Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative |
ARMI Regions Program Coordination Biological Resources Discipline Geography Discipline Water Resources Discipline Partners & Cooperators For information regarding the contents of this page contact Alisa Gallant Site Map |
Program Coordination - ARMI is a multidisciplinary program, relying on coordination of efforts and expertise across government agencies, academic institutions, and non-government organizations. The USGS is uniquely suited to develop and provide scientific leadership for this effort, as it serves as the research arm of the Department of Interior, has a long history of employing research scientists who have pioneered studies on amphibian sampling techniques, toxicology, and health-related issues, and has a nationwide organization that oversees other national monitoring programs. Within the USGS, ARMI has several levels of organization. Overall Program coordination is provided by the USGS
Biological Resources Discipline. In addition, there are national coordinators for each of three participating USGS
Disciplines (Biology, Mapping, and Water). All field-related research is organized and conducted within seven
regions across the country, allowing the Program to benefit from regional herpetological and environmental expertise.
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Biological Resources Discipline - The USGS Biological Resources Discipline provides general oversight for
the ARMI Prgoram and coordinates all herpetological research, including field efforts and disease analysis.
Regional investigators have the responsibility for designing regional surveys, collecting and analyzing field data,
conducting causal research, and preparing reports of results. Additionally, field herpetologists work closely with
scientists from the USGS Water Resources Discipline to link hydrologic investigations with assessment of aquatic
habitat conditions.
Geography Discipline - The USGS
Geography Discipline has a strong background in land-cover and land-use characterization, geospatial environmental modeling, data visualization, and web-enabled applications. This experience complements the research and survey goals of the ARMI Program. Research efforts are underway to model environmental conditions that support amphibian breeding habitat, characterize the landscape from an amphibian perspective, and evaluate the distributions and natural histories of amphibian species in the context of habitat quantity and quality to determine where populations appear most at risk of decline. Additionally, the Geography Discipline has developed an interactive, web-enabled GIS application to provide visualization of ARMI data within a multiscale, environmental context.
Water Resources Discipline - The USGS Water Resources Discipline is conducting a number of hydrologic investigations in support of the ARMI Program. An objective of ARMI is to link amphibian population studies with hydrologic investigations that can characterize natural habitat suitability, determine the vulnerability of habitats to chemical stressors, and evaluate the role of climatic variability on amphibian populations. Hydrologists within the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and National Research Program are participating in many aspects of ARMI, including data collection and analysis, interdisciplinary research, and program planning and development. Scientists in the Toxics Program have participated in the design of ARMI from its inception. A Program hydrologist in each of the seven ARMI regions works with their biological science counterparts to develop robust monitoring programs that are tailored to local issues, but can be integrated within a national framework. Scientists are collecting information on habitat characteristics, candidate stressors, climate, and other hydrologic factors that influence amphibian life cycles. [Go to the Water Resources Discipline ARMI web site] National Research Program scientists, working independently and in multidisciplinary teams, are conducting
research into potential causes of amphibian declines or malformations. Research efforts include: investigating links
between water quality and amphibian malformations, building tools to identify effects of climate on amphibian
populations, developing new analytical methods for chemicals (e.g., hormones, which can affect amphibian
development), and determining how the quality of dissolved organic carbon in water affects ultraviolet light
penetration. [Read about activities carried out by the Water Resources Discipline by searching on “ARMI Annual Reports” in the ARMI Publications search utility.]
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