Artificial Cover Board Monitoring for Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP in Vermont, USA (1999-2000)

Sampling event
Latest version published by Vermont Center for Ecostudies on Apr 18, 2022 Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Publication date:
18 April 2022
License:
CC-BY 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 124 records in English (12 KB) - Update frequency: not planned
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Metadata as an RTF file download in English (10 KB)

Description

In order to help guide the development of a forest management plan, a biological inventory of the amphibian and reptiles within the park and adjacent lands was conducted in 1999 and 2000. To compare the distribution and relative abundance of Red-backed Salamanders within 3 different forest cover types, cover board transects were established during early April 1999 in a northern hardwood stand, a hardwood/hemlock stand, and a red pine plantation. Following the protocol to monitor terrestrial salamanders established by the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (Droege et al. 1997), within each study site 40 white pine cover boards (measuring 25 x 25 x 2.5 cm) were laid out in pairs, 0.5 m apart. Each pair of boards was spaced approximately 10 m apart and, to reduce forest edge effects, at least 50 m from the forest edge. Cover boards were checked approximately each week between April and November during the two-year study, but were not checked during misty or rainy weather when salamanders were more likely to be out foraging in the leaf litter. Individual salamanders encountered under each board were tallied and handling of salamanders was avoided as much as possible. All Red-backed Salamanders were placed into one of the following size classes: Adult (> 40 mm S-V), Sub-adult (30 – 40 mm S-V), and Juvenile (< 30 mm S-V). During 2000, most adult Redbacks were sexed by visually noting the shape of the snout (squared in males, rounded in females).

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 124 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Event (core)
124
Occurrence 
418

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Faccio S (2022): Artificial Cover Board Monitoring for Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP in Vermont, USA (1999-2000). v1.0. Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Dataset/Samplingevent. https://ipt.vtatlasoflife.org/resource?r=mbrnhpcoverboards&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Vermont Center for Ecostudies. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 8e28f73e-7a2f-4867-b979-e473c4a80caf.  Vermont Center for Ecostudies publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by U.S. Geological Survey.

Keywords

Samplingevent

Contacts

Steve Faccio
  • Originator
conservation biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
05055 Norwich
Vermont
US
Kent McFarland
  • Metadata Provider
  • Editor
  • Point Of Contact
conservation biologist
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
05055 Norwich
Vermont
US

Geographic Coverage

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, Woodstock, Vermont, USA

Bounding Coordinates South West [43.628, -72.545], North East [43.637, -72.529]

Taxonomic Coverage

Red-backed Salamanders

Species Plethodon cinereus (Red-backed Salamander)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1999-04-01 / 2000-11-30

Sampling Methods

To compare the distribution and relative abundance of Red-backed Salamanders within 3 different forest cover types, cover board transects were established during early April 1999 in a northern hardwood stand, a hardwood/hemlock stand, and a red pine plantation (Fig. 1). Following the protocol to monitor terrestrial salamanders established by the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (Droege et al. 1997), within each study site 40 white pine cover boards (measuring 25 x 25 x 2.5 cm) were laid out in pairs, 0.5 m apart. Each pair of boards was spaced approximately 10 m apart and, to reduce forest edge effects, at least 50 m from the forest edge. Cover boards were checked approximately each week between April and November during the two-year study, but were not checked during misty or rainy weather when salamanders were more likely to be out foraging in the leaf litter (Jaeger 1979, 1980). Individual salamanders encountered under each board were tallied and handling of salamanders was avoided as much as possible. All Red-backed Salamanders were placed into one of the following size classes: Adult (> 40 mm S-V), Sub-adult (30 – 40 mm S-V), and Juvenile (< 30 mm S-V) (Sayler 1966). During 2000, most adult Redbacks were sexed by visually noting the shape of the snout (squared in males, rounded in females) (Hunter, et. al. 1999).

Study Extent Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, Woodstock, Vermont, USA

Method step description:

  1. see above

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Faccio, S. D., September 2001. Biological Inventory of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and Adjacent Lands. Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/008. National Park Service. Woodstock, VT. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/430046 https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/430046

Additional Metadata