Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire
Wildfire regimes are changing rapidly with widespread increase in the intensity, frequency, and duration of fire activity, especially in the western United States. Limited studies explore the impacts of wildfires on aquatic taxa and few focus on lentic habitats that are essential for amphibians, man...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424005936 |
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| author | Larissa L. Bailey Richard Henderson Wendy A. Estes-Zumpf Charles C. Rhoades Ellie Miller Dominique Lujan Erin Muths |
| author_facet | Larissa L. Bailey Richard Henderson Wendy A. Estes-Zumpf Charles C. Rhoades Ellie Miller Dominique Lujan Erin Muths |
| author_sort | Larissa L. Bailey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Wildfire regimes are changing rapidly with widespread increase in the intensity, frequency, and duration of fire activity, especially in the western United States. Limited studies explore the impacts of wildfires on aquatic taxa and few focus on lentic habitats that are essential for amphibians, many of which are of conservation concern. We capitalized on existing pre-fire surveys for anuran species and resurveyed a random subset of wetlands across a gradient of soil burn severity to investigate the short-term effects of wildfire on a relict population of wood frogs in the southern Rocky Mountains. We also investigated whether maps created to support rapid post-fire emergency response activities (i.e., United States Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response program) accurately characterize soil burn severity around small habitat features (i.e., ponds) that serve as important amphibian breeding and rearing habitat. Soil burn severity reflects fire impacts on soil and surface organic layers, including vegetation loss and changes in soil structure and function. We found that wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) breeding persistence following fires was negatively influenced by the percentage of their terrestrial habitat (100 m buffer surrounding breeding ponds) that was burned. Wood frog colonization probability of previously unoccupied ponds was low (∼ 0.10) and unaffected by soil burn severity. Importantly, we found that remotely sensed data typically produced to predict flooding and erosion at broad (catchment) scales is a poor representation of the amount and variation in soil burn severity surrounding small habitat features, suggesting that additional field sampling is necessary to understand wildfire responses for species that rely on these small habitat features. Understanding short-term geographic- and species-specific variation in response to wildfires provides the basis to explore time to recovery (e.g., when wood frogs return to burned breeding sites) or to determine if declines in breeding distributions intensify over time. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8032212fd6de49beb29097ef6bc340e9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2351-9894 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Global Ecology and Conservation |
| spelling | doaj-art-8032212fd6de49beb29097ef6bc340e92025-01-23T05:27:00ZengElsevierGlobal Ecology and Conservation2351-98942025-01-0157e03389Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfireLarissa L. Bailey0Richard Henderson1Wendy A. Estes-Zumpf2Charles C. Rhoades3Ellie Miller4Dominique Lujan5Erin Muths6Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States; Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States; Corresponding author at: Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States.Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, U S. Forest Service, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487, United StatesWyoming Game & Fish Department, Laramie, WY 82070, United StatesRocky Mountain Research Station, U S. Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United StatesMedicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, U S. Forest Service, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487, United States; Trout Unlimited, PO Box 881762, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487, United StatesMedicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland, U S. Forest Service, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487, United StatesUnited States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO 80526 United StatesWildfire regimes are changing rapidly with widespread increase in the intensity, frequency, and duration of fire activity, especially in the western United States. Limited studies explore the impacts of wildfires on aquatic taxa and few focus on lentic habitats that are essential for amphibians, many of which are of conservation concern. We capitalized on existing pre-fire surveys for anuran species and resurveyed a random subset of wetlands across a gradient of soil burn severity to investigate the short-term effects of wildfire on a relict population of wood frogs in the southern Rocky Mountains. We also investigated whether maps created to support rapid post-fire emergency response activities (i.e., United States Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response program) accurately characterize soil burn severity around small habitat features (i.e., ponds) that serve as important amphibian breeding and rearing habitat. Soil burn severity reflects fire impacts on soil and surface organic layers, including vegetation loss and changes in soil structure and function. We found that wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) breeding persistence following fires was negatively influenced by the percentage of their terrestrial habitat (100 m buffer surrounding breeding ponds) that was burned. Wood frog colonization probability of previously unoccupied ponds was low (∼ 0.10) and unaffected by soil burn severity. Importantly, we found that remotely sensed data typically produced to predict flooding and erosion at broad (catchment) scales is a poor representation of the amount and variation in soil burn severity surrounding small habitat features, suggesting that additional field sampling is necessary to understand wildfire responses for species that rely on these small habitat features. Understanding short-term geographic- and species-specific variation in response to wildfires provides the basis to explore time to recovery (e.g., when wood frogs return to burned breeding sites) or to determine if declines in breeding distributions intensify over time.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424005936Burn severityWood frogLithobates sylvaticusOccupancyWetlands |
| spellingShingle | Larissa L. Bailey Richard Henderson Wendy A. Estes-Zumpf Charles C. Rhoades Ellie Miller Dominique Lujan Erin Muths Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire Global Ecology and Conservation Burn severity Wood frog Lithobates sylvaticus Occupancy Wetlands |
| title | Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| title_full | Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| title_fullStr | Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| title_short | Unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| title_sort | unburned habitat essential for amphibian breeding persistence following wildfire |
| topic | Burn severity Wood frog Lithobates sylvaticus Occupancy Wetlands |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424005936 |
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