PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 17: Reptiles and Amphibians: Habitat; and Communities
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 524 B, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Landscape barriers to the dispersal of woodland salamanders.

Marsh, David^*,1, ¹ Department of Biology, Lexington, VA, 24450

ABSTRACT- Barriers to movement can influence most aspects of population and community ecology, particularly in fragmented habitats. However for most taxa, little is known about what landscape elements actually function as dispersal barriers. We used a series of displacement and recapture experiments to study the barrier effects of open habitats, streams, and forest roads on the movement of woodland salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). We found that although open habitats did not appear to affect movement behavior, both forest roads and streams reduced movement by approximately 50%. In addition, steep roadside verges further reduced movement for salamanders crossing roads in the downhill direction. Genetic data suggest that while salamander movement is generally restricted, the barrier effects of streams and roads are not sufficient to cause detectable genetic differentiation. Collectively, these results show that empirical studies are necessary to define dispersal barriers and that assumptions about barriers based on habitat use alone may be erroneous.

Key words: salamanders, dispersal, habitat fragmentation, roads