Salamander Chronicles

Well, I haven’t updated my blog since my last summer.  Not from a lack of activity, but rather the busiest year of grad school up until this point for me.  This  was my longest and final field season and it ended up being so busy that I barley took any photos and consequently never wrote any blog posts.  So instead of a long winded description of the past year I am just going to highlight a couple things from field work.  Future blog posts will most likely cover problems with data and statistical analyses (fun!), and my progress in getting a post doc position or job!

My field season started in March at my southern most sites in the Smoky Mountains. I was able to start early with the help of an OCEES fellowship which relieved be a teaching duties for the spring semester. The big goal of coming out early was  to sample lower elevation field sites that become too warm for salamanders by the time I am normally able to start my field season.

The first half of my field season last from March until late April with the help of Courtney Thomas, Becca Wier, and Ryan Friebertshauser.  Overall, it was a fantastic two months and I was able to wrap up data collection for my main dissertation project.  We did see some very cool animals, but as I mentioned, I barely took any photos!  However, here are a couple that I took with my phone.

 

The second half of my field season focused on an extension of my dissertation work and was only possible because my advisor Donald Miles and myself received an OURC grant of $8,000.   This project involved assessing the Bogert effect in plethodontid salamanders.  The Bogert effect essentially says that  a species uses behavioral compensation (in my case, salamanders using specific microhabitats) to maintain physiological performance even at the edge of their range.  If this is occurring salamanders may be able to utilize different microhabitats to cope with climate change. However, if it is not occurring, then salamander numbers may be reduced at the edge of species ranges or ranges may actually contract as the climate continues to change.

 

 

 

I was able to setup a nice lab at Purchase Knob in order to conduct some thermal and hydric experiments to go along with my field work.  This included collecting thermal preference , critical thermal maximum, and water loss rates for several species of Plethodon salamanders from high and low elevation populations.

To study the Bogert effect I placed agar model salamanders (which provide water loss rates) and iButtons (continuously record temperature) and various microhabitats from high to low elevation in the smoky mountains.  I also surveyed for salamanders both day and night to assess what kinds of microhabitats they were using. Becca Wier, who helped my during the entire summer of 2014 and for a week in spring 2015, Morgan Etheridge, and Jessica Mace all helped this summer.  These field assistants were a tremendous help during this second session of field work to the point that they complete the majority of the actual field work the last few weeks while I entered data.  Overall, this project also went extremely well, we even had some salamanders hanging out with the agar models!.  I will finish organizing and analyzing data this fall. So look for updates as the results of this research progress!

 

Before I start the bulk of my field work I wanted to make a post on the small bodied Plethodon species of the eastern US and include some ways to help identify them without going through a key. There are plenty of quality resources for identifying these species with using typical identification keys (I will provide a list of good guides at the end). However, for the casual hiker/herp this isn’t always realistic as identifying some of these key morphological features require a lot of handling. Small salamanders can overheat and die VERY quickly, so it is ideal to avoid handling them, especially for more then a couple minutes. Also, if people know you are found of reptiles and amphibians (at least in my experience) they will often send you photos asking for identification help which often makes using a key impossible. Therefore, being able to offer a educated guess with general morphological characteristics and geographic location can be very handy.  Plethodon species aren’t as difficult to identify as members of the Desmognathus genus, but, especially for the casual naturalist, small Plethodon species (e.g. compared to large bodied glutinous species groups) can be difficult to tell apart. Before I go any further, I would like to thank Todd Pierson for letting me use some of his photos, you can tell which photos are his as they contain his name and they are also substantially better then any of mine.

Just to reiterate, the goal here is to offer ways to narrow down species identification when information is limited to the salamanders location (possibly habitat) and only general knowledge of the salamanders appearance. Also, a key thing to mention, that people unfamiliar with salamanders may not know, there can be SUBSTANTIAL color variation in many species. One of the most variable species is the red-backed salamander, which have many color variants that to the untrained eye will look nothing like photos found in field guides. However, most of these extreme color and pattern differences are uncommon, but be aware they do occur. The most common color variation found in Plethodon species is the presence or absence of a dorsal stripe. Plethodon cinereus, Plethodon serratus, Plethodon sherando, Plethodon shenandoah, Plethodon ventralis, and Plethodon dorsalis all exhibit this dorsal stripe polymorphism. However, using locality information and other characters it should be possible to distinguish between most of these species.

