• Corpus ID: 55187302

Effects of Trails on Eastern Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus Green)

@inproceedings{Fleming2011EffectsOT,
  title={Effects of Trails on Eastern Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus Green)},
  author={Mary Fleming and Leonard B. Mills and Julia Russell and Geoffrey R. Smith and Jessica E. Rettig},
  year={2011}
}

• M. Fleming, L. Mills, +2 authors Jessica E. Rettig
• Published 2011
• Environmental Science

Human disturbance can have negative effects on terrestrial amphibian populations. Recent work suggests that trails in natural areas can have variable effects on terrestrial salamander abundances and distributions. We studied the effects of unmaintained and maintained trails on the abundance of different morphs (striped and unstriped) and age classes (adult and juvenile) of eastern redback salamanders (Plethodon cinereus Green) in a local biological reserve. Salamanders were found in higher abundances near a maintained trail for total salamanders, and for adult and juvenile striped salamanders. There was no relationship between the distance from the maintained trail edge and the abundance of adult or juvenile unstriped salamanders. In general, we found no significant relationship between salamander abundances and distance to an unmaintained trail (except for a weak positive relationship with the number of juvenile striped salamanders). Eastern redback salamanders may prefer habitat near maintained trails when microhabitats created by the clearing of recreational pathways are available (i.e., potentially higher amounts of cover objects). Our results suggest that forest habitat near maintained and unmaintained trails can provide suitable habitat for woodland salamanders, at least for the relatively low traffic trails we studied.