{"id":14684,"date":"2021-06-15T16:53:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T20:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=14684"},"modified":"2022-04-07T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T14:08:27","slug":"toads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/","title":{"rendered":"Toads Shape Student&#8217;s Conservation Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_14688\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14688\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14688 size-large\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Molly Ratliff with boreal toads at night\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14688\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Molly Ratliff &#8217;22 shows one of the boreal toads she&#8217;s researching this summer in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/k-plan\/sip\/\">senior integrated project<\/a> (SIP) this summer an ideal experience. She is researching boreal toads at their known breeding grounds in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/romo\/index.htm\">Rocky Mountain National Park<\/a> in Estes Park, Colorado, as a way to engage with conservation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmphibians, such as boreal toads, are really great indicators of overall ecosystem health,\u201d Ratliff said. \u201cTheir skin is highly\u00a0permeable, making them vulnerable to environmental changes and toxins. Since amphibians are typically the first species to be impacted by changes in the environment such as climate change, they can show general trends of how other species may react.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To be specific, in her research Ratliff is investigating how a skin disease that affects amphibians around the world\u2014Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd\u2014might be affecting the sizes of the toads at various locations and how this might relate to survivability.\u00a0She performs surveys at dusk around lake shores, captures toads to mark them with pit tags, takes body measurements, and swabs them to test for the disease. The toads are then released and can be identified as they\u2019re recaptured by their unique pit tags.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf amphibian populations are not doing well in an ecosystem, it can be an indicator that there are stressors, toxins, imbalances, etc. within the entire system,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cAmphibians\u00a0also typically exist as both predators and prey, making them a crucial part of the food chain within an ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ratliff\u2019s work is an excellent example of the independent scholarship critical to the <em>K-Plan<\/em>, Kalamazoo College\u2019s integrated approach to academics in the liberal arts and sciences. As a culmination of learning at K, all students explore a subject of their own choosing, resulting in an\u00a0in-depth, graduate-level research\u00a0thesis, performance or creative work. Learn more about how these projects fit into the <em>K-Plan<\/em> at <a href=\"http:\/\/kzoo.edu\/k-plan\">kzoo.edu\/k-plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP) this summer an ideal experience. She is researching boreal toads at their known breeding grounds in Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado, as a way to engage with conservation. \u201cAmphibians, such [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":14693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[52,104,161],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-14684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-biology","tag-k-plan","tag-senior-integrated-project"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Toads Shape Student&#039;s Conservation Research - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP)\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toads Shape Student&#039;s Conservation Research - News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP)\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-15T20:53:32+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-07T14:08:27+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-fb.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2049\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1153\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\",\"name\":\"Toads Shape Student's Conservation Research - 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Contact him at abrown@kzoo.edu.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/contact-us\/\"]}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Toads Shape Student's Conservation Research - News and Events","description":"Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Toads Shape Student's Conservation Research - News and Events","og_description":"Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP)","og_url":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/","og_site_name":"News and Events","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege","article_published_time":"2021-06-15T20:53:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-07T14:08:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2049,"height":1153,"url":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-fb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andy Brown","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kcollege","twitter_site":"@kcollege","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andy Brown","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/","url":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/","name":"Toads Shape Student's Conservation Research - News and Events","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-fb.jpg","datePublished":"2021-06-15T20:53:32+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-07T14:08:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b54e37c984840c05e9ec797b6616166"},"description":"Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her senior integrated project (SIP)","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-fb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-fb.jpg","width":2049,"height":1153,"caption":"Molly Ratliff with boreal toads at night fb"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Toads Shape Student&#8217;s Conservation Research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/","name":"News and Events","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b54e37c984840c05e9ec797b6616166","name":"Andy Brown","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a85189587f7af74a5efd2cb4233df125?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a85189587f7af74a5efd2cb4233df125?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andy Brown"},"description":"As the Director of News and Social Media, Andy shares the stories that distinguish Kalamazoo College through social media, the Web and the news media. 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aria-label=\"archive of category Students\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/students\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Students<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/biology\/\" rel=\"tag\">biology<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/k-plan\/\" rel=\"tag\">K-Plan<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/senior-integrated-project\/\" rel=\"tag\">Senior Integrated Project<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/toads\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<figure id=\"attachment_14688\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14688\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-14688 size-large\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Molly-Ratliff-with-boreal-toads-at-night-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Molly Ratliff with boreal toads at night\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14688\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Molly Ratliff &#8217;22 shows one of the boreal toads she&#8217;s researching this summer in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Molly Ratliff \u201922 hopes to work in an environmental-studies field after she graduates from Kalamazoo College, making her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/k-plan\/sip\/\">senior integrated project<\/a> (SIP) this summer an ideal experience. She is researching boreal toads at their known breeding grounds in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/romo\/index.htm\">Rocky Mountain National Park<\/a> in Estes Park, Colorado, as a way to engage with conservation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmphibians, such as boreal toads, are really great indicators of overall ecosystem health,\u201d Ratliff said. \u201cTheir skin is highly\u00a0permeable, making them vulnerable to environmental changes and toxins. Since amphibians are typically the first species to be impacted by changes in the environment such as climate change, they can show general trends of how other species may react.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To be specific, in her research Ratliff is investigating how a skin disease that affects amphibians around the world\u2014Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd\u2014might be affecting the sizes of the toads at various locations and how this might relate to survivability.\u00a0She performs surveys at dusk around lake shores, captures toads to mark them with pit tags, takes body measurements, and swabs them to test for the disease. The toads are then released and can be identified as they\u2019re recaptured by their unique pit tags.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf amphibian populations are not doing well in an ecosystem, it can be an indicator that there are stressors, toxins, imbalances, etc. within the entire system,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cAmphibians\u00a0also typically exist as both predators and prey, making them a crucial part of the food chain within an ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ratliff\u2019s work is an excellent example of the independent scholarship critical to the <em>K-Plan<\/em>, Kalamazoo College\u2019s integrated approach to academics in the liberal arts and sciences. As a culmination of learning at K, all students explore a subject of their own choosing, resulting in an\u00a0in-depth, graduate-level research\u00a0thesis, performance or creative work. Learn more about how these projects fit into the <em>K-Plan<\/em> at <a href=\"http:\/\/kzoo.edu\/k-plan\">kzoo.edu\/k-plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14684"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16539,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14684\/revisions\/16539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14684"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=14684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}