Amphibians are important members of wildlife communities associated with forest ecosystems.
They are the most abundant group of vertebrates in many forest ecosystems and play a key role in ecosystem dynamics. This task supports sampling vegetation structure and herpetofaunal communities for 3 years in as many as 36 pine-dominated forest stands in the southeastern Coastal Plain. A combined statistical approach will be used to evaluate differences in herpetofaunal communities among structural and site preparation categories, and to determine which stand, landscape, physical, and meteorological attributes best predict the presence and abundance of amphibians and reptiles in managed forests of the southeastern Coastal Plain. Using these results, the investigators plan to identify realistic management scenarios that maintain historical components of stand structure essential for herpetofaunal populations while providing for the continued use of resources. Furthermore, they will develop predictive models useful for integration into computer-based planning tools used to manage forest landscapes.