SE Kansas Biodiversity

Our study is conducted across southeastern Kansas. Led by researchers and students at Pittsburg State University, our goal is to better understand the dynamics of a mammal community in relation to land use and vegetation cover on previously mined lands. Located within the junction the Ozark Highlands and the Central Plains ecoregions, southeast Kansas was historically strip mined for coal, leaving a landscape of water-filled pits. Now, with an increasing regional population, urbanization is also impacting mammal movement, diversity, and composition. Our goal is to determine community dynamics in this region, while also searching for threatened species, like the spotted skunk.