I know some people will not be familiar with scientific names, but I get in the habit of using them.  So to avoid confusion, here is a table of scientific names with their respective common names.

I am also going to include a few range maps, all of them are high resolution so it is best to click on them and zoom into them in a new window. The first shows species that have very limited ranges and in many cases are the only small bodied Plethodon species present where they occur.

Starting at the southern most species on this first map, Plethodon welleri, which exists primarily at high elevations and spruce-fir forests. This species can be present as low as 800 meters elevation, but they are primarily found much higher, closer to 1,500 meters. However, this is an easily to identify species as they are pretty distinct from other Plethodon in the area. They have an overall dark color to their body but they are covered with gold/brassy blotches. They are a very gorgeous species (I am still waiting to find my first). There are not many species that can be confussed with Plethodon welleri. Other species may have brass or gold flecking, but it will not be as pronounced.

Further north in Virginia we find the Peaks of Otter salamander, Plethodon hubrichti. This species actually somewhat resembled Plethodon welleri, in that it also has a dark body covered with gold/brass coloration. However, where as Plethodon welleri has more pronounced blotches, Plethodon hubrichti has smaller fleckings of color. Also their ranges do not even come close to overlapping. The Peaks of Otter Salamander is only found in Bedford and Botetourt counties making them fairly easy to identify with locality information.

Still working our way north we find the Big Levels Salamander, Plethodon sherando, which looks almost identical to Plethodon cinereus. This is where there can be some real confusion. However, the only places Plethodon sherando has been found is Augusta and Nelson County, Virginia. So unless you are in these counties, you have most likely not found this species. The only major characteristic that easily separates them from Plethodon cinereus is a shorter trunk and longer limbs. Personally, I found after seeing several of them that it was pretty obvious, however the official way to demonstrate this is to count the costal grooves between adpressed limbs. This is a fancy way of waying you bend the front limb backwards and the rear limb forward so the digits are pointing towards each other. Then counting the costal grooves along the body between the digits. As you can imagine this is very difficult to do with a live salamander. Measurements of salamanders we found a few weeks ago seem to also indicate that the shorter truck also means the tail will be proportionally longer, so that is another characteristic that can be eyeballed. Also there is only a small area of overlap between the species, so if you are at a location under 579 meters of elevation you can be pretty sure it is Plethodon cinereus and not Plethodon sherando. In contrast, if you are within the species range indicated on the map, and above 630 meters you can be more confident that it is a Plethodon sherando. As the below image shows you can see they are very similar, but the longer limbs and shorter trunk are somewhat apparent on the Big Levels Salamander (top) when shown in contrast to the shorter limbed longer trunked Eastern Red-backed Salamander (bottom).

The three northern most species on the map includes one federally threatened and one endangered species. Plethodon nettingi (northwesten most species on the map) is threatened primarily due to their small range and that they are found almost exclusively in areas with spruce and hemlock at high elevations (above 750 m). Similar to the Peaks of Otter Salamander, the Cheat Mountain Salamander has a dark body with color flecking on the dorsum (it’s back). However, where as the Peaks of Otter Salamander pretty much always has brass or gold flecking, the Cheat Mountain Salamander ranges from brass to white or silver flecking. Again, the ranges of these two species do not even come close to overlapping, so knowing where you are is more than half the battle in identifying them. In my experience it can look very similar to a Peaks of Otter Salamander, or it can almost look like a slimy salamander with lots of white/silver spots, except the spots are very tiny on the Cheat Mountain Salamander (adult Slimy Salamanders are also much larger), making them pretty distinguishable from any other salamander in the area.

Farther east we find the federally endangered Shenandoah Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah). As this species is endangered, I have no photos of them, however the only species that is easily confused with them in their range is, like is the case for many other species, the Eastern Red-backed Salamander. They should be pretty easy to tell apart as the Shenandoah Salamander has a narrower dorsal stripe, and more importantly a uniformly black belly, compared to the salt and pepper belly of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander.

Between the Cheat Mountain Salamander the Shenandoah Salamander we come across the Shenandoah Mountain Salamander (Plethoodn virginia, yes it is different than the Shenandoah Salamander) which was recently described by Highton in 1999. This species was previously lumped in with the Valley and Ridge Salamander (Plethodon hoffmani). Plethodon hoffmani is on the range map below and does overlap with this newly described Plethodon virginia. These are probably one of the trickiest two species to identify for the lay person. Without genetic analysis or a detailed geographic information it will be near impossible to tell them apart. Basically if you are in far the far eastern part of West Virginia near the border of Virginia, you may be in the range of Plethodon virginia, however if you are in Maryland, Pennsylvania, or western West Virgina or Virgina, then you are most likely looking at Plethodon hoffmani. As with many of these species they can be confused with the lead back phase of Plethodon cinereus. However, both Plethodon hoffmani and Plethodon virginia are more elongated and have darker venters (bellies) than Plethodon cinereus.

