Amphibians and Reptiles

Importance / Issues

The forests of North America host several genera of small salamanders. These salamanders have adapted to living in woodlands and have dispensed with the expected amphibian aquatic larval stage and live their entire life cycle within the humus and soil of the forest floor. Here they rely on the moist chambered and channeled soils for retreats, because without direct soil contact, or rain saturated litter, they quickly dry out. Their forays to the surface for the necessities of feeding, courting, and mating must coincide with the right conditions of cool, wet, calm weather.

In harmony with a low-input, subterranean life this group of salamanders is the most energetically efficient of the vertebrates (Feder 1983). A consequence of these energetic and life history traits is an inextricable dependence upon moisture. Because this group of salamanders lacks lungs, their skin must remain constantly moist or they lose the ability to transfer oxygen. When moving on the surface they can become dehydrated even when the air is saturated with moisture (Feder 1983). Logging, insect defoliation, development, and canopy fires all can reduce population levels indirectly through loss of soil moisture, exposure to sun, or the compaction and disruption of soils (Welsh and Droege 2001, deMaynadier 1995). In direct contrast, salamanders achieve their highest densities in ancient or undisturbed forests (Meier et al. 1996, Welsh 1990, Herrington and Larsen 1985).

Despite salamander predominance in some ecosystems and their long co-evolution with forests, we know very little about the population health, cycles, and trends of these woodland endemics (Welsh and Droege 2001).

 

Protocol Development & Status

The protocol for this vital sign is being developed at this time. The corresponding middle and high school biology/ecology curriculum has been completed and was implemented in 2006 at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP.  The curriculum is available to all parks in the network: Searching for Salamanders: A Monitoring Program. An additional protocol to monitor stream salamanders in northeast parks and refuges was developed by the USGS in 2004.

Beginning in 2009 the NETN will begin evaluating additional herp monitoring methods, such as calling surveys and egg mass counts.

Potential Measures

Salamanders’ patterns of population change, when coupled with measurements of their surroundings, would permit the investigation of the effects of geographic location, land management, air quality, vegetation, and associations with other species on salamander population dynamics.

Preliminary Monitoring Objective

Preliminary objectives of this protocol are to track changes in salamander populations.  At least one salamander array will be set up within 40m of an established forest monitoring plot.  Tracking changes can provide additional information into the forest ecosystems that are being monitored through the Forest Condition Protocol.  Monitoring with cover objects is, unlike many other monitoring techniques, attractive and appropriate for citizen participation as well as that of the herpetologist. Because fall and spring are usually the best monitoring periods, this opens up many opportunities for grade school and college student projects. We propose to contribute to a network of sites (volunteer and professional) in North America that will collect trend information on terrestrial salamanders. The primary technique used in collecting that information will be arrays or transects of cover objects (Sugar et al. 2001, Monti et al. 2000, Bonin and Bachand 1997, Davis 1997, Fellers and Drost 1994, DeGraaf and Yamaski 1992, Grant et al. 1992).

Contact Information

Brian R. Mitchell

Email: Brian R. Mitchell

802-457-3368 ext 37

References

Bonin, J. and Y. Bachand. 1997. The use of artificial covers to survey terrestrial salamanders in Québec. Herpetological Conservation  1:175-179.

Fellers, G.M. and C.A. Drost.  1994.  Sampling with artificial cover. In Heyer, W.R., M.A. Donnelly, R.W. McDiarmid, and others. Editors. Measuring and monitoring biological diversity:  Standard methods for amphibians. Washington, Smithsonian Institute Press. p. 146-150.

Davis, T. M. 1997. Nondisruptive monitoring of terrestrial salamanders with artificial cover objects on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Herpetological Conservation 1:161-174.

DeGraaf, R.M. and M. Yamasaki. 1992. A nondestructive technique to monitor the relative abundance of terrestrial salamanders. Wild. Soc. Bull. 20:260-264.

Grant, B. W., A.D. Tucker, J.E. Lovich and others. 1992. The use of coverboards in estimating patterns of reptile and amphibian biodiversity. In McCullough, D. R., and Barrett, R. H. Editors. Wildlife 2001. London, England, Elsevier Science Publ. p. 379-403.

Monti, L., M. Hunter Jr., J.Witham. 2000. An evaluation of the artificial cover object (ACO) method for monitoring populations of the redback salamander Plethodon cinereus. Journal of Herpetology 34:624-629.

Sugar, A., T. Bellhouse, D. Phoenix, N. Dawson, and G. Holborn. 2001. A sampling protocol for red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) populations in Ontario:  the 2nd pilot study. Wildlife Assessment Program, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources WAP-2001-01.

Feder, M.E. 1983. Integrating the ecology and physiology of plethodontid salamanders. Herptetologica 39:291-310.

Welsh Jr., H.H. and S. Droege. 2001. A case for using Plethodontid Salamanders for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem integrity of North American Forests. Conservation Biology 15:558-569.

deMaynadier, P.G. and M.L. Hunter Jr. 1995. The relationship between forest management and amphibian ecology: a review of the North American literature. Environmental Review 3:230-261.

Meier, A. J., S.P. Bratton, and D.C. Duff. 1996. Biodiversity in the herbaceous layer and salamanders in Appalachian primary forests, In Davis, M. B., Editor. Eastern old-growth forests: Washington D.C., Island Press, p. 49-64.

Herrington, R.E. and J.H. Larsen. 1985. Current status, habitat requirements and management of the Larch Mountain salamander Plethodon larselli (Burns). Biological Conservation 34:169-179.