Factors Affecting Amphibian Community Composition in Ponds Across an Altered Landscape

In the last half-century, worldwide amphibian communities have undergone epidemic and often enigmatic declines. These are related to an array of factors including disease, global climate change, invasive exotics, chemical pollutants, and commercial trade, but local habitat destruction, alteration, and fragmentation are the most detrimental. This is due to the fact that terrestrial habitats, where many amphibians spend most of their lives, constitute foraging and overwintering grounds, and form critical corridors between breeding ponds. What’s more, some studies suggest that amphibians may travel farther in upland habitats than traditionally accepted. Recent studies depict amphibian populations characterized not by static pond units occasionally colonized or extirpated, but by dynamic interaction between upland and wetland factors, where landscape trends are just as immediate as pond attributes. Miller-Welch Central Kentucky Wildlife Management Area (MWCKMWA) near Richmond, KY is comprised of a collage of ponds, fields, shooting ranges, hardwood forest plots, roads, and encroaching suburbs. This study established amphibian community composition as well as dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and depth of four ponds in MWCKMWA. A GIS model was also developed to analyze the four ponds based on the previously mentioned landscape factors. Ponds were ranked against each other in order of predicted species richness according to local pond factors as well as landscape factors. This analysis sought to determine if either landscape factors or pond attributes are a useful predictor of pond breeding amphibian richness in MWCKWMA, but also to seek patterns within the interaction of upland and wetland factors on amphibian richness