FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SREL enters record book
What does the oldest living tree in the world, the man with the longest mustache in the world and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) have in common? They all have been accepted as a Guinness Record and added to the Guinness database from which the well known Guinness World Records is created. SREL will be making its debut there for its Rainbow Bay project, which will now be known as the longest, continuous "Frog Watch" in the world.
Dr. Whit Gibbons, who initiated the project in 1978, is quick to point out that while the term "Frog Watch" is catchy, the project has actually tracked many species including other amphibians, reptiles, waterfowl and small mammals. The project was begun with funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) as an environmental assessment related to the construction of the defense waste processing facility on the Savannah River Site. DOE was concerned that the planned construction would eliminate a Carolina bay, a seasonal wetland habitat. Gibbons and SREL convinced the DOE that to have a credible assessment, research funding should include a long-term study at a similar and nearby Carolina bay for comparison purposes. DOE approved the plans and since the fall of 1978, pitfall traps and drift fences at Rainbow Bay have been checked daily, without interruption, in all kinds of weather -- weekends and holidays included.
Recognition in Guinness may be considered frivolous by some, but the work at Rainbow Bay has produced a wealth of scientific data and provided a matchless training ground for numerous herpetologists who have been supported as students by the project. Also, there have been more than 60 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals and book chapters about the work at Rainbow Bay.
Dr. James Spotila, chief environmental scientist for the U.S. Army, was one of the scientists who supported the Guinness entry. He said "I have found that the Rainbow Bay Study on the SRS is the longest running, most complete study of any amphibian population in the world. This is truly a world record achievement."
Long-term studies of reptiles and amphibians provide scientists and conservationists with reliable data which is invaluable as the world's attention has focused on the issue of diminishing populations of amphibians and reptiles. Among the more notable scientific ecological findings of the Rainbow Bay project has been that natural fluctuations can easily mask fluctuations resulting from environmental disruption and this must be factored into amphibian decline models. Such findings would never have been possible without the continual support necessary to carry out the daily environmental assessments of animal movements and activity.
Among the nationally known herpetologists who have been supported as students by the DOE-funded Rainbow Bay project are Trip Lamb (UGA PhD 1986) now at East Carolina University; Tony Tucker (UGA Masters 1989), now with the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, Australia; Ray Semlitsch (UGA Ph.D 1984) now with the University of Missouri; Dr. Joe Pechmann (UGA Masters 1981) now with the University of New Orleans; Kurt Buhlmann (UGA PhD 1998) now with Conservation International; Vincent Burke, now Science Editor for Smithsonian Institution Press. Still others have held post-doctoral positions supported by the project including David Scott (SREL); Justin Congdon (SREL); Jan Caldwell (University of Oklahoma), Laurie Vitt (University of Oklahoma), and Rich Seigel (Southeastern Louisiana University).
There is some irony that though long-term research is highly touted by the National Science Foundation and other funding organizations, the longest continuously funded ecological study in the United States has been by the US Department of Energy.
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CONTACT:
ROSEMARY FORREST
SREL PR COORDINATOR
[email protected]
(803) 725-9724
or
MARIE HAMILTON
[email protected]
(803) 725-2473
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