A Near-natural Experiment on Factors Influencing Larval Drift in Salamandra Salamandra

Abstract

The larval stage of the European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) inhabits both lentic and lotic habitats. In the latter, they are constantly exposed to unidirectional water flow, which has been shown to cause downstream drift in a variety of taxa. In this study, an artificial stream was used to examine the individual movement patterns of marked larval fire salamanders exposed to unidirectional flow with simulated flood events. Movements were tracked by marking the larvae with VIAlpha tags individually and by using downstream and upstream traps. Most individuals showed stationarity, while downstream drift dominated the overall movement pattern. Upstream movements were rare and occurred only on small distances of about 30 cm; downstream drift distances exceeded 10 m (until next downstream trap). The simulated flood events increased drift rates significantly, even days after the flood simulation experiments. Drift probability increased with decreasing body size and decreasing nutritional status.