Abstract
Wetlands within tallgrass prairie are among the most endangered ecosystems in North America and serve as critical habitat for many sensitive and endemic species. Although loss of these habitats has acutely affected reptiles and amphibians, most prairie restoration initiatives take an ecosystem restoration approach adapted for plant and/or game species, with few focusing particularly on herpetofauna. Limited information exists documenting the population responses of reptiles and amphibians to wetland restoration in tallgrass prairie ecosystems. We used multiple techniques to compare reptile and amphibian communities in recently (2006) restored and unrestored tallgrass prairie and associated wetland habitats at Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary (WWPS), a wetland mitigation site in Northwest Arkansas (USA). We documented 24 reptile and amphibian species and found that Regina grahamii (Graham’s Crayfish Snake) and Lithobates areolatus (Crawfish Frog), both of which are considered species of greatest conservation need in the state, showed preferential use of restored habitat, while common, widespread species did not use restored or unrestored habitat preferentially. Our results demonstrate that restoration of tallgrass prairie and associated wetlands benefits rare and sensitive herpetofauna and highlight two important management considerations: 1) promoting ephemeral (fishless) hydrology, and 2) emphasizing terrestrial movement corridors and critical upland habitat.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alford RA, Dixon PM, Pechmann JHK (2001) Global amphibian population declines. Nature 412:499–500
Bateman HL, Chung-MacCoubrey A, Snell HL (2008) Impact of non-native plant removal on lizards in riparian habitats in the southwestern United States. Restoration Ecology 16:180–190
Biebighauser TR (2011) Wetland Restoration & Construction: a technical guide. Upper Susquehanna Coalition, Horseheads, New York, U.S.A 186 pp
Bolen EG, Smith LM, Schramm HL, Schramm HL Jr. (1989) Playa Lakes: prairie wetlands of the Southern High Plains. Bioscience 39:615–623
Brye KR, West CP, Gbur EE (2004) Soil quality differences under native tallgrass prairie across a climosequence in Arkansas. The American Midland Naturalist 152:214–230
Chapman SL, Horn ME (1967) Parent material uniformity and origin of silty soils in Northwest Arkansas based on zirconium-titanium contents. Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science For Soc 32:265–271
Conant R, Collins JT (1998) A field guide to reptiles and amphibians of eastern and Central North America, Third edn. Expanded. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, U.S.A., pp 570–552
Dahl TE (1990) Wetlands losses in the United States 1780’s to 1980’s. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife, Washington, D.C. 13 pp
Damschen EI, Brudvig LA, Haddad NM, Levey DJ, Orrock JL, Tewksbury JJ (2008) The movement ecology and dynamics of plant communities in fragmented landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105:12078–19083
Deutschman MR, Peterka JJ (1988) Secondary production of Tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) in three North Dakota Prairie Lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 45:691–697
Dowling HG (1957) A review of the amphibians and reptiles of Arkansas. Occasional Papers of the University of Arkansas Museum No. 3, 51 pp.
