Abstract
Small-scale canopy gaps created by logging may retain adequate habitat structure to maintain amphibian abundance. We used pitfalls with drift fences to measure relative abundance of amphibians in 44 harvested gaps, 19 natural treefall gaps, and 36 closed-canopy forest plots. Metamorphs had relatively lower capture rates in large harvest gaps for Ambystoma maculatum, Lithobates catesbeianus, L. clamitans, and L. sylvaticus but we did not detect statistically significant (p < 0.1) differences among gap types for Lithobates palustris metamorphs. L. clamitans juveniles and L. sylvaticus juveniles and adults had relatively lower capture rates in large harvest gaps. For juvenile-adult A. maculatum, we caught relatively fewer individuals in all gap types than in closed-canopy areas. Some groups with overall lower capture rates (immature Plethodon cinereus, juvenile L. palustris) had mixed differences among gap types, and Notophthalmus viridescens (efts) and adult P. cinereus showed no differences among gap types. One species, L. clamitans, was captured more often at gap edges than gap centers. These results suggest that harvest gaps, especially small gaps, provided habitat similar to natural gaps for some, but not all, amphibian species or life-stages.
Highlights
Timber harvests designed to emulate the structural changes that result from natural disturbances may facilitate meeting both biological conservation and timber production goals (Seymour & Hunter, 1999; Perera et al, 2004)
In the forests of northeastern North America, small–scale canopy gaps are a common form of natural disturbance (Lorimer, 1977; Runkle, 1991; Rogers, 1996; Seymour et al, 2002)
We sampled forest amphibians in the nine research areas, where each research area contained a certain type of canopy gap treatment: three research areas had a combined total of 22 large harvest gaps (1,328 ± 113 m2; mean ± 1 SE), three had a combined total of 22 small harvest gaps (674 ± 65 m2), and three had a combined total of 19 natural canopy gaps (249 ± 28 m2)
Summary
Timber harvests designed to emulate the structural changes that result from natural disturbances may facilitate meeting both biological conservation and timber production goals (Seymour & Hunter, 1999; Perera et al, 2004). This concept assumes that native species have adapted to natural disturbance patterns and will be less adversely affected by human–induced disturbances if they are modeled after natural disturbance regimes. The Acadian Forest Ecosystem Research Program of the University of Maine, USA implemented a harvesting regime designed to emulate natural canopy gaps in a mixed coniferous–deciduous forest. Some studies that examined effects of small–scale canopy gap disturbances did not detect differences in relative abundances of red–backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) (Messere & Ducey, 1998; McKenny et al, 2006) or frogs and salamanders (Greenberg, 2001)
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