West Virginia Streamside Salamander Guilds and Environmental Variables with an Emphasis on Pseudotriton Ruber Ruber Kathryn Rebecca Pawlik
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Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 2008 West Virginia Streamside Salamander Guilds and Environmental Variables with an Emphasis on Pseudotriton ruber ruber Kathryn Rebecca Pawlik Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Pawlik, Kathryn Rebecca, "West Virginia Streamside Salamander Guilds and Environmental Variables with an Emphasis on Pseudotriton ruber ruber" (2008). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 780. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. West Virginia Streamside Salamander Guilds and Environmental Variables with an Emphasis on Pseudotriton ruber ruber Thesis submitted to The Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Biological Sciences By Kathryn Rebecca Pawlik Thomas K. Pauley, Committee Chair Frank Gilliam Jessica Wooten Marshall University Huntington, West Virginia Copyright April 2008 Abstract Amphibian distributions are greatly influenced by environmental variables, due in part to semi-permeable skin which makes amphibians susceptible to both desiccation and toxin absorption. This study was conducted to determine which streamside salamander species were sympatric and how environmental variables may have influenced habitat choices. One hundred sixty streams were surveyed throughout 55 counties in West Virginia during the summer of 2007. At each site, a 10 m2 quadrat was established around a central aquatic habitat. While surveying, I looked under natural cover objects, in vegetation, and through leaf litter. I recorded species, cover object type, and location on the hill or in the stream for each captured animal. Environmental data, including water pH, water, soil, and air temperature, and relative humidity, were collected to assess habitat specificity. Eight streamside salamander species including Pseudotriton r. ruber, Desmognathus fuscus, D. ochrophaeus, D. monticola, Eurycea bislineata, E. cirrigera, E. longicauda, and Gyrinophilus porphyriticus were commonly encountered. All species predominantly chose rocks as cover objects over other available substrate. Additional choices depended on the characteristic habitat of each species. Larger species occurred predominantly within the stream while smaller species were more terrestrial. Desmognathus fuscus, an intermediate-sized species, were found equally on the hill and in the stream. Environmental tolerance ranges overlapped; however, D. fuscus and E. bislineata were least specific in their environmental preferences while E. cirrigera and E. longicauda were the most selective. Habitat characteristics appeared to play the most significant role in determining species composition. However, environmental variables are important determinants that should continue to be considered. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank God for bringing me to this point in my life and for continuing to guide my path. I would like to thank my parents for all the support they have given me as I have pursued this unordinary interest of mine and for all the initial lessons I learned at home to start me on this journey. Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love you. I would like to thank Dr. Pauley for guiding and encouraging my growth in the herpetological field. Thank you for always having faith in me and for being willing to express it all those times when I doubted myself. Thank you for being not only a mentor, but a friend. I thank Jessica Wooten for all her amazing statistical help and project advice; there is no way I would have made it through without you! Thank you, Dr. Gilliam, for your statistical help and for serving on my committee. I also want to thank my 2006 herp labmates: Noah McCoard, Eric Diefenbacher, Scott Albaugh (1/2 way through!), Emmy Johnson, Kerie Corley, Amy Hamilton, Amy Schneider, and Frank Piccininni for struggling and growing with me these past two years as we tried to figure out what we were doing! Thank you for all the ideas and all the laughs that were shared in 310. I especially thank Noah McCoard for travelling with me all of summer 2007 as we searched for our elusive species. If we had set out to find worms and centipedes instead, we would have had it made. Thank you for showing so much patience as I decided to do yet another quadrat. Thanks for making this past summer the best I have had so far. Finally, I thank the Marshall Graduate Committee and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources for the funding they provided to make my project possible. iii Table of Contents Page Number Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………………..i Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………....ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………iv List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………vii Chapter 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 2. Historical and Current Distribution of Pseudotriton ruber in West Virginia…………………………………………………………………...6 Introduction………………………………………………………………………..6 Methods and Materials…………………………………………………………...11 Results……………………………………………………………………………12 Discussion………………………………………………………………………..38 Chapter 3. West Virginia Streamside Salamander Species Descriptions……………………42 Pseudotriton ruber ruber.......................................................................................42 Gyrinophilus porphyriticus……………………………………………………....42 Desmognathus fuscus…………………………………………………………….43 Desmognathus monticola………………………………………………………...47 Desmognathus ochrophaeus……………………………………………………..47 Eurycea bislineata……………………………………………………………….48 Eurycea cirrigera………………………………………………………………...51 Eurycea longicauda longicauda…………………………………………………51 iv Chapter 4. West Virginia Streamside Salamander Guilds and Environmental Variables…………………………………………………………………………54 Introduction………………………………………………………………………54 Methods and Materials…………………………………………………………...57 Results……………………………………………………………………………61 Discussion………………………………………………………………………..67 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………..102 Literature Cited…………………………………………………………………………………118 Curriculum Vitae……………………………………………………………………………….123 v List of Tables Table Page Number 1. Table 1. Historic Sites Surveyed for Pseudotriton r. ruber in West Virginia………………………………………………………………………….36 2. Streamside salamander totals obtained from 160 stream surveys throughout West Virginia during March-November 2007………………………………80 3. Number of times the streamside salamander species were found together in 160 stream surveys…………………………………………………………..80 4. Average Monthly Precipitation and Temperature for West Virginia……………………83 5. Cover objects used by the eight streamside salamander species in 160 surveys……………………………………………………………………………88 6. Average distance between species groups found in 6 streams ………………………….93 7. One-way ANOVA analysis of distance combinations…………………………………...94 8. Site localities surveyed for, and found to have an absence of, Pseudotriton r. ruber during summer 2007…………………………………………….109 9. Comparison of environmental variables using a one-way ANOVA for adult and larval habitats of Pseudotriton r. ruber in West Virginia………………..114 vi List of Figures Figure Page Number 1. Larval Pseudotriton r. ruber from Clay County, West Virginia………………………….9 2. Adult Pseudotriton r. ruber from Jefferson County, West Virginia……………………..10 3. Distribution of Pseudotriton r. ruber in West Virginia determined through surveys conducted during 2007…………………………………….14 4. Long Lick Run in Gilmer County………………………………………………………..15 5. Howards Lick Run in Grant County……………………………………………………..16 6. Turnmill Run in Hardy County…………………………………………………………..17 7. Coon Fork in Wyoming County…………………………………………………………20 8. Beech Run in Greenbrier County………………………………………………………...21 9. Camp Creek in Clay County……………………………………………………………..22 10. Laurel Fork in Webster County………………………………………………………….23 11. Railroad side ditch near Altoona Marsh in Jefferson County……………………………………………………………………………………24 12. Unnamed tributary of Moncove Lake in Monroe County……………………………….26 13. Unnamed tributary of W Fk of Twelvepole Creek in Wayne County…………………………………………………………………………...27 14. Grieves Run in Wirt County……………………………………………………………..28 15. Seep draining into Meathouse Run in Wetzel County…………………………………...29 16. Triple Creek in Fayette County…………………………………………………………..30 17. Seep draining into Pond 14, McClintic WMA, in Mason County……………………………………………………………………………33 18. Road Run in Pendleton County…………………………………………………………..34 19. Craik Spring in Hampshire County………………………………………………………35 vii 20. Northern Red Salamander, Pseudotriton r. ruber, from Hardy County, West Virginia……………………………………………………...44 21. Spring Salamander, Gyrinophilus porphyriticus, from Hampshire County, West Virginia……………………………………………………….45 22. Northern Dusky Salamander, Desmognathus fuscus, with nest from Hancock County, West Virginia…………………………………………46 23. Seal Salamander, Desmognathus monticola, from Webster County, West Virginia…………………………………………………………………...49 24. Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander, Desmognathus ochrophaeus, from Randolph County, West Virginia…………………………………...50 25. Northern Two-line Salamander, Eurycea bislineata, with nest