Durso AM, Willson JD, Winne CT, Gibbons JW (2011) Needles haystacks: estimating detection probability and occupancy of rare and cryptic snakes. Biological Conservation 144:1508–1515
Eldridge J (1990) Ecology of Northern Prairie. Fish and Wildlife Leaflet 13.3.5. pp. 1–7
Engbrecht NJ, Lannoo MJ (2010) A review of the status and distribution of crawfish frogs (Lithobates areolatus) in Indiana. Proceedings of the Indiana academy of. Science 119:64–73
Engbrecht NJ, Heemeyer VC, Kinney VC, Lannoo MJ (2012) Lithobates areolatus (crawfish frogs). Thwarted predation. Herpetological Review 43:323–324
Engbrecht NJ, Williams PJ, Robb JR, Gerardot TA, Karns DR, Lodato MJ, Lannoo MJ (2013) Is there hope for the Hoosier frog? An update on the status of crawfish frogs (Lithobates areolatus) in Indiana, with recommendations for their conservation. Proceedings of the Indiana academy of. Science 121:147–157
Euliss NH Jr., Wrubleski DA, Mushet DM (1999) Wetlands of the prairie pothole region: invertebrate species composition, ecology, and management. In: Batzer DP, Rader RB, Wissinger SA (eds) Invertebrates in freshwater wetlands of North America: ecology and management. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, U.S.A., pp 471–514
Euliss NH Jr., LaBaugh JW, Fredrickson LH, Mushet DM, Laubhan MK, Swanson GA, Winter TC, Rosenberry DO, Nelson RD (2004) The wetland continuum: a conceptual framework for interpreting biological studies. Wetlands 24:448–458
Fowler A (ed) (2015) Arkansas wildlife action plan. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A. 1678 pp
Gibbons JW, Dorcas ME (2004) North American Watersnakes: a natural history. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A. 438 pp
Gibbons JW, Scott DE, Ryan TJ, Buhlmann KA, Tuberville TD, Metts BS, Greene JL, Mills T, Leiden Y, Poppy S, Winne CT (2000) The global decline of reptiles, déjà vu amphibians. Bioscience 50:653–666
Gibbons JW, Winne CT, Scott DE, Willson JD, Glaudas X, Andrews KM, Todd BD, Fedewa LA, Wilkinson L, Tsaliagos RN, Harper SJ (2006) Remarkable amphibian biomass and abundance in an isolated wetland: implications for wetland conservation. Conservation Biology 20:1457–1465
Gibson DJ, Hulbert LC (1987) Effects of fire, topography and year-to-year climatic variation on species composition in tallgrass prairie. Vegetatio 72:175–185
Gould AMA, Gorchov DL (2000) Effects of the exotic invasive shrub Lonicera Maackii on the survival and fecundity of three species of native annuals. The American Midland Naturalist 144:36–50
Grant BW, Tucker AD, Lovich JE, Mills AM, Dixon PM, Gibbons JW (1992) The use of coverboards in estimating patterns of reptile and amphibian biodiversity. In: McCullough DR, Barrett RH (eds) Wildlife 2001. Elsevier, London, U.K., pp 379–403
Hecnar SJ, M’Closkey (1997) The effects of predatory fish on amphibian species richness and distribution. Biological Conservation 79:123 – 131
Heemeyer JL, Williams PJ, Lannoo MJ (2012) Obligate crayfish burrow use and Core habitat requirement of crawfish frogs. Journal of Wildlife Management 76:1081–1091
Herwig BR, Schroeder LW, Zimmer KD, Hanson MA, Staples DF, Wright RG, Younk JA (2013) Fish influences on amphibian presence and abundance in prairie and parkland landscapes of Minnesota, USA. Journal of Herpetology 47:489–497
Hoffman AS, Heemeyer JL, Williams PJ, Robb JR, Karns DR, Kinney VC, Engbrecht NJ, Lannoo MJ (2010) Strong site Fidelity and a variety of imaging techniques reveal around-the-clock and extended activity patterns in crawfish frogs. Bioscience 60:829–834
Iverson JB (1982) Biomass in turtle populations: a neglected subject. Oecologia 55:69–76
Joly P, Morand C, Cohas A (2003) Habitat fragmentation and amphibian conservation: building a tool for assessing landscape matrix connectivity. Comptes Rendus Biologies S326:S132–S139
Keck MB (1994) A new technique for sampling semi-aquatic snake population. Herpetological Nat Hist 2:101–103
King JT, King ME, Boss SK (2002) Bedrock geology of Wesk fork quadrangle, Washington County, Arkansas. Arkansas Academy of Science 56:75–90
Knopf FL (1996) Prairie Legacies—Birds. In: Samson FB, Knopf FL (eds) Prairie conservation: preserving North America’s most endangered ecosystem. Island Press, Washington, DC., U.S.A., pp 135–148
Knutson ME, Saur JR, Olsen DA, Mossman MJ, Hemesath LM, Lannoo MJ (1999) Effects of landscape composition and wetland fragmentation on frog and toad abundance and species richness in Iowa and Wisconsin, U.S.A. Conservation Biology 13:1437–1446
