Eleodes hispilabris
Cynomys gunnisoni
Bibliographies
For my Master's work, while at Northern Arizona University under the supervision of Dr. C. N. Slobodchikoff, I looked at the influence of the Gunnison's prairie dog, Cynomys gunnisoni,on landscape structure and how the ground-dwelling arthropod community responded to changes in landscape structure. Specifically, I looked at the landscape structure of a high desert grassland on the Colorado Plateau at Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona. The Gunnison's prairie dog had a significant influence on the distribution of grass and bare ground on prairie dog towns compared to adjacent grasslands, on this landscape. Landscape structure exhibited a higher fractal dimension of bare ground (D approaches 2) on priairie dog towns which indicates that prairie dog habitats are simpler than adjacent grasslands. Likewise, landscape structure had a significant influence on the movement attributes of the Tenebrionid beetle, Eleodes hispilabris, where beetle pathways were more linear (D approaches 1), velocities higher, and net displacements farther on the portion of the landscape modified by prairie dogs. Prairie dog towns also influenced the diversity of the ground-dwelling arthropod community where species richness did not differ but Shannon's diversity, H', was higher on either active and/or inactive prairie dog towns than adjacent grasslands. One testable hypothesis for higher diversity on prairie dog towns is the presence of prairie dog burrows.
Publications
Bangert, R. K., and C. N. Slobodchikoff. 2000. The Gunnison's prairie dog structures a high desert grassland landscape as a keystone engineer. Journal of Arid Environments 46:357-369.
Bangert, R. K., and C. N. Slobodchikoff. 2003. Prairie dog engineering indirectly affects beetle movement behavior. Journal of Arid Environments: In press.
Bangert, R. K., and C. N. Slobodchikoff. Keystone engineers and community structure: prairie dogs enhance ground-dwelling arthropod diversity. In review.
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Eleodes hispilabris |
Cynomys gunnisoni |