10.5061/DRYAD.7278K2N
Price, Steven J.
University of Kentucky
Freytag, Sara Beth
University of Kentucky
Bonner, Simon J.
Western University
Drayer, Andrea N.
University of Kentucky
Muncy, Brenee' L.
University of Kentucky
Hutton, Jacob M.
University of Kentucky
Barton, Christopher D.
University of Kentucky
Data from: Mountaintop removal mining alters stream salamander population
dynamics
Dryad
dataset
2018
2018-09-26T17:27:05Z
2018-09-26T17:27:05Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12760
15033 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Aim: Population dynamics are often tightly linked to the condition of the
landscape. Focusing on a landscape impacted by mountaintop removal coal
mining (MTR), we ask the following questions: (1) How does MTR influence
vital rates including occupancy, colonization and persistence
probabilities, and conditional abundance of stream salamander species and
life stages? (2) Do species and life stages respond similar to MTR mining
or is there significant variation among species and life stages? Location:
Freshwater and terrestrial habitats in Central Appalachia (South‐eastern
Kentucky, USA). Methods: We conducted salamander counts for three
consecutive years in 23 headwater stream reaches in forested or previously
mined landscapes. We used a hierarchical, N‐mixture model with dynamic
occupancy to calculate species‐ and life stage‐specific occupancy,
colonization and persistence rates, and abundance given occupancy. We
examined the coefficients of the hierarchical priors to determine
population variation among species and life stages. Results: Over 3 years,
reference sites had greater salamander abundances and were occupied at a
much higher rate than streams impacted by MTR. At sites impacted by MTR
mining, most salamander species and life stages exhibited reduced initial
occupancy, colonization rates, persistence rates and conditional abundance
relative to reference stream reaches. Furthermore, the rates in MTR sites
showed low variance, reinforcing that species and life stages were
responding similar to MTR. Main conclusions: Salamander populations in
landscapes modified by MTR mining exhibited significantly reduced vital
rates compared to reference sites. Yet, similarity in responses across
species suggests that management or restoration may benefit the entire
salamander assemblage. For example, reforestation could reduce landscape
resistance, repair altered hydrologic regimes and allow for higher rates
of colonization and persistence in streams impacted by MTR.
Salamander DataSalamander Count Data used in: Price, Freytag, Bonner,
Drayer, Muncy, Hutton and Barton (2018) Mountaintop removal mining alters
stream salamander population dynamics. Diversity and Distributions
24:1242-1251price_et_al_2018The following code prepares the data and
automates generation of diffuse initial values for monitoring convergence
of the MCMC sampling algorithm. JAGS/BUGS code defining the model is
contained in: price_et_al_2018_jags.R.price_et_al_2018_jagsThis file is
the JAGS/BUGS code defining the model in: Price, Freytag, Bonner, Drayer,
Muncy, Hutton and Barton (2018) Mountaintop removal mining alters stream
salamander population dynamics. Diversity and Distributions 24:1242-1251.