Knutson ME, Richardson WM, Reineke DM, Gray BR, Parmelee JR, Weick SE (2004) Agricultural ponds support amphibian populations. Ecological Applications 14:669–684
Lannoo MJ, Kinney VC, Heemeyer JL, Engbrecht NJ (2009) Mine spoil prairies expand critical habitat for endangered and threatened amphibian and reptile species. Diversity 1:118–132
Lannoo MJ, Stiles RM, Sisson MA, Swan JW, Terrell CVK, Robinson KE (2017) Patch dynamics inform management decisions in a threatened frog species. Copeia 2017:53–63
Lehtinen RM, Galatowisch SM, Tester JR (1999) Consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation for wetlands amphibian assemblages. Wetlands 19:1–12
Liu HY, Zhang SK, Li ZF, XG L, Yang Q (2004) Impacts on wetlands of large-scale land-use changes by agricultural development: the small Sanjiang plain, China. Ambio 33:306–310
MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Monographs in Population Biology. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A. 203 pp
MacKenzie DI, Royle JA (2005) Designing occupancy studies: general advice and allocation survey effort. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:1105–1114
Matson PA, Parton WJ, Power AG, Swift MJ (1997) Agricultural intensification and ecosystem properties. Science 277:504–509
McCoy ED, Mushinsky HR (1999) Habitat fragmentation and the abundances of vertebrates in the Florida scrub. Ecology 80:2526–2538
McLaughlin A, Mineau P (1995) Impact of agricultural practices on biodiversity. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 55:201–212
Murkin HR, Murkin EJ, Ball JP (1997) Avian habitat selection and prairie wetland dynamics: a 10-year experiment. Ecological Applications 7:1144–1159
Mushet DM, Euliss NH Jr., Shaffer TH (2002) Floristic quality assessment of one natural and three restored wetland complexes in North Dakota, USA. Wetlands 22:126–138
Mushet DM, Euliss NH Jr., Stockwell CA (2012) Mapping anuran habitat suitability to estimate effects of grasslands and wetland conservation programs. Copeia 2012:231–300
Mushinsky HR, Hebrard JJ (1977) Food partitioning by five species of water snakes in Louisiana. Herpetologica 33:162–166
Parris MJ, Redmer M (2005) Rana areolata. In: Lannoo MJ (ed) Amphibian declines: the conservation status of United States species. University of California Press, Berkely, California, U.S.A., pp 526–528
Pellet J, Schmidt BR (2005) Monitoring distributions using call surveys: estimating site occupancy, detection probabilities and inferring absence. Biological Conservation 123:27–35
Perry RW, Rudolph DC, Thill RE (2009) Reptile and amphibian Resposes to restoration of fire-maintained pine woodlands. Restoration Ecology 17:917–927
Petranka JW (1998) Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 587 pp
R Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL: http://www.R-project.org/
Richardson JL, Arndt JL, Montgomery JA (2001) In: Richardson JL, Vepraskas MJ (eds) Wetland soils: genesis, hydrology, landscapes, and classification. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., pp 35–38
Risser PG (1988) Diversity in and among grasslands. In: Wilson EO (ed) Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington D.C., U.S.A., pp 176–180
Samson FB, Knopf FL (1994) Prairie conservation in North America. Bioscience 44:418–421
Scherer RD, Muths E, Noon BR (2012) The importance of local and landscape-scale processes to the occupancy of wetlands by pond-breeding amphibians. Population Ecology 54:487–498
Schmidt BR (2003) Count data, detection probabilities, and the demography, dynamics, distribution, and decline of amphibians. Comptes Rendus Biologies 326:119–124
Schmidt BR, Pellet J (2010) Quantifying abundance: counts, detection probabilities, and estimates. In: Dodd CK Jr. (ed) Amphibian ecology and conservation: a handbook of techniques. Oxford University Press, New York, U.S.A., pp 465–479
Seabloom EW, van der Valk AG, Moloney KA (1998) The role of water depth and soil temperature in determining initial composition of prairie wetland Coenoclines. Plant Ecology 138:203–216
Snodgrass JW, Bryan AL Jr., Lide RF, Smith GM (1996) Factors affecting the occurrence and structure of fish assemblages in isolated wetlands of the upper coastal plain, USA. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53:443–454
Stiles RM, Swan JW, Klemish JL, Lannoo MJ (2017) Amphibian habitat creation on post-industrial landscapes: as case study in a reclaimed coal strip-mine area. Canadian Journal of Zoology 95:67–73
