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Tiger salamander habitat at Ft. Bragg
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Eastern Tiger Salamander
Our research on tiger salamanders is focused on monitoring their
population dynamics, identifying how habitat quality in breeding ponds
and upland non-breeding habitats affects their population demography,
and how landscape fragmentation affects their dispersal. Tiger
salamanders are widespread across the US, but are becoming increasingly
rare in North Carolina and the southeast. They are considered a
state threatened species, as loss of ephemeral wetlands and undisturbed
non-breeding habitat has caused their populations to decline.
Among other approaches, we are using photographic identification to
monitor natural populations in a handful of breeding
ponds [more
info....].
We are also conducting telemetry studies to track adults as they
return to non-breeding habitat, and we are conducting experiments with
metamorphs to test how habitat boundaries affect their dispersal.
In addition to working with tiger salamanders, Will Fields is
conducting landscape-level population studies on the endangered
flatwoods salamander.
Our research on St. Francis satyr is funded by DoD, Department of
the Army, Endangered
Species Branch at Ft. Bragg and the Strategic
Environmental Research
and Development Program
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