Assessing salt tolerance in coastal vs inland breeding spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) through behavioral avoidance tests
Ressel S, Anderson S, Bischoff H, Cornish M, Riewestahl M, Schlener J. 2018. Assessing salt tolerance in coastal vs inland breeding spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) through behavioral avoidance tests. College of the Atlantic
From the abstract: "In Acadia National Park, Maine, USA, a population of Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) breeds in vernal pools that are in close proximity to the high tide zone. Breeding adults at this locale, in turn, are subject to periodic spikes in salinity that occasionally approach full strength sea water (35 ppt). As part of a long-term study on the effect of elevated salinity levels on all life history stages of this local population, we employed behavioral avoidance tests to assess the level of salt tolerance between coastal breeding adult salamanders and adult salamanders that breed in inland pools with salinity levels <1 ppt. Salamanders were collected from each site and placed in one of two adjoining test chambers that randomly contained freshwater or salt water with ion concentrations that increased incremently from 3.9 to 17.5 ppt. We then recorded time spent by individual salamanders in either chamber over 60 minutes, testing eight salamanders per concentration. For both coastal breeding and inland breeding salamanders, 17.5 ppt represented the threshold at which salamanders spent significantly less time in salt water compared to freshwater. The magnitude of avoidance behavior, however, was greater in coastal breeding salamanders than inland breeding salamanders (time spent in 17.5 ppt: 2.7 25.5 minutes and 13.75 60 minutes, respectively). Our data suggest that both coastal and inland breeding salamanders can tolerate increasing salt concentrations to the same upper threshold but coastal salamanders have a more rapid avoidance response to this upper threshold than that observed in inland salamanders."
- Type
- Poster
- Authors
- Ressel, Stephen; Anderson, Sidney; Bischoff, Hunter; Cornish, Michael; Riewestahl, Mark; Schlener, Jenna
- Date of Issue
- 2018-10-20
- Publisher
- College of the Atlantic
- Units
- ACAD
- Keywords
- animal behavior, breeding, Education, ephemeral ponds, Research & Studies, salinity, salt water, vernal pools