Now on to the species that have fairly large ranges. First and foremost the Eastern (Plethodon cinereus) and Southern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon serratus). These species will be very difficult to tell apart, luckily their ranges do not overlap, with the Eastern Red-backed Salamander occurring north of the French Broad River and the Southern Red-backed occurring south of the French Broad River. If I am literally adjacent to the French Broad River I would remain skeptical as it is possible the species has been transplanted across the river by people or managed to float across on debris and set up a population.

Moving along we have the ZigZag Salamanders which are currently broken into a Northern (Plethodon dorsalis) and Southern (Plethodon ventralis) species. These species are essentially identical meaning the only way you can distinguish them is through genetic analysis or the location they are found. The red-backed salamanders look very similar but have more costal grooves. Also as the name of the Zigzag implies, the dorsal stripe is not as even compared to the Eastern and Southern Red-backed species. Also, as was noted in The Amphibians of Tennessee book by Niemiller and Reynolds, Zigzag Salamanders are often found in wetter conditions. I found this out first hand when I stumbled on what I thought was a large number of red-backed salamanders in standing water, however it turns out they were my first Zigzags.

Last but not least there are the Northern (Plethodon electromorphis) and Southern (Plethodon richmondi) Ravine Salamander. Again like a few other species pairs discussed the two can only be distinguished by location and in the few locations their ranges overlap, genetic analysis. Both species have a dark body with light brassy flecking similar to several other species I have mentioned, however it only overlaps with Plethodon welleri and Plethodon hoffmani. The brass/gold blotches will typically be more distinct in Plethodon welleri. The Ravine Salamanders are also more elongated then any other comparable species including the Zigzag and Red-backed Salamanders. Just as a general observation the Ravine Salamanders tend to not only be generally more elongated but their tails seem longer and more robust then similar species.

One major take home point is that many areas have low species richness and identifying species in these locations will be relatively easy. However, there are some areas which I have circled on the map below that have substantial richness and may require more information about habitat, morphology, or even genetics to reliably identify a salamander. Also, an important note.  I made the colors transparent so the lighter colored orange is actually overlap between the red and yellow ranges, this is not Plethodon serratus as it might appear from a quick glance.  The Plethodon serratus range color is a dark orange is restricted to south of Virginia.

Salamanders as a whole are just a very interesting group of organisms. There is substantial variation and species richness that often gets overlooked because they spend most of their time hiding in the leaf liter and under rocks and logs. However, as they have finally been getting some press recently, salamanders play a critical role in forest floor ecosystems. They also come in some very vibrant and attractive colors and can have very interesting personalities.

If you want to learn more about salamanders of the Appalachian Mountains, I highly recommend the following books:

The Amphibians of Tennessee

Salamanders of the Southeast

The Amphibians of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

My next post will hopefully be about a successful start to my field season!

 

Well I am finally getting around to posting about my summer field work. I am going to post most of the photos here but the bulk of them can be found all in one place on my websites photo page.

I am going to quickly sum up my experiences as the summer progressed and include a few of the more memorable stories. However, since it is 2 months of work, going into detail for the entire time I would need 50 pages and no one wants that. Before we headed south I did some field work in Wayne National Forest, which produced some cool finds including a Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolinensis).

 

This field season started for me on May 8th and finished up on July 15th. The original plan was to come back down to field sites later in the summer, however given my funding situation and the late summer heat, it proved to be a better decision to safe my money and wait until next year. From Fall 2013 to Spring 2014 I have the Graduate College Named Fellowship, I will then have the OCEES fellowship in the Spring of 2015. Basically, this means I do not need to teach during this time which will provide me with much more time to finish my research. So ideally I will be able to collect substantial amount of data the next two springs.

