Download or read book The Effects of Nearshore Forest Thinning on Upland Habitat Use by Pond breeding Amphibians in a Montane Coniferous Forest written by Andrew Holt McIntyre and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forest thinning removes woody fuels from coniferous forests in a way that mimics historic wildfire regimes by removing mid-story pines and increasing horizontal and vertical spacing. Thinning results in few long-term effects to habitat features required by sensitive amphibians including canopy cover, soil moisture and available cover objects. Though some research suggests minimal effects of thinning to amphibians, few studies have assessed effects to aquatic-breeding amphibians in forests of the Pacific Northwest. We conducted an experimental study evaluating effects of understory thinning on aquatic-adjacent habitat on forest conditions and amphibian movement patterns. Thinning treatments were implemented in 12 plots, alternating with matching controls, in the pine-fir forests surrounding Big Lake, a 10.7 ha ephemeral lake in northern California. We assessed effects of thinning on habitat variables relevant to amphibians and used pitfall traps to assess movement by long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactyllum), western toads (Anaxyrus boreas), and Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla). We investigated associations between amphibian captures and upland habitat conditions and assessed amphibian use of debris piles created during treatments. We predicted metamorphic amphibians would seek cover and shade in control plots, while adults would find migration easier in treated plots. Tree density decreased while woody debris cover showed a moderate increase after treatments. A modest increase in captures of chorus frogs occurred in treatment plots, but no treatment effect was detected for toads or salamanders. Receding surface waters forced salamander larvae to develop and emerge at the eastern end of Big Lake. With a shorter development time, western toads and chorus frogs were able to emerge from the pond before surface waters receded. Salamanders and chorus frogs were captured in areas of high leaf litter and low tree density, suggesting a preference of these species for foraging in lower intensity forests. Foraging diurnally, toads preferred areas offering high levels of canopy cover. Our results suggest moderate understory thinning in forests adjacent to aquatic habitat may show no harmful short-term impacts to pond-breeding amphibians. No amphibians were found under debris piles; future research should survey such piles during different times of year and directly before burning.
Download or read book Terrestrial Amphibian Distribution Habitat Associations and Downed Wood Temperature Profiles in Managed Headwater Forests with Riparian Buffers in the Oregon Coast Range written by Matthew R. Kluber and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western forests have become increasingly fragmented landscapes dominated by young stands. Given that western Oregon forests largely consist of headwater systems, there is a need to better understand how headwater forest taxa and their habitats are impacted by forest management practices. Several amphibian species associated with forested headwater systems have emerged as management concerns. Forest management strategies, such as harvests that remove only part of the canopy and retention of riparian buffer strips, may help ameliorate some of the negative effects on amphibians in managed forests. Pre-existing site conditions, such as legacy downed wood, also may play a role in buffering the impacts of silvicultural practices on terrestrial amphibians. Downed wood is an important habitat component for many amphibians, because the cool, moist microclimates of downed wood can provide refugia for terrestrial amphibians during warmer summer months. However, downed wood habitat suitability is another emerging concern as the rate of input and size of downed wood declines in managed forests. As part of the USDI Bureau of Land Managements Density Management Study, we investigated how untreated streamside buffers modify impacts of upland thinning on headwater forest terrestrial amphibians and their habitat at three sites in the Oregon Coast Range. To further assess habitat associations of these animals, we conducted a field experiment to address amphibian cover use, including downed wood, moss and coarse and fine substrates. In addition, we examined how temperature profiles inside small- and large-diameter downed wood and soil temperatures differed from ambient air temperatures. Temperatures of wood and soil were monitored at different slope positions (near streams and upslope) and overstory regimes (thinned and unthinned stands) to assess potential habitat suitability and buffering capabilities against seasonal temperature extremes for plethodontid salamanders. Our results suggest that pre-existing site conditions (e.g., amount of rocky or fine substrate) play an important role in determining the response of terrestrial amphibians to upland forest thinning. However, retention of stream buffers is important in maintaining unaltered stream and riparian conditions. Moderate thinning and preservation of vital habitat in riparian and nearby upland areas by way of variable-width buffers (15 m minimum width) may be sufficient in maintaining suitable habitat and microclimatic conditions vital to amphibian assemblages in managed headwater forests. Additionally, logs of a wide size range and soils may provide sufficient protection against thermal extremes harmful to plethodontid salamanders in thinned stands with limited overstory. However, this alone cannot support plethodontid salamanders. These salamanders require exposed areas (e.g., leaf litter, soil surface, rock faces) where much of their foraging and well as courtship occurs. Partial retention of the canopy through moderate thinning coupled with variable-width riparain buffers that may increase in width when suitable terrestrial habitat is encountered, may provide sufficient microhabitat, microclimate, and protection in maintaining terrestrial amphibian assemblages in managed headwater forests.
