ARMI REGIONS
To take advantage of regional herpetological and environmental expertise, the ARMI Program has been organized into 7 regions. Click on an active region name to learn about field and research activities.	Pacific Northwest     Rocky Mountains     Midwest     Northeast     Southeast     South Central     Southwest

Program Coordination - ARMI is a multidisciplinary program, relying on coordination of efforts and expertise across government agencies, academic institutions, and non-government organizations. The USGS is uniquely suited to develop and provide scientific leadership for this effort, as it serves as the research arm of the Department of Interior, has a long history of employing research scientists who have pioneered studies on amphibian sampling techniques, toxicology, and health-related issues, and has a nationwide organization that oversees other national monitoring programs.

Within the USGS, ARMI has several levels of organization. Overall Program coordination is provided by the USGS Biological Resources Discipline. In addition, there are national coordinators for each of three participating USGS Disciplines (Biology, Mapping, and Water). All field-related research is organized and conducted within seven regions across the country, allowing the Program to benefit from regional herpetological and environmental expertise.

Biological Resources Discipline - The USGS Biological Resources Discipline provides general oversight for the ARMI Prgoram and coordinates all herpetological research, including field efforts and disease analysis. Regional investigators have the responsibility for designing regional surveys, collecting and analyzing field data, conducting causal research, and preparing reports of results. Additionally, field herpetologists work closely with scientists from the USGS Water Resources Discipline to link hydrologic investigations with assessment of aquatic habitat conditions.

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Geography Discipline - The USGS Geography Discipline has a strong background in land-cover and land-use characterization, geospatial environmental modeling, data visualization, and web-enabled applications. This experience complements the research and survey goals of the ARMI Program. Research efforts are underway to model environmental conditions that support amphibian breeding habitat, characterize the landscape from an amphibian perspective, and evaluate the distributions and natural histories of amphibian species in the context of habitat quantity and quality to determine where populations appear most at risk of decline. Additionally, the Geography Discipline has developed an interactive, web-enabled GIS application to provide visualization of ARMI data within a multiscale, environmental context.
[Go to the Geography Discipline ARMI web site]     
[Read about activities carried out by the Geography Discipline by searching on “ARMI Annual Reports” in the ARMI Publications search utility.]

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Water Resources Discipline - The USGS Water Resources Discipline is conducting a number of hydrologic investigations in support of the ARMI Program. An objective of ARMI is to link amphibian population studies with hydrologic investigations that can characterize natural habitat suitability, determine the vulnerability of habitats to chemical stressors, and evaluate the role of climatic variability on amphibian populations. Hydrologists within the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and National Research Program are participating in many aspects of ARMI, including data collection and analysis, interdisciplinary research, and program planning and development.

Scientists in the Toxics Program have participated in the design of ARMI from its inception. A Program hydrologist in each of the seven ARMI regions works with their biological science counterparts to develop robust monitoring programs that are tailored to local issues, but can be integrated within a national framework. Scientists are collecting information on habitat characteristics, candidate stressors, climate, and other hydrologic factors that influence amphibian life cycles. [Go to the Water Resources Discipline ARMI web site]

National Research Program scientists, working independently and in multidisciplinary teams, are conducting research into potential causes of amphibian declines or malformations. Research efforts include: investigating links between water quality and amphibian malformations, building tools to identify effects of climate on amphibian populations, developing new analytical methods for chemicals (e.g., hormones, which can affect amphibian development), and determining how the quality of dissolved organic carbon in water affects ultraviolet light penetration. [Read about activities carried out by the Water Resources Discipline by searching on “ARMI Annual Reports” in the ARMI Publications search utility.]


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Partners & Cooperators - Building relationships with partners is a major component of the ARMI Program. Partners in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management look to the USGS for assistance with monitoring amphibians on federal lands. These agencies also need information on the status and trends of North American amphibians to set land management policy. Other federal partners, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, and Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as state partners, utilize the information collected to make decisions about environmental regulations, land management, conservation incentive policies, and landowner education needs. Implementation of ARMI is greatly enhanced by relationships with state agencies, state herpetological societies, amphibian advocacy organizations, and educational institutions. Additionally, numerous cooperative efforts, agreements, and affiliations occur at the regional level.