As for this past field season, Celeste Wheeler and William Ternes joined me to help with the research. We were crammed into the car with all our gear (pictured above). The season had a rather shaky start. The first sites we visited were down near the Elkmont Campground on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To our surprise, the salamanders were nearly impossible to find at these locations. We spent nearly a week search at several field sites in the area and only turned up a few Desmognathus species and a couple Plethodons at a couple of the sites. Overall, this was pretty disappointing given how easy it is to find salamanders in other areas of the Smokys. We did see some other cool wildlife including a worm snake.

We moved north in hopes of finding some better sites. One site near Cosby Campground near the northwest edge of the Smokys was very productive, as it has been in the past. This was a nice change and helped boost our spirits. We found several species of Plethodon here and a few other cool species.

We continued our trip north and once again found field sites that were very short on salamanders. This left me thinking three things, 1) they were never here, despite what look like good conditions, something about the habitat or location prevents salamanders from existing in high numbers, 2) they were here but disease or changing climate/habitat has pushed them out, or 3) it was the wrong time of year to find them. I am hoping for some of the sites it is merely number 3 which I can test out this Spring when I am on fellowship and can therefore get down to my lower elevation sites much earlier.

One fun part of this summers work was getting to stay at a bunch of new campsites. One of which was right on the Nolichucky River which made for a very soothing nights sleep.

This less productive part of the trip was focusing on low elevation sites primarily in Tennessee and North Carolina. However, as we made our way north things started to improve. The first really successful area was the field sites near Sherando Lake in Virginia. This area also contains Plethodon sherando (still in the process of sorting these photos so none are pictured) which is endemic to the region only existing in Big Levels (their common name is Big Levels Salamander). The field sites in this region were very productive so we not only found a large number of salamander species, but also some other amazing wildlife.

Probably the coolest find of the trip came on a trail off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We found several red-efts out walking around as we started down the trail.  Eventually, we found a Plethodontid  salamander and began establishing the presence and absence plots so we could record micohabitat data. AFTER we had setup both plots and began collecting data, Celeste was walking between the two plots and noticed a snake. She seem startled, but I assumed it was just another black rat snake or other common (and harmless snake). However, when I looked over I immediately noticed it was not some common snake we had seen several times before, but it was instead a perfectly coiled Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus! I was very excited because I have rarely been able to see the east coast rattlesnakes, in fact this was only the second time I had seen a Timber Rattlesnake in the wild. We tried to gather the rest of our data as quickly as possible before taking a few photos of the beautiful snake. The snake never rattled, moved quickly, or acted aggressive the entire 40 minute we were in the area. Overall, it was a great experience, and helped make Celeste and Will realize that snakes have excellent camouflage so they needed to be on the look out.

From Sherando we moved to the Camp Roosevelt Campground which was the northern most part of George Washington/Jefferson National Forest that I was using for my research.  We found some salamanders at these field sites, but the most exciting part of this leg of the trip was the emergence of the cicadas.  We saw (and heard) thousands of cicadas emerge from the ground at our campsite.  Having never seen this before, it was quite the treat,

 

After Camp Roosevelt we moved to West Virginia and my first visit to Monongahela National Forest. This was my first trip to this forest so I was pretty excited, however, we immediately ran into some major technological issues. One, West Virginia has very limited cell phone service from what I am use to, and the campsite I chose was a good hour away from any sort of cell reception. Of course as soon as we got to the campsite I had electronic issues in my car including a blown fuse. I was able to change the fuse and get us running again, but that would not last. We ended up needing to get a hotel for the night and spend 2 days getting the car fixed which was much more problematic given I had no cell service. Ultimately the issue was fixed and we got to start field work but it was certainly a stressful time. Fortunately, Monongahela National Forest was awesome and outside of a few field sites, was very productive. These sites included some great finds like P. nettingi and P. wehrlei. We spent a grad total of 2 weeks in West Virginia before heading back down to Virginia.

The first stop in Virginia was back at the Sherando sites, however by this time, things had warmed up and it was no where near as productive as the firs stop. Ultimately I will need to head back down specifically to do some microhabitat work on P. sherando. However, the second stop on our return trip to Virginia was Peaks of Otter, which has the very amazing Peaks of Otter Salamander, P. hubrichti. This is another species that exists in a very restricted area, but it very locally abundant. As well as finding cool salamander here, we also saw a Bared Owl along the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway, followed shortly after by a bobcat with a kill (or roadkill) in it’s mouth. That was the first bobcat I had seen since I was in Florida, so I was pretty excited.

The stop at Peaks of Otter lasted around a week and included several days where we got soaking wet with some of the biggest downpours we had to deal with this summer, but salamanders loved it, so I can’t complain.

