Gulf Islands National Seashore

Amphibians and Reptile Monitoring at

Naval Live Oaks

GUIS resource management considers the NLO to be a salient natural resource area within this park unit. It harbors diverse wildlife and plant communities representative of the upper Florida coastal forest and wetlands area, and is considered to be both vulnerable to and threatened by off-park adjacent land development and use. The NLO area is bounded on its east, northeast, and west sides by urban residential development, and off-park wetland and waters are locally managed and manipulated, with potential for recurring impacts to various parts of the unit. These impacts include habitat fragmentation, alteration of in- and out-flow water cycling due to off-park damming and drainage manipulation, possible urban run-off impacts, and invasion from domestic pets (released cats and dogs).

Sampling Methods

This project utilizes Cover-Boards (terrestrial fauna), PVC-pipes (arboreal frogs and lizards), Funnel-Traps (aquatic taxa and larval / juvenile stages of amphibians), and Visual Ground Search (performed in wet-shoreline areas to target adult frogs) to address the stated monitoring questions. In addition to faunal sampling, local environmental parameters (water T and conductivity, air T and %RH) will be monitored at the event x array basis, and air parameters will be monitored in the sampling area using �data-logger devices�.

Targeted Species

Key taxa anticipated to be more abundant in sampling include several Hylid (tree, chorus and cricket) frog species, Sceloperid (�fence�) and Polychridid (anoles) lizards, and diverse Colubrid snakes. The Hylid frogs, being dependent on water for reproduction, are considered to be a potential good faunal indicator of longer-term pond water quality, as well as of general habitat adequacy.