Managing habitat for the

eastern tiger salamander

and other Ambystomid
salamander species

Valorie R. Titus, PhD

American Public University System
Amphibian Decline
Climate Change

Invasive Species

Pollution

Pet Trade

Disease

Habitat Loss
Adult A. tigrinum
Management Issues

Habitat Use/Quality

Movement/Buffer Zones

Population genetics

Relocation, Repatriation,
Translocation

Typical A. tigrinum breeding pond

Eastern Tiger Salamander

Ambystoma tigrinum

NYS Endangered

Decreasing throughout
their range

Many areas on Long

Island are in danger of
development
Pre-metamorphic A. tigrinum
Current Range

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/endspec/tisafs.html
Historic Range in N.Y.
Current Range in N.Y.

http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/herp/eatisala.gif
Current Legal
Protection
New York State Freshwater
Wetland Act: 30 m buffer
surrounding wetlands

NYS DEC
Recommendations: 164 m,
no more than 50% upland
habitat within 305 m of
breeding pond be converted
to unusable habitat (based
on Semlitsch 1998)

Recent metamorph
 Movements
Brookhaven National
Laboratory, Long Island, N.Y.
Over 5000 acres
22+ confirmed salamander
ponds on site
3 Focal Ponds: L1, L3, L7
Tiger Salamander management
and monitoring protocols already
in place
Methods
Collected males and
females upon
emigration from
breeding ponds

Collected juveniles
upon emigration or just
before final
metamorphosis

Pre-metamorphic A. tigrinum
Results
Movements at night
during rain event

Some short movements

after implant
replacement

Avoided open fields,

development, planted
white pine stands
Adult A. tigrinum outside burrow
Results
Tracked 33 males, 26
females, 47
metamorphs

Predation: Bullfrog,
Eastern Hognose
Snake, Raccoon,
Northern Short-Tailed
Shrew, Eastern Ribbon
Snake
Radiotransmitter with
B. brevicauda tooth marks
 Results
Recovered a greater proportion of
implants from males (72.2%, 24 of
33) than females (30%, 8 of 26)
(Fisher Exact Probability, P=0.001)

No difference between number of

implants recovered (N=25) and lost
(N=22) for juveniles

More likely to recover implant from

juveniles remaining closer to the
breeding pond (Z=2.750, P=0.006)
Juvenile A. tigrinum size
differences
 Conclusions
Predation may be higher closer to breeding pond

Males may stay closer as a reproductive strategy

Females may move farther to reduce resource

competition

Optimal pond conditions during development may

influence juvenile dispersal

Traditionally calculated buffer zones may be

inadequate for this species

Fails to protect 20% of individuals in this study,

however, incorporating a 50 m edge effect, only
protects 62%

May encompass unsuitable habitat and reduce

availability of good habitat
Pre-metamorphic A. tigrinum
Connectivity
Fragmented landscapes
resulting from anthropogenic
habitat modification can have a
significant impact on dispersal,
gene flow, and persistence of
wildlife populations

Reduced genetic variation can

severely compromise the ability
of a population to respond to
subsequent environmental
change
Adult A. tigrinum
Goals
Assess population
genetic diversity of
remaining tiger
salamander populations

Quantify genetic and

landscape connectivity
among ponds and
populations to identify
potential corridors and
barriers to migration
Adult A. tigrinum
Methods
Collected samples from 17
breeding sites across Long
Island and 9 sites in New Jersey

Collected as many samples as

possible (N=2-93) from each site

Genotyped 439 individuals

across 12 microsatellite loci

Samples included toe and tail

clips and individual eggs from
egg masses
A. tigrinum egg mass
Results- Regional Population
Structure and Migration
Low allelic diversity

Markers not highly

polymorphic (1-13 alleles)

Mean numbers of alleles

ranged from 1.1 to 3.3 in
New York and 1.7 to 2.4 in
New Jersey

GENEALEX version 6
(Peakall and Smouse 2006)
GENEALEX version 6 (Peakall and Smouse 2006)
Results- Regional Population
Structure and Migration
 Results- Regional Population
Structure and Migration
High levels of population
differentiation between NY and NJ
(average Fst=0.217) (FSTAT
Goudet 1995; Weir and
Cockerham 1984).

Few individuals were assigned to

the pond at which they were
sampled with either 80% or 95%
confidence, and many of these
individuals were assigned to other
ponds with high confidence
(GENECLASS2; Piry et al. 2004)
 Results- Landscape
Barriers to Migration
Defined land cover resistance
values from Compton et al. (2007)
and Greenwald et al. (2009)

Calculated euclidean distance,

euclidean resistance, and surface
resistance (using CIRCUITSCAPE
version 3.3; McRae and Shah
2009);

Correlated these values with Fst

using a Mantel test (Rosenburg and
Anderson 2011) Adult A. tigrinum in burrow
Results- Landscape
Barriers to Migration

