A Study of Habitat Selection and Fluctuating Asymmetry of Amybstoma tigrinum at Henderson Island Wildlife Management Area in Jefferson County TN.

• Main Author: Ogle, Christopher Scott
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2011
• Subjects: Fluctuating Asymmetry; Non-breeding Habitat; Tiger Salamander; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Life Sciences; Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology; Henderson Island
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1261; https://dc.etsu.edu/context/etd/article/2452/viewcontent/OgleC042011f.pdf

Studies were conducted on a population of tiger salamanders, Ambystoma tigrinum, at Henderson Island Wildlife Management Area in Jefferson County, TN. Tests were conducted to locate the nonbreeding habitat of the salamanders and to detect any difference in fluctuating asymmetry (FA) between larval populations in a large, permanent pond and an ephemeral wetland. Drift fences were installed with pitfall traps at selected locations around each pond to determine nonbreeding habitat use by adults. Most adult salamanders were found using a blackberry (Rubus sp.) dominated old-field, a grassy field, and a shrub-grass mix field, which were all adjacent to the ponds. No statistical difference in FA between the 2 ponds.