{"id":287,"date":"2020-08-05T11:51:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/?p=287"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:51:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:51:29","slug":"beyond-the-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/2020\/08\/05\/beyond-the-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the trees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"649\" height=\"454\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1a.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"288\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1a.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/?attachment_id=288\" class=\"wp-image-288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1a.jpg 649w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1a-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1a-429x300.jpg 429w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"866\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"289\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/?attachment_id=289\" class=\"wp-image-289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b.jpg 866w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b-768x354.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/files\/2020\/07\/Sardonis_1b-500x230.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">Left- Eastern Red-backed Salamanders from Virginia Herpetological Society,<br \/> Right- Eastern Newt from Vermont Fish and Wildlife<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By Chloe Sardonis<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forests are crucial to maintaining\nwater quality, air quality, storing carbon, providing habitat, and providing us\nwith a valuable resource: wood. There are ways to manage forests in such a way\nthat we meet the needs of the landowner while focusing on new growth and the\nestablishment of future forests. When forests are managed sustainably, a\nlandowner can produce wood (yes, which means cutting trees) while also\nsupplying the world with the services listed above. Forest management is more\nand more geared towards healthy forests, and healthy forests are being realized\nas a tool to fight climate change. However, while managing forests for the\nbenefits of the forest and the health of the trees is great, we also need to\nthink about the impacts of our forest management on the species that depend on\nthem. Dr. Marlyse Duguid, director of the Yale Research Forest, has set out to\nanswer the question \u201cHow does forest management affect non-target organisms?\u201d Every\norganism has its own habitat needs and requirements, and while some\nrequirements overlap, some are completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s look at the Eastern Red-backed\nSalamander and the Eastern Newt. Two salamander species that at first glance\nmight seem like they are pretty similar. As a juvenile, the Eastern Newt\n(called a red eft during this life stage) and the Red-backed Salamander both live\nin our northeast forests. They are around the same size and they have a similar\ndiet of invertebrates. If we were to cut trees in a way that is great for the\nforest, will it be great for salamanders? Do all salamanders respond to forest\nmanagement the same way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yale Research Forest has been\nmanaged in a way that allow for these questions to be answered. The unique\nstudy site they have there is called a chronosequence. This is a set of sites\nwithin the forest that are ecologically similar but are all at different stages\nof the same type of management. This means they have one site that has just\nbeen cut in a specific way, one site that has not been cut at all, and sites in\nbetween that range from a year since the cutting to 25 years since the cutting.\nEssentially this allows Dr. Duguid and other researchers to look at the\nforest\u2019s response to these cuttings over the course of time, except they can\nsee it all at once! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spoke to Dr. Marlyse Duguid, a\nforester, botanist, horticulturist, and ecologist, as well as being the\nDirector of Research at the Yale Research Forest. She explained a\nchronosequence is not a perfect system, but it uses time as a proxy and allows\nfor researchers to measure habitat for any forest species including birds,\nunderstory plant communities, and amphibians. Last summer, Dr. Duguid published\na paper with Angus Mossman, Max Lambert, Mark Ashton, and Jessica Wikle that\nused the research forest to study the effects of a timber harvest on our two\nsalamander species from above, the Eastern Newt and Red-backed Salamander. Using\nthe Yale Research Forest, they were able to count the numbers of each species\nat each one of the sites, starting with immediately after the harvest and\nworking up to 25 years after. They could then compare those numbers with the\nsite that had never been cut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results were clear, not only\ndoes forest management have an effect on <em>amphibians<\/em>, it effects these\namphibians on a <em>species<\/em> level. Both types of salamanders had their\nlowest numbers immediately after the timber harvest, although the Red-backed Salamander\u2019s\npopulations had recovered to even higher numbers 25 years after the timber\nharvest than they were in the uncut area. The Eastern Newt, though, fared differently\nand even 25 years after harvest, they still didn\u2019t have the population numbers\nthat they had in the uncut site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If these differences can occur\nbetween organisms that are relatively alike, I was curious how a forester can\nthink about management and consider everything at once, like the trees, the\nforest as a whole, all the different types of animals, etc.? With this\nbackground, Marlyse was the perfect person to ask how one measures what is\n\u201cgood\u201d for the forest, or even what we are referring to when we speak on the\n\u201cgood of the forest?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cIf you were just managing for carbon, you\nmight just grow eucalyptus everywhere. You want a diverse portfolio of values.\u201d\nMarlyse explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t serve every value.\u201d\nMarlyse continued. She went on to say it was okay to stack values. There are so\nmany different services provided by forests, that you have to choose what your\nvalues are when managing and be sure to not manage everything the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we saw in the research on\nsalamanders, what is good for one species is going to be hard for another.\nHumans have to make these decisions and this research helps to inform\nmanagement. For this reason, Dr. Duguid chose to publish this paper open\naccess. It was more expensive, but she believed, because this paper is\nmanagement-based, it should be accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This study demonstrated that forest\nmanagement affects the organisms living within the forest in different ways.\nDr. Duguid emphasized that this study only looked at one small window of time\nand, even still, the results were clear. More research could be done for this\nand other amphibian-related forest-use studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With many challenges present for both\nthe woods and the organisms in the woods, such as climate change, invasive\nspecies, pests, etc., forest management will need to be aware of the gives and\ntakes of operations to continue providing the services we desperately need.\nWhile doing that, we can\u2019t forget about the tiny creatures beneath the dead\nleaves and logs on the forest floor. Yale Research Forest and the work of Dr.\nDuguid can help us to understand our impacts in the forest beyond the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article, titled \u201cTwo salamander species respond\ndifferently to timber harvests in a managed New England forest\u201d can be found at\n<a href=\"https:\/\/peerj.com\/articles\/7604.pdf\">https:\/\/peerj.com\/articles\/7604.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo credits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top Left- Eastern Red-backed Salamanders from Virginia\nHerpetological Society<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top Right- Eastern Newt from Vermont Fish and Wildlife<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chloe Sardonis Forests are crucial to maintaining water quality, air quality, storing carbon, providing habitat, and providing us with a valuable resource: wood. There are ways to manage forests in such a way that we meet the needs of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/2020\/08\/05\/beyond-the-trees\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-herpetology-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}