan’s research involves placing motion-activated trail cameras around Lancaster Conservancy preserves, working with students and the Department of Research Computing at Franklin & Marshall College to sort through the images captured and identify which animals are present in the region. Some species, like white-tailed deer and red foxes, are commonly spotted. The presence of less common species that are found in other, more forested, areas of Pennsylvania could indicate healthier ecosystems.
Dan also studies birds, setting up acoustic loggers that record birdsong during certain periods of time. By identifying which birds are calling, he can get a sense of what species are active and breeding at a particular site. At Safe Harbor Nature Preserve, where the Conservancy has been conducting a grassland restoration project, Dan is studying bird populations before, during, and after the project is implemented. This will help show how the restoration of Safe Harbor Nature Preserve impacts the bird species that are present there.
Learn more about Dan’s research and its findings in the Nature Hour presentation above!
Scientific study or research on Lancaster Conservancy’s nature preserves requires advanced approval. If interested, please use the following form to submit your request: www.lancasterconservancy.org/event-notice/. Please note that outside of approved scientific study or research, the Conservancy’s rules and regulations do not allow for game camera or drone use.