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Seasonality and microhabitat selection in a forest-dwelling salamander

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Abstract

Many small terrestrial vertebrates exhibit limited spatial movement and are considerably exposed to changes in local environmental variables. Among such vertebrates, amphibians at present experience a dramatic decline due to their limited resilience to environmental change. Since the local survival and abundance of amphibians is intrinsically related to the availability of shelters, conservation plans need to take microhabitat requirements into account. In order to gain insight into the terrestrial ecology of the spectacled salamanderSalamandrina perspicillata and to identify appropriate forest management strategies, we investigated the salamander’s seasonal variability in habitat use of trees as shelters in relation to tree features (size, buttresses, basal holes) and environmental variables in a beech forest in Italy. We used the occupancy approach to assess tree suitability on a non-conventional spatial scale. Our approach provides fine-grained parameters of microhabitat suitability and elucidates many aspects of the salamander’s terrestrial ecology. Occupancy changed with the annual life cycle and was higher in autumn than in spring, when females were found closer to the stream in the study area. Salamanders showed a seasonal pattern regarding the trees they occupied and a clear preference for trees with a larger diameter and more burrows. With respect to forest management, we suggest maintaining a suitable number of trees with a trunk diameter exceeding 30 cm. A practice of selective logging along the banks of streams could help maintain an adequate quantity of the appropriate microhabitat. Furthermore, in areas with a presence of salamanders, a good forest management plan requires leaving an adequate buffer zone around streams, which should be wider in autumn than in spring.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Life project, ManFor CBD LIFE09 ENV/IT/000078 (Managing Forests for multiple purposes: Carbon, Biodiversity and socio-economic well-being). All the experimental protocols were approved by the Italian Ministry of the Environment with the authorisation number PNM-II-2012-0015691. We are grateful to Rodolfo Bucci, Filippo La Civita, Rosario Balestrieri, Giovanni Capobianco, Salvatore Ferraro, Valeria Balestrieri, Riccardo Piraccini and Riccardo Novaga for their contributions to field sampling. Domenico De Vincenzi (Ufficio Territoriale per la Biodiversità di Isernia—Corpo Forestale dello Stato), and the staff at the Posto Fisso di Montedimezzo and Azienda Sperimentale Demaniale Torre di Feudozzo, contributed greatly by providing logistical facilities and accommodation close to the sampling site, as well as help and materials to carry out the sampling. Thanks are due to Martin Brimble and Mark Jonathan Walters for language revision. We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments.

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Author notes

  1. Marco Basile and Antonio Romano contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale, Montelibretti, Rome, Italy

    Marco Basile, Antonio Romano, Andrea Costa, Mario Posillico & Bruno De Cinti

  2. Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Marco Basile

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy

    Andrea Costa & Sebastiano Salvidio

  4. Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Ufficio Territoriale Biodiversità di Castel di Sangro-Centro Ricerche Ambienti Montani, Castel di Sangro, L’Aquila, Italy

    Mario Posillico & Tiziana Altea

  5. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Orto Botanico, Naples, Italy

    Daniele Scinti Roger & Aldo Crisci

  6. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Complesso di S. Marcellino, Naples, Italy

    Ranieri Raimondi

  7. Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università degli Studi del Molise, Pesche, Isernia, Italy

    Vittorio Garfì, Giovanni Santopuoli & Marco Marchetti

  8. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del Mediterraneo, Ercolano, Naples, Italy

    Giorgio Matteucci

Authors
  1. Marco Basile

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  2. Antonio Romano

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  3. Andrea Costa

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  4. Mario Posillico

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  5. Daniele Scinti Roger

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  6. Aldo Crisci

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  7. Ranieri Raimondi

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  8. Tiziana Altea

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  9. Vittorio Garfì

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  10. Giovanni Santopuoli

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  11. Marco Marchetti

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  12. Sebastiano Salvidio

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  13. Bruno De Cinti

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  14. Giorgio Matteucci

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Corresponding author

Correspondence toAntonio Romano.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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