Download or read book The Role of Terrrestrial Habitat in the Population Dynamics and Conservation of Pond breeding Amphibians written by Elizabeth B. Harper and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I used both demographic modeling and experimental field research to evaluate the role of terrestrial habitat in the population dynamics and conservation of pond-breeding amphibians. I began by using literature data to develop stochastic, stage-structured demographic models for two pond-breeding amphibian species and used these models to determine the potential effects of a range of core terrestrial habitat areas on population size and persistence. I next carried out field experiments designed to improve model accuracy. First, I manipulated terrestrial densities of juvenile amphibians and followed individual growth and survival of over one year. Results suggest that terrestrial density should be considered in models of amphibian population dynamics. I also carried out field experiments to determine the effects of specific forestry practices on the survival of juvenile wood frogs and American toads. The results of these experiments indicate that forestry practices interact with existing landscape structure to determine microclimate and thereby influence amphibian survival. Returning to the model building process, I used the results of my field experiments to develop a demographic model designed to evaluate the potential effects of forestry practices on wood frog populations in Missouri. The results of my dissertation research indicate that the quantity and quality of terrestrial habitat available to pond-breeding amphibians can have substantial population level consequences including increased extinction probabilities and decreased population sizes.
Download or read book Study Designs for Evaluating the Effects of Forestry Activities on Aquatic breeding Amphibians in Terrestrial Forest Habitats of British Columbia written by Davis, T. M. (Theodore M.) and published by British Columbia, Wildlife Branch. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outlines methods for 1) determining the habitat requirements of pond- and stream-breeding amphibians in terrestrial forest habitats in British Columbia, and 2) evaluating the effects of forestry activities on their reproduction, growth, and survival.
Download or read book Initial Juvenile Movement of Pond breeding Amphibians in Altered Forest Habitat written by Michael S. Osbourn and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The initial juvenile movement phase represents the first stage of the multi-phase process of natal dispersal. My objective was to investigate how alterations in forest habitat quality impact initial juvenile movement success and behavior. I conducted a mark-recapture study of juvenile Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) within experimental forest arrays. Spotted Salamander movement success was significantly greater in partial-cut treatments than the control or clearcut treatments. Green Frog movement success was greatest in the control forest. A greater proportion of both Spotted Salamander and Green Frog juveniles, initially moving through open-canopy habitats, redirected their movements toward forests. I next sought to identify how fine-scale habitat quality affects juveniles' decisions to cease moving away from their natal pond and settle. By using experimental enclosures, I attempted to isolate the effects of forest canopy and microhabitat manipulations on salamander settling decisions relative to unmanipulated forest controls. For Spotted Salamanders and Ringed Salamanders (A. annulatum) settling probability decreased with forest canopy removal and compacted soils. Spotted salamander settling probability increased with higher refuge densities.
Download or read book The Role of Forest Composition on Pool breeding Amphibians written by Michael Paul Graziano and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few studies investigate the intricate effects that the plant community has on amphibian populations. Plants shape ecosystems, affecting both physical and chemical attributes of the landscape. Conspicuous artifacts of the plant community include canopy cover, physical structure, and modified temperature and moisture profiles. However, less conspicuous artifacts of the tree community, namely the physiochemical characteristics of their resulting leaf litter, have the ability to shape their ecosystem just as greatly as their more conspicuous traits. Leaf litter represents the primary energy source in vernal pools and other aquatic systems that are critical amphibian breeding habitat. As plant communities shift across the landscape due to ecosystem degradation, invasion by nonnative species, climate change, and shifting disturbance regimes, there is a critical need to investigate how these potential changes can influence the amphibian community and the mechanisms by which they occur. My research investigates how the vernal pool breeding amphibian community responds to differing plant communities across a heterogeneous forested landscape and throughout their life cycle. As such, my overall objectives are multi-faceted: (1) to determine if the tree community impacts colonization and use of vernal pool-breeding amphibians (2) to scale up mesocosm studies that document the strong regulatory response tree litter inputs can have on growth and development of amphibian larvae to a field setting (3) to determine if small, constructed ridge-top pools are a viable option for enhancing amphibian populations in the landscape, particularly with regards to increasing functional connectivity and maintaining diverse amphibian communities, and (4) to establish a landscape-level study design for conducting future, field-based experiments that can serve as a baseline to document changes in forest ecosystems. These objectives are addressed within each of my primary research pursuits below.
