An updated range map for Plethodon shenandoah

The Shenanadoah Salamander (Plethodon shenandoah) is an endangered salamander found only in the mountains of Shenandoah National Park. Field surveys of the salamander were conducted from 2007-2022 using daytime cover object surveys. In order to capture the totality of P. shendandoah’s range we sampled from low to high elevation across a broad geographic range. We created a spatial generalized additive model with aspect, latitude, longitude, and elevation and heat load index (HLI) to predict salamander occupancy and create a new range map based on our extended surveys. All spatial covariates were extracted from a 15m digital elevation model layer of Shenandoah National Park. Temperature and precipitaiton data were extracted at sampling locations from PRISM Climate Group datasets.