Abstract
Analysis of pretreatment data is essential to determine long-term effects of forest management on amphibians and reptiles. We present pre-treatment amphibian and reptile capture data from April 2005 to May 2006 for a long-term study on herpetofaunal response to prescribed burning and tree thinning in the William B. Bankhead National Forest, AL, United States. Experimental design consists of a three by two factorial randomized complete block design. Drift-fence trapping arrays were used to capture 585 animals representing 12 families and 36 species (17 amphibian species and 19 reptile species) during 600 trap nights. No significant treatment difference was found for amphibians and reptiles for Shannon-Wiener indices or species richness. No significant treatment difference was found for amphibian evenness; however, a significant difference was found for reptile evenness (p < 0.05) in stands selected for treatment. Study results highlight the importance of collecting pre-treatment data to identify pre-existing data trends in stands scheduled for forest management.
Parent Publication
Citation
Sutton, William B.; Wang, Yong; Schweitzer, Callie J. 2010. Amphibian and reptile response to prescribed burning and thinning in pine-hardwood forests: pre-treatment results. In: Stanturf, John A., ed. 2010. Proceedings of the 14th biennial southern silvicultural research conference. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS 121. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 495-499.
