Marta Miñarro

Investigación

I’m currently carrying out my thesis under the co-supervision of Dr. P.A. Burrowes and I. De la Riva.  I am studying the natural history of Barbourula busuangensis, a primitive, aquatic frog endemic to the Philippine island of Palawan and other adjacent islands. There is very limited information on B. busuangensis’s distribution, ecology and natural history. Therefore, the main goal of my dissertation is to discover as much as I can to fill-in this gap. In the field, mainly in the island of Busuanga, I monitor populations along river banks and use PIT to mark the adults and VIE’s for the juveniles.  With this data, I can learn about individuals age, growth, reproductive condition, health status (Chytridiomycosis), movement patterns, and even estimate population structure and size. I hope that my detailed observations will reveal details of their reproductive biology (courtship, calls, reproductive mode, etc), environmental phenology and other aspects of their natural history traits.