Anuran assemblages associated with roadside ditches in a managed pine landscape

Homyack, Jessica A.; O’Bryan, Christopher J.; Thornton, Jamie; Baldwin, Robert F.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.08.035

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Following previous examples (Linden, Roloff & Kroll ; Homyack et al . ), we do not account for the contribution of unobserved species in our population estimates, instead conditioning on the set of observed breeding species in our study. We provided model description and notation, and details of model fitting, in Appendix S2.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly dynamics of a forest bird community depend on disturbance intensity and foraging guild

Kroll

Verschuyl

Giovanini

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary Tree plantations occur globally and are often promoted as a strategy to supply wood products for an expanding human population while reducing pressure on natural forests. Herbicides can accelerate growth of crop trees by suppressing competing vegetation, but little information is available about potential trade‐offs with early seral biodiversity resulting from more intensive management. Using data collected over 5 years immediately following stand‐replacing disturbance (clear‐felling), we used a large‐scale experiment to test how environmental filtering influences dynamics of avian community assembly. We evaluated avian responses to three levels of plant cover reduction (light, moderate and intensive herbicide applications) in relation to a control without herbicide. Under the environmental filtering hypothesis, we expected reduced avian species richness and higher turnover as broadleaf plant cover decreases with increasing management intensity. We predicted that the most intensive treatments would exert strong negative effects on leaf‐gleaning insectivores, including several species of conservation concern due to long‐term population declines. Richness of leaf‐gleaning bird species was reduced by 23–52% over the 5 years on moderate (standard practice) vs. control treatments, but effects were substantially smaller for the non‐leaf‐gleaner guild in years 1–4 (8–25%) and disappeared by year 5 (0%). Both leaf‐gleaner and non‐leaf‐gleaner functional groups continued to colonize moderate and intensive treatments at higher probabilities than the control in Year 5 (range: 0·17–0·29), likely due to rapid vegetation recovery after herbicide applications ceased. Planted conifers were >35% taller and >70% larger in diameter in the two most intensive treatments, leading to substantially more wood volume produced per unit area than on stands without herbicide applications. Synthesis and applications. Under current management regimes, stand‐level trade‐offs between conservation of avian diversity and production of wood commodities may be less severe than previously recognized. However, in landscapes where biodiversity conservation rather than wood production is the primary goal, managers can adjust the trade‐off by making relatively small reductions in herbicide use that should have positive impacts on richness of leaf‐gleaning insectivorous birds.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly dynamics of a forest bird community depend on disturbance intensity and foraging guild

Kroll

Verschuyl

Giovanini

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…North Carolina sites had parallel drainage ditches to lower the water table and improve pine growth, and we measured the distance of each drift fence array to the nearest internal or roadside ditch using ArcGIS, because these features may support occupancy of amphibians (Homyack et al. ). Each Georgia site had un‐harvested wet depressions, and we measured the distance of each drift fence array to nearest wet depression using ArcGIS.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do biomass harvesting guidelines influence herpetofauna following harvests of logging residues for renewable energy?

Fritts

Moorman

Grodsky

et al. 2016

Ecological Applications

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Forests are a major supplier of renewable energy; however, gleaning logging residues for use as woody biomass feedstock could negatively alter habitat for species dependent on downed wood. Biomass Harvesting Guidelines (BHGs) recommend retaining a portion of woody biomass on the forest floor following harvest. Despite BHGs being developed to help ensure ecological sustainability, their contribution to biodiversity has not been evaluated experimentally at operational scales. We compared herpetofauanal evenness, diversity, and richness and abundance of Anaxyrus terrestris and Gastrophryne carolinensis among six treatments that varied in volume and spatial arrangement of woody biomass retained after clearcutting loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations in North Carolina, USA (n = 4), 2011-2014 and Georgia (n = 4), USA 2011-2013. Treatments were: (1) biomass harvest with no BHGs, (2) 15% retention with biomass clustered, (3) 15% retention with biomass dispersed, (4) 30% retention with biomass clustered, (5) 30% retention with biomass dispersed, and (6) no biomass harvest. We captured individuals with drift fence arrays and compared evenness, diversity, and richness metrics among treatments with repeated-measure, linear mixed-effects models. We determined predictors of A. terrestris and G. carolinensis abundances using a priori candidate N-mixture models with woody biomass volume, vegetation structure, and groundcover composition as covariates. We had 206 captures of 25 reptile species and 8710 captures of 17 amphibian species during 53690 trap nights. Herpetofauna diversity, evenness, and richness were similar among treatments. A. terrestris abundance was negatively related to volume of retained woody biomass in treatment units in North Carolina in 2013. G. carolinensis abundance was positively related with volume of retained woody debris in treatment units in Georgia in 2012. Other relationships between A. terrestris and G. carolinensis abundances and habitat metrics were weak or absent. The lack of consistent community or population responses suggests the addition of a woody biomass harvest to a clearcut in pine plantations does not impact herpetofauna use of Coastal Plain loblolly plantations in the southeastern United States. We recommend additional research to examine relationships between woody biomass harvesting and rarer species or amphibians with high desiccation risk, particularly in other regions and harvesting systems.

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“…Pine stands were intersected by a network of inner‐stand ditches draining into roadside ditches that were constructed from the early 1900s through the 1970s (Homyack et al. ). Ditch networks improve operability for forest management activities and increase pine survival by reducing surface waters (DeBell et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel habitat use supports population maintenance in a reconfigured landscape

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Given the limited scope of unaltered, protected areas in most regions, understanding the contributions to imperiled species conservation by landscapes in which habitat elements have been reconfigured is critical. Commercial forestry has been a driver of altered structure and composition of forests and of distribution and character of aquatic systems. In eastern North America, extensive historical wetland drainage reconfigured hydrologic environments from low-gradient wet flats and isolated wetlands to connected networks of linear ditches. Landscapes where both uplands and aquatic environments differ from historic conditions may affect most ecological aspects of semi-aquatic species, including reptiles. Our objective was to determine if habitat selection and use decisions by spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata), a rare semi-aquatic species, supported population maintenance in a reconfigured forest landscape in eastern North Carolina, USA. We captured 280 individuals and radiomarked 31 adults to examine habitat selection at multiple spatial scales with paired logistic regression, movements and home ranges with location data and utilization distributions (UDs), survival with a known-fate model, and abundance with N-mixture modeling. Across local and landscape scales, turtles selected features associated with ditches despite abundant, more natural aquatic depressions across the study area. Habitat metrics describing understory closure and substrate characteristics were important at local scales, and closed canopy forest and habitat heterogeneity was positively associated with activity areas at landscape-scale spatial grains. Both movements and home ranges were centered on ditches, and turtles exploited ditches to access mates, nest sites, or uplands for estivation. In this highly reconfigured landscape, this species appeared to have sufficient behavioral plasticity to acquire key resources contributing to high survival and an abundant population. Isolation from road traffic and collection, both which negatively affect turtles elsewhere, was facilitated by limited public access. Our results suggest that conservation and management of rare species should not rely solely on habitat information gained from studies in more pristine areas because such results may not demonstrate the range in variation in behavior that might allow persistence in novel environments, absent key threats.

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Anuran assemblages associated with roadside ditches in a managed pine landscape

Cited by 13 publications

References 47 publications

Assembly dynamics of a forest bird community depend on disturbance intensity and foraging guild

Assembly dynamics of a forest bird community depend on disturbance intensity and foraging guild

Do biomass harvesting guidelines influence herpetofauna following harvests of logging residues for renewable energy?

Novel habitat use supports population maintenance in a reconfigured landscape

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