Download or read book Effect of Limited Canopy Removal on Pond breeding Amphibians written by Ginger Kinworthy Louder and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecosystems of California written by Harold Mooney and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 1008 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.
Download or read book Forestry Impact on Upland Water Quality written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Effects of Silvicultural Edges on Terrestrial Amphibian Abundance and Microclimate in Northwestern California written by Nancy E. Karraker and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Interactive Effects of Wildfire and Disturbance History on Amphibians and Their Parasites written by Blake Roger Hossack and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate-driven changes in wildfire and other disturbance regimes are expected to affect populations and communities worldwide. Understanding how these changes will affect native species is critical for future conservation efforts, especially on managed forests. Using data from several wildfires that burned between 1988 and 2003 in and next to Glacier National Park, Montana, I examined how fire affected the distribution, abundance, and infection status of 3 native amphibians. In Chapter 1, I used long-term data on wetland occupancy to show the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) were resistant to change during the first 6 years after wildfire, but declined over longer time periods in areas of high-severity fire. In contrast, boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas) occupancy increased greatly during the 3 years after wildfire burned low-elevation forests, followed by a gradual decline. In Chapter 2, I measured how the interaction of stand-replacement wildfire and forest management affected amphibian abundance and 2 nematodes that infect amphibians. Population size of salamanders was negatively related to fire severity, with stronger effects on populations that were isolated or in managed forests. These effects were not evident in the abundance of the nematode Cosmocercoides variabilis. Population size of spotted frogs increased weakly with burn extent in managed and protected forests, a pattern that was reflected in the greater infection intensity of the mutualistic nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis. In Chapter 3, I investigated how environmental variation and habitat use affects the probability that boreal toads had chytridiomycosis, a disease linked with amphibian declines worldwide. Probability of infection was lower for toads captured terrestrially than aquatically, and was lower for toads captured in recently burned habitats compared with unburned habitats. Simulations showed that spatial variation in infection, like that related to habitat use in a heterogeneous landscape, could significantly reduce the risk of metapopulation decline. Collectively, my results underscore the importance of measuring individual-, population-, and community-level responses across a range of disturbances and in both managed and protected forests. These results will provide scientists and land managers a greater understanding of the long-term effects of wildfire on local amphibians and other native species.
Download or read book Response of Amphibians to Partial Cutting in a Coastal Mixed conifer Forest Management Practices for Retaining Amphibian Habitat in the Vancouver Forest Region written by F. M. Louise (Francis M. Louise) Waterhouse and published by Nanaimo : British Columbia Forest Services, Vancouver Forest Region. This book was released on 2001 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia written by John B. Jensen and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring more than 475 full-color photographs and 182 maps, this comprehensive guide to the state's diverse herpetofauna makes accessible a wealth of information about 170 species of frogs, salamanders, crocodilians, lizards, snakes, and turtles, including species attributes, behavior, life cycles, habitat, and more.
Download or read book Riparian Areas written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-10-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.
Download or read book A Framework for Long term Ecological Monitoring in Olympic National Park written by Kurt Jeffrey Jenkins and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Ecological Characterization of Rocky Mountain Montane and Subalpine Wetlands written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A guide to forest water management written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more water to maintain their health and to thrive. Forests and trees are integral to the global water cycle and therefore vital for water security – they regulate water quantity, quality, and timing and provide protective functions against (for example) soil and coastal erosion, flooding, and avalanches. Forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our freshwater, delivering water to over half the world’s population. The purpose of A Guide to Forest–Water Management is to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. It reviews emerging techniques and methodologies, provides guidance and recommendations on how to manage forests for their water ecosystem services, and offers insights into the business and economic cases for managing forests for water ecosystem services. Intact native forests and well-managed planted forests can be a relatively cheap approach to water management while generating multiple co-benefits. Water security is a significant global challenge, but this paper argues that water-centered forests can provide nature-based solutions to ensuring global water resilience.
