Research Objectives for Toxics and NRP Program Scientists

(1) To integrate information on hydrologic factors into the interpretations of amphibian population status and trends. Many of the potential stresses to amphibians are related to climate or water quality. Climate-related stressors include extreme weather events like a drought or flood and related conditions; minimum winter temperatures; and the amount of incident ultraviolet radiation. Many amphibians are sensitive to water-quality conditions, including low pH, high selenium concentration, the presence of pesticides and nitrate, and the quality of dissolved organic carbon, which controls UV light penetration. The source of water for a particular habitat is also likely to be very important. Identification of the dominant source (such as groundwater or rainfall) of water at ARMI amphibian monitoring locations will help identify which habitats are more sensitive to climatic variability and which sites would be most likely to be contaminated by human activities.

(2) To collect information on habitat characterization, candidate stressors, climate, and other hydrologic factors that influence amphibian life cycles.

USGS hydrologists and herpetologists will work together to identify sites suitable for ARMI amphibian population studies and inventories, and to determine the most important hydrologic variables to quantify at monitoring sites.

(3) To establish a base line of hydrologic information at sites were long-term amphibian monitoring will be conducted.

USGS hydrologists will begin to collect a baseline of information that is needed to gain an understanding of how amphibian populations vary with changing hydrologic conditions.

(4) To provide a flexible framework for national interpretation of regional data.

ARMI hydrologists will use consistent data-collection protocols and methods so that data collected at the local or regional scale can be used to make national scale interpretations.