Inventory and Monitoring of Amphibians in North Cascades and Olympic National Parks, 1995-1998, Final Report
Bury RB and Adams MJ. 2000. Inventory and Monitoring of Amphibians in North Cascades and Olympic National Parks, 1995-1998, Final Report. Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, United States Geological Survey. Corvallis, Oregon
This report is the final product of a four-year project to obtain baseline data on amphibian distribution patterns and to develop monitoring techniques under the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) for Olympic (OLYM) and North Cascades (NOCA) National Parks. This report focuses on efforts at OLYM. Additional reports have been completed for NOCA (Glesne and Holmes 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998). We conducted extensive surveys of streams (167), seeps (250), and ponds (167) in OLYM from 1996-1998. These surveys determined the distribution and, for streams, abundance of amphibians over most of OLYM. Most species were common and widespread within the environmental limits that they were previously thought to occur. One exception was the western toad which was rare at high elevations despite its known ability to thrive at high elevations in other regions. The other exception was Cope’s giant salamander which was not detected in the northeastern portion of the park including the Elwha River drainage. Similar surveys were conducted simultaneously in NOCA. We assessed the association between amphibians and many environmental variables. Cascade frogs were associated with shallow ponds with high attenuation of ultraviolet-b radiation. This is consistent with a hypothesis that ultraviolet radiation may be contributing to declines in Cascade frogs in other regions. However, we found no evidence that Cascade frogs were declining in OLYM. Cascade frogs were less likely to occur when exotic fish (brook trout) were present and long-toed salamanders never co-occurred with exotic fish. Stream amphibians were all associated with the steep climatic gradients in OLYM but climate alone did not fully explain the current distribution of Cope’s giant salamanders. Overall, we found few indications of serious amphibian decline in the parks and definitely not of the magnitude that has been documented in other areas such as Colorado and California where toads and ranid frogs have virtually disappeared in many areas. All of the species that were not marginal to the parks to begin with, were relatively common and widespread in our surveys. We have little historic information on the distribution and abundance of these species for comparison so it is possible that some have declined or increased in abundance. However, we see little reason to believe that major changes have occurred.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Bury, R; Adams, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2000-12-20
- Publisher
- Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, United States Geological Survey
- Units
- NCCN , NOCA , OLYM
- Keywords
- Amphibia, Amphibian, Animal Studies, Bogachiel River Watershed, Cascades frog, Cope's giant salamander, Dosewallips River Watershed, Elwha River Watershed, Endemic, exotic, Freshwater Stream, Gray Wolf River Watershed, Hoh River Watershed, hydrology, Inventory & Monitoring, lakes, limnology, long-toed salamander, Lowland Forest, Lyre River Watershed, Montane, Morse Creek Watershed, northwestern salamander, Old-Growth Forest, Olympic torrent salamander, pacific treefrog, Pond, Queets River Watershed, Quinault River Watershed, Red-legged frog, riparian, River, rough-skinned newt, Seep, Skokomish River Watershed, Soleduck River Watershed, stream, surface, Tailed frog, Ultraviolet Radiation, Van Dyke's salamander, Western red-backed salamander, western toad, wetland
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Amphibians and Reptiles