Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Willson, J.D.

Committee Member

Brye, Kristopher

Second Committee Member

Mortensen, Jennifer

Abstract

Fire is a key ecological disturbance, which plays a vital role in maintaining biodiversity and early successional species. For today’s land managers, prescribed fire is key in the restoration and maintenance of prairie ecosystems, halting woody encroachment and creating habitat desperately needed by many species. However, fire may have unintended effects on wildlife populations through direct mortality. Among taxa living in fire-dependent ecosystems, reptiles are predisposed to direct mortality, and several studies have recorded significant mortality during prescribed burns. However, the few studies investigating reptile mortality in prescribed fire are limited by small sample sizes and generally have limited analysis of environmental variables and spatial distribution. Consequently, my objective was to investigate factors driving reptile mortality in prescribed fire. To do this, I 1) correlated environmental characteristics, wind speed, soil temperature, and air temperature with snake mortality using a long-term data set of collected over the course of 10 years at prairie restoration sites in Northwest Arkansas, 2) investigated how different categories of snake habitat may differ in fire severity, which has significant implications for wildlife mortality, and 3) georeferenced and analyzed the distribution of snake mortalities through clustering and zonal analysis. We found a significant correlation between snake mortality and minimum temperature preceding the burn, as well as significant clustering of mortalities around prairie mounds. These findings will help implement prescribed fire in ways that minimize negative direct impacts to wildlife populations.

Keywords

fire ecology; tallgrass prairie; prescribed fire; fire management; herpetology

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