AMPHIBIAN
COLONIZATION AND USE OF PONDS CREATED FOR TRIAL
MITIGATION
OF WETLAND LOSS
Joseph
H. K. Pechmann1,2, Ruth A. Estes, David E. Scott, and J. Whitfield
Gibbons
Savannah
River Ecology Laboratory
The University of Georgia
P. 0. Drawer E
Aiken, South Carolina, USA 29802
1Present
address:
Department of Biological Sciences
University of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 70148
2For
reprints: http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/reprint/REPRINTS.HTM
or mail requests to JWG
Abstract: Created ponds were built as an
experiment in mitigating the loss of a wetland to construction.The created ponds became permanent, whereas Sun Bay and
Rainbow Bay were temporary ponds.Juveniles
of two salamander species and 10 species of frogs and toads metamorphosed and
emigrated from the created
ponds during the study.By the final years of the study, the community structure of adult and
juvenile
amphibians differed among the three created ponds, as well as between these
ponds and the prior amphibian
community at the filled wetland and the contemporaneous community at the
reference wetlands Mean size
at metamorphosis was smaller at the created ponds than
at the reference site for two species of frogs, whereas
the opposite was true for two salamanders.We conclude that the created ponds provided partial mitigation
for the loss of the natural amphibian breeding habitat.Differences between the created ponds and the natural
wetlands were likely related to differences in their
hydrologic regimes, size, substrates, vegetation, and
surrounding terrestrial habitats and to the limited
availability of colonists of some species.
Pechmann, J. H.
K., R. A. Estes, D. E. Scott, and J. W. Gibbons. 2001. Amphibian colonization
and use of ponds created for trial mitigation of wetland loss. Wetlands
21:93-111.
