University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
OP-10: Biodiversity

UTRGV students and faculty conduct interdisciplinary research drawing on both the natural and social sciences as they can be applied to evaluate and interpret relationships between people, the environment, and natural resources in the past, present, and future, and assist in the research of other organizations, such as U.S. Parks and Wildlife and The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, by monitoring lands around South Texas, including the Gulf Coast and other conservation areas such as the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center. We are particularly interested in habitat use, ecology, and conservation of the native birds and animals of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A major project has been a historical study of the breeding birdlife and habitats of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, to be published as a book by Texas A&M University Press in Fall 2005. We have collaborated with researchers from Texas A&M University in a study of bird species of conservation concern in southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. Frank J. Dirrigl, Ph.D., UTRGV biology professor and researcher, is currently investigating the response of indicator species and species guilds to land-use development, particularly interested in biomonitoring pre and post construction activities to access the potential impacts from environmental engineering structural designs and practices on wildlife. Additionally, graduate student research has led to important discoveries. While checking photographs taken by motion-sensor cameras while researching ocelot movements for her master’s thesis for legacy institution, University of Texas at Brownsville, graduate student Sarah Nordlof saw two ocelots in the same image. The photos were blurry, but it was clear that one ocelot was significantly smaller than the other, strongly suggesting it was a mother and her offspring, wildlife officials said. With the already small cat population in South Texas, due to habitat loss and human activity, the addition of a new one is significant for ocelot population recovery.

Dr. Kathryn E. Perez, assistant professor of biology, and her students, Eli Ruiz and Marco Martinez Cruz, have published a paper supporting identification of a new species of the South Texas scrub snail genus, Praticolella. Perez plans to continue investigating other possibly distinct species of snails in South Texas. In addition, Perez and her students will fulfill a two-year grant from the State Wildlife Grant Program, which is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to survey the snail population of three regions of Texas, including the western mountain region and Central and South Texas. “There are about 250 snail species in the state and about 40 of those we know little about, as far as their conservation status,” Perez said. “Snails are useful as an indicator, since some snail species really need a high quality of habitat. If you see that you do not find those snails in a place they are supposed to be found then you know that habitat is degrading. Snails are useful as warnings of any type of environmental disturbance.” http://www.utrgv.edu/en-us/about-utrgv/news/press-releases/2017/may-31-utrgv-professor-and-student-researchers-discover-name-new-species-of-south-texas-snail/index.htm In previous studies, Timothy Brush, Ph.D focused on shorebirds along the Lower Laguna Madre, including the declining Piping and Snowy plovers and other species of conservation concern. We have also looked at the current status of various bird species in the Valley, including Red-billed Pigeon, Elf Owl, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Black Phoebe, Rose-throated Becard, Clay-colored Robin, Tropical Parula, Altamira Oriole, Audubon's Oriole, and Olive Sparrow, as well as looking at the effects of Bronzed Cowbirds, habitat fragmentation, and lack of flooding on breeding bird communities of riparian forest and scrubland. We continue to be interested in the changing birdlife of the Valley and have begun baseline studies of two poorly known species of conservation concern, the Green Parakeet and the Long-billed Curlew to better determine their current statuses in the region. UTRGV students and faculty study ocelots, an endangered species native to South Texas. Studies looking at the use of road corridors to help ocelots safely cross roads may affect the construction of more suitable corridor crossings in the future that will contribute to the growth of the ocelot population and other local conservation efforts. https://utrgv-ir.tdl.org/utrgv-ir/handle/2152.6/701

UTRGV School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences hosted a conservation awareness event at the Salon Cassia, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and Las Huellas, a local non-profit wildlife advocacy association to raise awareness of the native ocelot's endangered status. Raising awareness and importance of ecological conservation is imperative to sway public opinion towards taking swift action to protect endangered and threatened species. To help educate visitors about what we can do to help protect the approximately 50 ocelots left in the wild in the Rio Grande Valley (their last foothold in the U.S.), a live ocelot from the Cincinnati Zoo was at the UTRGV presentation on the Brownsville campus. The presentation also addressed the most current research on the ocelot population. Hilary Swarts, wildlife biologist with the Laguna Atascosa refuge, gave a presentation on ocelot conservation. http://www.rgvproud.com/news/local-news/utrgv-to-host-ocelot-conservation-awareness-event/386617569 Dr. Richard Kline, UTRGV SEEMS assistant professor, presented the most recent information on the university’s involvement in local ocelot conservation efforts, including the discovery of a young ocelot by a graduate student, bringing the population up to 12. Habitat loss is the primary reason ocelots have become an endangered species in south Texas, but death by vehicles as ocelots attempt to cross roads has become the main cause of their mortality in recent years, officials have said. Graduate student research like Nordlof’s assists the United States Fish and Wildlife Service when consulting with transportation agencies about the placement of wildlife crossings. Plans are underway to create up to 15 wildlife crossings under roads within the habitat range of ocelots in South Texas to help them safely cross the road. Two crossings will be on refuge land as part of the renovation of the popular Bayside Drive tour route. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2016. FM 106, the road leading to the refuge, will have eight wildlife crossings when it undergoes construction starting in 2015. In addition, State High-way 100, where the two most recent ocelot deaths have been recorded, will have four to five wildlife crossings, with construction beginning in 2015. Currently, the environmental science research/consulting of Dr.Dirrigl involves the use of rapid benthic invertebrate sampling protocols and monitoring to assess wildlife benefits resulting from open channelization and culvert systems. He has found that even in localized urban areas, invertebrate and vertebrate species respond positively to open channelization as habitat suitability increases and naturalizes. Based on this information, we develop and evaluate best management practices (BMPs) and their potential to support wildlife. Another research/consulting area involves the field survey for rare species and gathering of natural history information that is useful to conservation biology. One project of Dr. Dirrigl has involved the development of a conservation ranking scheme for the protection of vernal pools in the Northeast US based on Natural Heritage Methodology of The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe. By identifying the conservation-priority of vernal pools, development plans can be modified to avoid and mitigate potential impacts to wetlands and the natural resources that they support.

UTRGV actions towards its grounds and the environment work toward the sustainable development goal of life on land by the implementation of sustainable management of our ecosystem.