DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2013.08.032
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84884267010
论文题名: Effects of fuel reduction treatments on movement and habitat use of American toads in a southern Appalachian hardwood forest
作者: Pitt A.L. ; Tavano J.J. ; Baldwin R.F. ; Waldrop T.A.
刊名: Forest Ecology and Management
ISSN: 0378-1127
出版年: 2013
卷: 310 起始页码: 289
结束页码: 299
语种: 英语
英文关键词: American toad
; Amphibian
; Anaxyrus americanus
; Fuel reduction
; Prescribed fire
; Southern Appalachian hardwood forest
Scopus关键词: American toad
; Amphibian
; Anaxyrus americanus
; Fuel reduction
; Prescribed fires
; Southern appalachian hardwoods
; Discriminant analysis
; Ecosystems
; Forestry
; Hardwoods
; Fires
; breeding site
; coarse woody debris
; ecosystem management
; forest floor
; forest management
; habitat use
; microhabitat
; mortality
; movement
; prescribed burning
; site fidelity
; toad
; Ecosystems
; Fires
; Forestry
; Hardwoods
; Appalachians
英文摘要: Prescribed fire is a commonly used management technique for maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems, yet empirical data regarding its effects on amphibians are limited and contradictory. Anurans (frogs and toads) may be the amphibian taxa most negatively affected by fire due to their extensive use of the forest floor; however, short-term abundance studies suggest that terrestrial toads (e.g., Anaxyrus [Bufo] americanus) may benefit from fire-based ecosystem management. We used radio-telemetry to examine the effects of prescribed fire on movements, home range characteristics, mortality, and habitat selection of A. americanus in a southern Appalachian upland hardwood forest. We tracked 26 adult A. americanus between 27 January and 30 May 2012. Toads exhibited high non-breeding site fidelity and traveled 993.5m (±265.9m) mean (±SD) route distance between the breeding ponds and the last recorded location within their summer habitat. We found no evidence of direct mortality of A. americanus from a prescribed fire that occurred on 13 February 2012. Forward stepwise discriminant analysis (DA) revealed that the availability of coarse woody debris (CWD) was a significant discriminator between microhabitats used (i.e., location plots) and random plots (Wilk's lambda=0.9852, F1, 661=9.9414, p=0.002). Forward stepwise DA revealed that burned and unburned location plots were significantly different (Wilk's lambda=0.2713, F1, 221=593.6863, p<0.001) based on the percent of plot ground cover comprised of charred material (%char). When %char was excluded from the analysis due to its short-term nature, the percent of plot ground cover comprised of deciduous leaves, a cover item commonly used by toads in unburned locations, was the variable with the most discriminatory power (Wilk's lambda=0.4243, F1, 221=299.8741, p<0.001). Toads maintained greater distances from CWD in the unburned (mean±SD=119.50±109.64cm) than in the burned locations (mean±SD=86.05±104.81cm; χ12=9.7055, p=0.002). Our results indicate that prescribed fire as implemented in this study did not cause direct mortality, nor did it appear to inhibit migratory movements of adult A. americanus. However, fire reduced the diversity and availability of refugia, especially deciduous leaves, though the availability of alternative cover objects (e.g., CWD) in burned treatments allowed toads to inhabit those areas, suggesting the importance of noncombustible or semi-permanent refugia for A. americanus in fire-managed forests. © 2013 . Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/66228
Appears in Collections: 影响、适应和脆弱性
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作者单位: School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, 261 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson, SC 29634-0331, United States; US Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Clemson, SC 29634-0331, United States
Recommended Citation:
Pitt A.L.,Tavano J.J.,Baldwin R.F.,et al. Effects of fuel reduction treatments on movement and habitat use of American toads in a southern Appalachian hardwood forest[J]. Forest Ecology and Management,2013-01-01,310