A Case for Using Plethodontid Salamanders for Monitoring Biodiversity and Ecosystem Integrity of North American Forests

: Terrestrial salamanders of the family Plethodontidae have unique attributes that make them excellent indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity in forested habitats. Their longevity, small territory size, site fidelity, sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, tendency to occur in high densities, and low sampling costs mean that counts of plethodontid salamanders provide numerous advantages over counts of other North American forest organisms for indicating environmental change. Furthermore, they are tightly linked physiologically to microclimatic and successional processes that influence the distribution and abundance of numerous other hydrophilic but difficult-to-study forest-dwelling plants and animals. Ecosystem processes such as moisture cycling, food-web dynamics, and succession, with their related structural and microclimatic variability, all affect forest biodiversity and have been shown to affect salamander populations as well. We determined the variability associated with sampling for plethodontid salamanders by estimating the coefficient of variation (CV ) from available time-series data. The median coefficient of variation indicated that variation in counts of individuals among studies was much lower in plethodontids (27%) than in lepidoptera (93%), passerine birds (57%), small mammals (69%), or other amphibians (37–46%), which means plethodontid salamanders provide an important statistical advantage over other species for monitoring long-term forest health. Resumen: Las salamandras terrestres de la familia Plethodontidae tienen atributos unicos que las hacen excelentes indicadores de la biodiversidad y la integridad del ecosistema en habitats forestales. Su longevidad, sus territorios de tamano pequeno, su fidelidad de sitio, su sensibilidad a las perturbaciones naturales y antropogenicas, su tendencia a ocurrir en densidades altas y los bajos costos de muestreo indican que los conteos de salamandras plethodontidas proveen numerosas ventajas sobre otros organismos de los bosques de Norteamerica para representar cambios ambientales. Ademas, estas salamandras estan estrechamente ligadas fisiologicamente a procesos microclimaticos y sucesionales que influencian las distribuciones y abundancias de otras especies de plantas y animales hidrofilicas que habitan los bosques, pero que son dificiles de estudiar. Los procesos de los ecosistemas tales como el ciclo de humedad, las dinamicas de la red alimenticia y la sucesion, con su variabilidad estructural y microclimatica inherente, afectan la biodiversidad forestal y ha sido demostrado que afectan tambien a las poblaciones de salamandras. Determinamos la variabilidad asociada con el muestreo de salamandras plethodontidas mediante la estimacion del coeficiente de variacion (CV ) a partir de datos accesibles de series de tiempo. La mediana del CV indico que la variacion en los conteos de individuos entre estudios fue mucho menor en plethodontidos (27%) que en lepidopteros (93%), aves paserinas (57%), mamiferos pequenos (69%) y otros anfibios (37–46%), lo cual significa que las salamandras plethodontidas proveen una importante ventaja estadistica sobre las otras especies para el monitoreo a largo plazo de la salud del bosque.

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