SREL Reprint #2615

Monitoring herpetofauna in a managed forest landscape: effects of habitat types and census techniques

Travis J. Ryan1, Thomas Philippi1, Yale A. Leiden1, Michael E. Dorcas1,T. Bently Wigley2,
and J. Whitfield Gibbons1

1Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA
2NCASI, PO. Box 340362, Clemson, SC 29634, USA

Abstract: We surveyed the herpetofaunal (amphibian and reptile) communities inhabiting five types of habitat on a managed landscape. We conducted monthly surveys during 1997 in four replicate plots of each habitat type using several different methods of collection. Communities of the two wetland habitats (bottomland wetlands and isolated upland wetlands) were clearly dissimilar from the three terrestrial communities (recent clearcut, pine plantation, and mixed pine-hardwood forest). Among the three terrestrial habitats, the total herpetofaunal communities were dissimilar (P < 0.10), although neither faunal constituent group alone (amphibians and squamate reptiles) varied significantly with regard to habitat. Three survey techniques used in the terrestrial habitats were not equally effective in that they resulted in the collection of different subsets of the total herpetofauna. The drift fence technique revealed the presence of more species and individuals in every habitat and was the only one to detect species dissimilarity among habitats. Nonetheless, coverboards contributed to measures of abundance and revealed species not detected by other techniques. We suggest that a combination of census techniques be used when surveying and monitoring herpetofaunal communities in order to maximize the detection of species.

Keywords: Amphibian; Conservation; Coverboard; Drift fence; Forest management; Herpetofauna; Landscape; Monitoring; Reptile; Surveying

SREL Reprint #2615

Ryan, T. J., T. Philippi, Y. A. Leiden, M. E. Dorcas, T. B. Wigley, and J. W. Gibbons. 2002. Monitoring herpetofauna in a managed forest landscape: effects of habitat types and census techniques. Forest Ecology and Management 167:83-90.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).