Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 4-17-2025
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Michel Ohmer
Second Advisor
Peter Zee
Third Advisor
John Samonds
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Climate change has been altering ecosystems across the world at a substantial rate, disrupting the delicate ecophysiological relationships between ecosystems and the organisms that live in them. Ectotherms, such as amphibians, rely on external temperatures to behaviorally thermoregulate, making it especially imperative to study their thermal biology. Thermal preference, which assesses the environmental temperature an organism would seek out in the absence of external stimuli, provides valuable information about an amphibian’s thermal biology and can be used to predict the effects of climate change on a species or population. A commonly used method to measure thermal preference is an arena with a temperature gradient spanning from a warmer area on one side of the arena and a cooler area on the opposite side. However, many different arena shapes, sizes, substrate types, and cooling methods are used. Our objective for this experiment is to design, construct, and test thermal preference arenas for small amphibians, experimenting with different sizes, shapes, and materials to determine if any of these variables impacted thermal preference of the animals or the stability of the temperature gradient in the arena. To do so, we constructed four arenas, one circular, one square, and two rectangular arenas differing in their base area, materials, and gradient construction. We then designed an experiment that exposed 12 lab-raised Southern cricket frog (Acris gryllus) juveniles to these arenas in 1.5 hour long trials — 30 minutes for exploration and 1 hour for body temperature measurement. We collected temperature data by utilizing an infrared camera or temperature gun and compared temperature preferences and arena methods by performing linear mixed models. We found that the temperature preference of the frogs was affected by arena shape and that different methods for achieving the gradient (particularly the cool end) resulted in equivalent gradient stability. However, different cooling methods and arena shapes resulted in different maximum and minimum gradient temperatures, which could influence results. Future work will further investigate the impact of gradient breadth on thermal preference measurements, and also whether body temperature collection methods (e.g. infrared temperature gun or camera) can also impact results.
As climate change continues to impact organisms worldwide, it is important that the methods for measuring thermal traits, such as thermal preference, are optimized to ensure repeatability and comparability across species and published papers.
Recommended Citation
Briggs, Eleanor E. and Phillips, David M. Jr., "Designing An Optimal Thermal Preference Arena for Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus) Juveniles" (2025). Honors Theses. 3355.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3355
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