We had another stop in Virginia near the Mountain Lake Biological Station where I was able to say hi to Caitlin Gabor and Andrea Aspbury who were both assisting with one of the REU programs there.

Will, Celeste, and myself finally made it back down to the Tennessee and North Carolina area were we bounced further south stopping at sites a long the way. There was some more great scenery especially once we reached the Smoky Mountains again. One cool salamander species that I was really hoping we would find was Plethodon yonahlossee. Luckily we managed to find two of them, including one at a new site which means I will hopefully be able to get more data on them over the next two years.

 

We managed to stop in Asheville, NC for a two day break from field work. It was certainly nice to get our clothes cleaned and sleep in a bed especially after nearly two months of sleeping in a tent.

Our last two stops were probably the most memorable locations. The second to last was at Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area. The campground is one of the best in North Carolina and is situated on the South Toe River. I had high hopes for this location, because it was near several great field sites and the river supposedly contains Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). We manged to collect some good data, but we also had to endure nearly 7 straight days of rain. Our tents leaked, everything got wet, and the previously calm and clear river became raging and murky, so we were pretty miserable by the time we left. However, like most places we visited, there were upsides. At a nearby site Celeste also managed to find another gorgeous salamander, a Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) which was in a plot with two other genera of salamanders a Plethodon and a Eurycea.  We also visited Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi.

          

 

Luckily, the last leg of our trip was spent at Purchase Knob. This research station is set on the eastern border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Purchase Knob was donated in 2000 by Kathryn McNeil and Voit Gilmore. Purchase Knob was built as a summer home, so it provides a very comfortable place for researchers to stay especially for ones who have come from less desirable conditions (like tents in the middle of a 7 day downpour). Our time as Purchase Knob was productive and also provided some additional cool wildlife sightings. However, compared to last summer we saw very few bear and elk. Despite being out over a month longer than last summer we saw only one bear and two elk the entire trip compared to 6+ bears and 40+ elk last year.

Overall it was a fantastic trip, I regret not updating this blog more during the summer as I would have been able to add more detail. Hopefully, I can keep up next summer as I should have better access to electricity.

I close once again with some of the nice views around Purchase Knob.

 

JUNE 2012

Well, this will certainly be a very busy summer.

My goal is to scout my field locations and to collect some preliminary data.  Most data collection will be limited to higher elevation field sites because lower elevation salamanders are much less active and primarily not on the surface during these hot/dry summer months. As a result of delayed permits and the World Congress of Herpetology I am limited to 3 weeks of field work.  This first stretch lasted from June 11th-June17th and was fairly successful.

The trip started with a 7 hour drive to the Crosby campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Cosby is on the Tennessee side and is at a fairly low elevation (~650 m).  As both a pro and a con, it was raining when I arrived at the campground (pro for salamanders /con for setting up my tent). I was greeted with a nice box turtle crossing the road leading to the campground as I arrived most likely moving because of the nice warm rain.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucky for me, high elevation sites were in the works for the next 4 days…

During the remaining 5 nights I would be staying at Purchase Knob Research Station on the North Carolina side of the park.  I knew nothing about Purchase Knob before arriving so I was not expecting anything too fancy.  Well, I was mistaken.  The station was big, clean, comfortable, and had an amazing view.  Besides myself there were only 4 other researchers at the station.  Additionally, they were doing night surveys (of salamanders, because everyone loves salamanders) so essentially I had the place to myself every night.  The one downside was that driving to my sites took almost 3 hours round trip every day.

Enough about the lame non-salamander stuff.  I visited 4 field sites in higher elevation locations (>900 m).  Each field site produced a cornucopia of salamander abundance and diversity.

The first site I visited was the Thomas Ridge trail off of route 441 that runs straight through the park and connects North Carolina and Tennessee.  This site was over 1400 m so I was really hoping for some Plethodon jordoni.  Much to my enjoyment I found a P. jordoni under the first log I flipped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things were looking up.  After setting up my 1 m plot and collecting microhabitat data I managed to find another P. jordoni in the plot!  The disappointment from the first 2 days was quickly fading. I was able to complete 4 plots and found several more P. jordoni.  The last plot however produced something that I was dreading a little, a nice Desmognathus.  Now, if you know salamanders, you know the species of the Desmognathus genus are quite difficult to identify.  I am pretty sure that given the elevation I was at that this was a Desmognathus ocoee however I am not confident on that assessment.