Streever WJ (1999) Performance standards for wetland creation and restoration under section 404. National Wetlands Newsletter May – June, pp 10–13
Stuart SN, Chanson JS, Cox NA, Young BE, Rodrigues ASL, Fischman L, Waller RW (2004) Status and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. Science 306:1783–1786
The Nature Conservancy (2016) Protecting nature. Preserving life. Arlington, Virgina, U.S.A. URL: http://www.nature.org/
Todd BT, Willson JD, Gibbons JW (2010) The global status of reptiles and causes of their decline. In: Sparling DW, Linder G, Bishop CA (eds) Ecotoxicology of reptiles and amphibians, 2nd edn. SETAC Press, Pensacola, Florida, U.S.A., pp 47–67
Trauth SE, Robison HW, Plummer MV (2004) The amphibians and reptiles of Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S.A. 421 pp
Twidwell E, Rogers WE, Fulendorf SD, Wonkka CL, Engle DM, Weir JR, Kreuter UP, Taylor CA Jr. (2013) The rising Great Plains fire campaign: citizens’ response to woody plant encroachment. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11:64–71
van der Kamp G, Stolte WJ, Clark RG (1999) Drying out of small prairie wetlands after conversion of their catchments from cultivation to permanent brome grass. Hydrological Sciences Journal 44:387–397
Warner RE (1994) Agricultural land use and grassland habitat in Illinois: future shock for Midwestern birds? Conservation Biology 8:147–156
Weir LA, Mossman JM (2005) North American amphibian monitoring program (NAAMP). In: Lannoo MJ (ed) Amphibian declines: conservation status of United States amphibians. University of California Press, Oakland, California, U.S.A., pp 307–313
Weller MW (1982) Management of freshwater marshes for wildlife. In: Ratti JT, Flake ID, Wentz WA (eds) Waterfowl ecology and management: selected readings. The wildlife society, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., pp 942–956
Wilgers DJ, Horne EA (2006) Effects of different burn regimes on tallgrass prairie Herpetofaunal species diversity and community composition in the Flint Hills, Kansas. Journal of Herpetology 40:73–84
Williams PJ, Robb JR, Karns DR (2012a) Habitat selection by crawfish frogs (Lithobates areolatus) in a large mixed grassland/Forest habitat. Journal of Herpetology 46:682–688
Williams PJ, Robb JR, Karns DR (2012b) Occupancy dynamics of breeding crawfish frogs in southeastern Indiana. Wildlife Society Bulletin 36:350–357
Williams PJ, Engbrecht NJ, Robb JR, Terrell VCK, Lannoo MJ (2013) Surveying a threatened amphibian species through a narrow detection window. Copeia 2013:553–562
Willson JD, Gibbons JW (2009) Drift fences, coverboards, and other traps. In: Dodd CK Jr. (ed) Amphibian ecology and conservation: a handbook of techniques. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., pp 229–245
Willson JD, Winne CT, Keck MB (2008) Empirical tests of biased body size distributions in aquatic snake captures. Copeia 2008:401–408
Willson JD, Winne CT, Todd BT (2011) Ecological and methodological factors affecting detectability and population estimation in elusive species. Journal of Wildlife Management 75:36–45
Winne CT, Willson JD, Andrews KM, Reed RN (2006) Efficacy of marking snakes with disposable medical cautery units. Herpetological Review 37:52–54
Zedler JB (2000) Progress in wetland restoration ecology. TREE 15:402–407
Zedler JB, Kercher S (2005) Wetland resources: status, trends, ecosystem services, and restorability. Annual review of environmental. Resources 30:39–74
Acknowledgements
We thank B. Shackleford, Environmental Consulting Operations (ECO) Inc., and the city of Fayetteville for creating Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary and facilitating our research. J. Hickle provided site access and support. B. Shackleford, T. Witsell, M. Swartwout, and J. Mortensen provided valuable comments and edits to the manuscript. Funding was provided by the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Audubon Society. We also thank many additional observers, especially M. Swartwout and M. Coleman, for field assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baecher, J.A., Vogrinc, P.N., Guzy, J.C. et al. Herpetofaunal Communities in Restored and Unrestored Remnant Tallgrass Prairie and Associated Wetlands in Northwest Arkansas, USA. Wetlands 38, 157–168 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0966-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0966-5