No relationship between
connectivity indices and Fst in
either New York (euclidean
distance: r = -0.044, p = 0.827;
euclidean resistance: r = -0.047,
p = 0.812; surface resistance: r =
-0.056, p = 0.786) or New Jersey
(euclidean distance: r = 0.120, p
= 0.388; euclidean resistance: r =
0.183, p = 0.312; surface
resistance: r = 0.226, p = 0.246)

No relationship between
Euclidean distance and
assignment probabilities in NY
(R2 = 0.0005, P = 0.791), but
significant for NJ (R2 = 0.361, P =
0.00001)
 Conclusions
Low allelic diversity; likely from
few migrants during
Pleistocene (Church et al.
2002)

May make whole population

susceptible to collapse in case
of catastrophic event

High risk of inbreeding

depression if ponds become
more isolated from each other
 Conclusions
3 distinct genetic demes; while
evidence of admixture, this is
likely due to ancestral
polymorphism rather than
gene flow between NY and NJ

The second NY deme is

centrally located and within 10
m of each other; likely caused
by wetland remediation from
2005-2007
 Conclusions
Assignment probabilities provide
evidence of recent migration
between several ponds

Difference between NY and NJ is

likely due to distance between
ponds

Corridors appear to be present in

both NY and NJ, but no
relationship between
distance/land cover and Fst
 Management
Calculate protection (buffer
zones) on a case-by-case
basis

Estimate probable dispersal

habitat and determine
available corridors

Individual breeding ponds can

be susceptible to
perturbations that may limit
migration and dispersal
 So What?
Global amphibian declines

Desire to know how to properly

conserve and manage this and
other amphibian species

Disease outbreaks; already

confirmed Bd and Ranavirus on
site

Can we actively manage this

species (e.g. relocation,
assisted migration)?
 Literature Cited
Church, SA, Kraus JM, Mitchell JC, Church DR, Taylor DR (2002) Evidence for multiple Pleistocene refugia in the postglacial expansion of the eastern
tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum. Evolution 52:372-383

Evanno G, Regnaut S, Goudet J (2005) Detecting the number of clusters of individuals using the software structure: a simulation study. Mol Ecol
14:2611-2620

Excoffier L, Smouse PE, Quattro, JM (1992) Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: application to human
mitochondrial DNA restriction data Genetics 131:479-491.

Goudet J (1995) fstat (version 1.2): a computer program to calculate F-statistics. J of Hered 86:485-486

McRae BH, Shah VB (2009) Circuitscape users guide. The University of California, Santa Barbara. Available at: http://www.circuitscape.org.

Peakall R, Smouse PE (2006) Genalex 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Molecular Ecology Notes.
6:288-295.

Piry S, Alapetite A, Cornuet JM, Paetkau D, Baudouin L, Estoup A (2004) GENECLASS2: a software for genetic assignment and first-generation migrant
detection. J. of Hered. 95:536-539

Pritchard JK, Stephens M and Donnelly P, (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155: 945-959.

Raymond M, Rousset F (1995) GENEPOP (version 1.2): population genetics software for exact tests and ecumenicism. J Hered 86:248-249.

Rosenburg, NA (2004) distruct: a program for the graphical display of population structure. Molecular Ecology Notes. 4:137-138.

Rosenberg MS, Anderson CD (2011) Passage: Pattern Analysis, Spatial Statistics, and Geographic Exegesis. V.2. Methods in Ecology and Evolution
2:229-232

Schneider S, Roessli D, Excoffier L (2000) Arlequin: A software program for population genetics data analysis (version 2.0). Genetics and Biometry Lab,
Department of Anthropology, University of Genevam Switzerland.

Semlitsch, R.D. 1998. Biological delineation of terrestrial buffer zones for pond-breeding salamanders. Conservation Biology 12:1113-1119.

Van Oosterhout C, Hutchinson WF, Wills DPM, Shipley P (2004) MICRO-CHECKER: software for identifying and correcting genotyping errors in
microsatellite data. Molec Ecol Notes 4:535-538

Weir BS, Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evolution 38:1358-1370.
Acknowledgements
NYS DEC Project MOU # AM
05513

Brookhaven National Laboratory

NYS DEC

Foundation for Ecological Research

in the Northeast (FERN)

Dave Golden and the Endangered

and Nongame Species Program of
the New Jersey Division of Fish
and Wildlife

Upstate Herpetolgical Society

Acknowledgements
Dr. Dale Madison

Dr. Tim Green

Dr. Kelly Zamudio

Al Breisch

Dr. Dan Rosenblatt

Dr. Julian Shepherd

Dr. Richard Andrus

Dr. Matthew Parker

Acknowledgements
Thank you to interns and fellow
students: Sarah, Chauncey,
Wendy, Frank, Jeremy, Jennifer,
Esperanza, Stephen, Sarah,
Emily, Carmen, Renee,
Stephanie, Doris, Rachel, Dane,
Katie, Kristine, Susan, Diana,
Tyra, Shirin, Lauren, Matt,
Miranda, Becky, Mike, Omar,
Andy, Nate, Ellie, Jennifer,
Miranda, Heather, Bri, Jin Joo,
Sarah, Clara, Dave, Rayna,
Angie, and Gui