[vernalpool] Re: surrounding habitat

Hi Michelle,

I've worked on 3 projects in which we gathered much data on spotted and
blue-spotted salamander migration distances around Massachusetts vernal
pools. Little of it was published but my Ph.D. work is described in my
dissertation: Bryan Windmiller. 1996. "The Pond, the Forest, and the City:
Spotted Salamander Ecology and Conservation in a Human-Dominated Landscape.
Tufts University.

Using partial rings of drift fencing, I found that, depending on the month,
between 14 and 28% of a group of 433 adult spotted salamanders resided
further than 200 meters (657 feet) from a breeding pool between the summer
and the subsequent winter.

Since that time, I've worked with a number of other people on two other
large scale projects working with large populations of spotteds and
blue-spots in Sudbury and Northboro, MA. In both cases we found that many
individuals were moving well beyond 200m and that quite a few were going
past 300m (about 1,000 feet) from their pools in suburban landscapes.

The Semlitsch 175m "95% life zone" is, I believe, a flawed underestimate
based on small samples, a mistaken idea about the statistical distribution
of dispersal distances, and a likely bias in which salamanders with
implanted radios didn't travel as far as ones without radios. I agree with
Jake, if you use 300m (1,000 feet) you'll get the considerable majority of
Ambystoma in most cases in Mass but certainly not all of them and probably
fewer than 95% in some/many situations.

best wishes
Bryan Windmiller

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