Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Terrestrial Habitat Use Of Marbled Salamanders Ambystoma Opacum: A Site Specific Approach, Frank Piccininni

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation have contributed heavily to the decline of amphibian populations such as Marbled Salamanders (Ambystoma opacum). Often, ambystomatid water resources are conserved without consideration for the equally important terrestrial habitat. This is partly due to a lack of information regarding the relationship between ecological succession, plant community composition, microhabitat and salamander abundance. Three sampling transects consisting of drift fence arrays, vegetation assessments and microhabitat surveys were extended 100 m into the terrestrial habitat surrounding a seasonal wetland at Beech Fork State Park in Wayne County, West Virginia. Principal components analysis was used to identify …