Meet the Scientist

Name: Alan Resetar
Position/Title: Collection Manager
Department: Zoology

1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?
	Industrial Strength Herpetology in a Post-Industrial Landscape I am interested in the diversity, distribution, ecology and conservation of the amphibians and reptiles (herps) of the Chicago Region. Of particular geographic interest is the area stretching from the post-industrial landscape of Lake Calumet and Wolf Lake on the south side of Chicago east to the more rural Porter and LaPorte Counties in Indiana and Berrien County in Michigan and then south to the Kankakee River drainage. In spite of large-scale habitat disruption and destruction, significant remnants of regionally and globally important natural and anthropogenic habitats remain to support an exciting array of herps.
2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?
	Since 1974, I have compiled data on over 2,300 live specimens that were released after data collection. My field techniques include opportunistic methods, drift fence and funnel trap sampling and frog call surveys. Data are collected on locality, habitat, microhabitat, date and time of capture, activity at time of capture, body size, and other factors for each individual. My work has documented range contractions and extensions and provided insight into the habitat use of various species, species richness of representative habitats, annual activity cycles, conservation issues and management of rare species.
3. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?
	One conservation issue that interests me is the local decline of the Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi). A number of Blanchard’s cricket frog populations have declined or disappeared from the upper Midwestern portion of its range. Populations in northeastern Illinois, northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan generally reflect this trend. Six sites, harboring Blanchard’s cricket frog populations, within 160 kilometers of Gary, Indiana may hold the key to the riddle of the cricket frog’s decline. Preliminary examination of these sites, comprised of three different natural habitats and two anthropogenic habitats, revealed a common characteristic, the presence of base cation sources. Base cations help keep the pH of water higher, closer to neutral or more basic than water without the input of base cations. Natural base cation sources at the sites include exposed limestone, and possibly calcareous mesofossils and groundwater. Anthropogenic base cation sources include certain wind blown particulates and a substrate consisting of “slag,” a rock-like waste byproduct of steel making. The early life stages of the Blanchard’s cricket frog are apparently more sensitive to lower pH or acidic conditions than other local frog species. Sites with high levels of base cations may function as "base cation refugia" capable of sustaining Blanchard’s cricket frog populations by ameliorating one or more of the effects of past and current, chronic and episodic acid precipitation. While most local herp studies end with the onset of cold weather, I have found a way to extend the “herp season” into the winter months. In fact, the colder the weather, the better it is for ice formation. This allows me to check frozen lakes for the occasional mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus) carcass discarded by ice fishermen. The mudpuppy is the largest salamander in the Chicago Region. It is completely aquatic, remains active in winter and is sometimes caught by ice fishermen. To get reports of mudpuppy sightings from fisherman, I post requests on Internet fishing message boards. After verifying the message board reports by actually finding mudpuppies myself at the reported sites, I can begin to plot the current distribution of this sometimes difficult to locate species
4. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?
	My fascination with herpetology and museums is attributable, in part, to watching the serialized movie Journey to the Beginning of Time on successive episodes of the Garfield Goose Show as a child. This movie begins with several boys visiting a dinosaur exhibit at a natural history museum and then somehow being transported back in time to the age of dinosaurs. I quickly outgrew dinosaurs when I discovered live amphibians and reptiles, especially local species that I could catch and observe or more unusual species seen in pet shops and department stores. I still have a pet box turtle that I purchased at Ernie’s Pet Shop in Gary, Indiana in 1966 (the decades we have shared have been kinder to the turtle!!). A desire to learn led me to libraries within bicycling distance to assimilate anything written about herps, zoos and animal collecting and care. During the 1960’s, books by Field Museum Curators of Amphibians and Reptiles, Clifford H. Pope, Karl P. Schmidt and Robert F. Inger, graced the herp section of libraries along with titles by Raymond L. Ditmars, Herbert S. Zim and Percy A. Morris. Meeting other kids who liked herps enabled my obsession as did joining the Boy Scouts and earning the Reptile Study Merit Badge— the pinnacle of my scouting experience. On a trip to the Field Museum in 7th grade, I purchased Fieldiana herp reprints that were displayed in a glass case off Stanley Field Hall. Later that day after viewing the cases in the “Hall of Man,” I turned the corner and saw a wooden door with a frosted glass pane marked “Division of Amphibians and Reptiles.” I knocked but the door did not open. Membership in the Chicago Herpetological Society (CHS) and a “behind the scenes” tour of the Division for CHS student members hosted by Dr. Robert Inger took me behind the frosted glass for the first time. Now as a staff member, I spend every day beyond that threshold.
5. Describe important collaborations for your scientific endeavors (describe your work with other researchers, organizations, or scientific groups, local or indigenous peoples, etc.)
	My projects are conducted in cooperation with the National Park Service, United States Geological Survey, United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Indiana Department of Natural Resources. I am involved in conservation efforts at several levels - state wide (Indiana Non-game Amphibian and Reptile Technical Advisory Committee), regionally (Chicago Wilderness) and locally (Porter County, Indiana - Wildlife Management Board).

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