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EvelynL. Bull,rUSDA Forest Service, Pac f c NorthwestResearch Station, 1401 Geke er Lane,La crande Oreqon 97850 Dietand PreyAvailability of ColumbiaSpotted Frogs in Northeastern Oregon Abstract Baseline infoflnation on the die! and prcv a\ajlabilirl of Columbia \potted fiogs i\ hcking fron nrort of lhc spccicsrrnge. Diet $as detemined nom Jurrethrough Octobcr 2002 lbr 296 hogs in nonheastemOregon. Number of pre,vi!ems. diet compositioD. and biomass indices $crc comparcd by scx. sire classes.$ater type (ponds versusrivers). montl. and nudy site. Alailable invertebrateswere dctcrmincd iiom slickr' trupsand dip netiing in ponds amddvers. A total of 1.199prc,"- ilcns were identified $ith an averageof,l.:1 prcr ilcn\ in each sanple lrange = 0 - 28). A wide vadety of prey were idcntiilcd including 33 laDrilie\ l-rom20 ordersof invcrtebrales$,ilh only i ofder! represenring>107. of the composirion:beetles (l l%). ants/wasps(:1fZ ). and flies(10ti).Onl) l,l9Zoftheprev\lcrcinthclarlals|ages.Femaleiiogsaieabou{60%morebiomassthanalcsoflhc same size. presumablybecause oftheir needto produceeggs. Bionrassof male iiog diet samplesrvere greater in rivers than in ponds with a higher percenlageofstoneflies. *,ater striders.and beetles.Frog! aclilcly fonged all sulnner with the highestbiomass in Scptcmb.r and lhe lowest in July. Ovef the sumnrer.composition of spiders.bcctlcs. and llies decrersed while true bugsand anrs/ \rasps incrcasedir tbe diet. Among studt sites.ants/r'asps were mos! abundanrar |he higher elevations.A higher proportion of inlertebratesoccurred in the larger sizesin the dier comparedwi!h samplcsof availttbleinvetebrates. lntroduction EndangeredSpecies Act. Declincsin thisspecies havcbccn repoftedinYellowstone National Palk Amphibiansmake up an inlponant componentof (Patlaand Peterson 1999). Utah (Hovingh 1993). the aquatichabitats in the BIue Mountains.These and Nevada (Reaser2000). The oausesof the speciesserve as good indicatorsofoverall health declinesin.lude habitat loss rnd lrlgmentrrion. offorest and rangelandecosystems because they introductionof prcdators,cattle gruzing,and tlte dependon $,ater for reproduction.and because loss of naturalflood disturbances.Many ol these their permeableskin makesthempafiicularly sen- factorscould also influenceprey availability. sitiveto environmcntaltoxins (Morell J999).We know relativelylittle aboutthe biology o[ therela- Studiesof fbod habitsof the Columbia spot tive healthof their populations,particularly *ith tcd fiog haveshown this speciesto be an oppor- re-qardto disturbances.Increasing incidence and tunistic feeder.taking whateverinveftebrates are intensity of fires and other disturbanceagcnts on, near,or underwater(Turner 1959, Miller 1978, (tloods, drought. introduction of fish, habitat al Whitaker et al. 1983) . teration.livestock -srazing. noxious weed control) Baselineinfonnation on dict and prey avail- in easternOregon may threatenthese animals and ability of Columbiaspotted frogs is lacking in the integrity of the aquatic habitat. Large-scale nofiheastemOregon and other ponions ofits range. disturbancessuch as fire. may have direct and This frog typically breedsin permanentponds but indirect consequenceson frogs resulting in pre- may spendthe summer.fall, and winter in ponds dation.loss in habitat,or changesin dietand prey or rivers(8u11 and Hayes. 2001. 2002). The fac availability. tors driving the selectionofpond or river habitat This studyprovides basic ecological infornra- arenot fully known, althoughdiet may be one ol' tion on the dietofthe Columbiaspotted frog (Raza severalcontributing factors. The focus ofthis study lLtteirentris).This frog specicsis of interest to was to compareColumbia spottedfrog diet and managersbccause it is classitiedas imperiled by invertebrateavailability betwecnpond and river the Oreg,'nNatural Heritage Program. rs \ensi- habitatsat six studysites. This studywas designed tive by the USDA Forest Scrvice in Region 6, to answerthe tbllowing five questions:1) wcre and as a candidatetbr listing under the Federal frogs consuming invcrtebratesin propofiion to theirabundancet2) did frogs sclcctfor largerprey itemsto maximizetheir energy expenditure for- E-meil:ebulllsf\.fcJ u\ aging;3)did pondor river habitatprovide a greater North$'estScience. Vol.77, No. rl, 2003 349 O200lh) theNonh"en Scientil'jcA$o.iarion Alll-shcrcsc^rd abundanccof prey or larger prey items for frogs: samplcs.Sampling startedin early Juneafter all 4) $as trog diet the sameat different study arcas; breedingwas completedand cndedin rnid-Octo 5) for what durationof thc summerdid lrogs tbr- ber when nighttimc tcmperaturesdropped below age and did diet di11'er? lreczing.Because activiry level of arthropodsvaries uith timeolday. the ordcr that \luJ) \ires\\cre Methods sampledwas rotatedeach sampling period. StudyArea Frogs were capturedwith dip ncts while I walked along the pond perimeteror dver edgeat Thi: studlur\ condu.ledat \i\ \iter in luo ur cach of the fbur study sites.Sex and snout-vent tershedsin northeastemOrcgon betweenJune and length (SVL) were recordcdfbr eachfiog, and a October2002 (Table 1). Study arcas were selected diet samplewas obtainedby flushing the ston- basedon the presence()f known breeding sites ach of the lrog with a catheter(2 mm wide, 56 eurdprevious knowledge offiog movements.Each cm long) attachedto a 65-cc sydnge inserted study site hasat leastone breedingpond in lcntic through the mouth and esophagusof the frog habitat(Palustrinc system) (Cowardin et al. l979) (Leglerand Sullivan 1979, Whitakcr et al.I983). and an adjacentlotic habitat (Riverine system) Diet sampleswerc preservedin vialsof 75clretha- widrin,l00 m. exceptthcRainbow site, u'hichlacks nol alcohol and returnedto the lab for identifica- a lolic system.All ponds(lentic) and river habi- tion. I assumedthe entiredict samplewas flushed tats (lotic) are in forestedhabitats and have per- from the frog becauseLegler and Sullivan(1979) manent$,ater in typical years.The breedingponds were confident that they recoveredall the mate range from 60 to 30.000 m'?in size.The e;Lrliest rial in the stomachsof lizards basedon dissec- breedingactivity occurs at the Hohman pond in tion of a few lizards after f'lushingthe stomach; late March and the latestoccurs at Rainbowpond however,no fiogs werekilled to testthis assump- in late April or early May (Table 1). The infor- tion. We attemptedto collect tive diet samples mationonbreeding dates was obained by checking from thc first five frogs capturedin both thc pond the ponds every l-2 days atier ice melted. Tim and river at eachstudy site, but limited the time ing of breedingactivity at thesestudy sites is a searchingfor frogsto 2 hr at eachsite. Food frag- function of elevation.exposure, and temperature mentswere identified to ordcr or family and cat ofthe water source.The pondsat HohmanrrLrely egorizedinto six sizeclasses (l-.1.5. 5-9.5. l0- fieeze,while all otherpond srufaces typically frccze 14.5,l5 19.5.20-21.5,>25 rnm)when enough in Novemberand thaw betweenMarch and May. ol'the inr enebrute u r( presentto estirnate.i,/e. Biomass (mg) was determinedby oven-dry- D et Sample ing cach samplefor 24 hr at 40' C. The largest Diet sampleswere collcctcd every 2 wk fiom tiogs sampleswere dried for,18hr. Because size offrog capturedin pond and river habitatsat thc Gun, largely determinedtlte size and amount of prey Starkey.Tailings, irnd Rainbow study areas.Five the frog could consume,I devised an index to percent standardizefor frog size(biomass divided by SVL of frogs captured lacked any stomach * contents.and thcse fiogs were not included in 100). thc sample.Diet was not determinedin two study The nunber ol prey items, diet composition, sites due to difnculty in locating fiogs firr diet andbiornass indices were compared by ( 1) sex. TABLE l. Pond sizc and depth. datesof breedimg,elevation, and location of sir study sites usedto monitor Columbia spotted liogs in northeanem Oregon,2002. Study Area Pund depth t|ll) Dalcs of egg layiDg Elevation(m) Gun 887 0.8 7 17Apr 02 921 Hohman 100 I 3l N{ar-I 2 Apr 02 935 Starke)_ '1,132 30 N{aFApr 98 1.001 30,000 0.1 8 1'1Apr02 t.188 Tailings 86 26,1 0.6-2 15 25Apr 02 1,380 Ranrbo'\, 28,526 3 ll 2EMa! 02 1,810 350 Bull (2) frog sizeclass (355 mn. 56-70mm. and>70 The two methodsof samplingprovide a mea- mm SVL), (3) watertype (pond versusriver), (,1) sureof the relativeabundance of aerialand aquatic month. and (5) study site. For number of prey invertebrutes, but theyare not dfuecdycompamble. itemsand biomass iodices. t-tests were used for Forinvefiebratescaptured on sticky trapsand dip comparisonsbetween sexes and water types. nets,the numberof jnvertebrates,the number by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and a post-hoc invertebratesize class, and the compositionwere Tukey's B pair-wise comparisoutest were used comparedby water type, month (June through to comparc frog sizc classes.months. and study August),and site usingt-tests and ANOVA and a arcas.Chi-squarc Lcsts wcrc usedfor all diet com- post-hocTukey's B pair wise comparisontest. The po.itioneonrprri.onr. lt' thc initialcomlrri:on compositionoforders comprising >5'l,: ofthe total betweensex revealeddifferences, subsequent numberol pre; item. ul. usedfor comparison. compadsonswere done for each sex separately. Becausedata were aggregatedby day, the mean Significancelevel was sel at P = 0.05. tbr multiple samplescollected on individual days was usedas thc variable.The relativeabundance lnvertebrate Ava ability (proportion)ofinvertebrates occuning in thc diet and within