[PILOT] Herpetological Monitoring Surveys for the Southeast Coast Network: 2009-2010 - Data Package

The Southeast Coast Network (SECN) initiated a pilot program using Visual Encounter Surveys (VES) and Automated Recording Devices (ARDs) to monitor amphibians and reptiles (collectively “herps”) in the network parks, with emphasis on amphibians. Amphibians were chosen for monitoring because of their global importance as ecological indicators, documented population declines and extinctions, and their high level of diversity in the Southeast. The overall goals of the pilot herpetological program were to determine trends in species occupancy, distribution, diversity, and community composition in SECN parks. VES monitoring efforts consisted of single time-constrained manual surveys conducted in the summer and early fall to visually identify herps at each sample site. Survey duration at each site was determined by four factors, 1) area to be surveyed, 2) vegetation density, 3) amount of downed woody debris (DWD), and 4) presence of freshwater aquatic features. ARD monitoring was conducted in the spring and summer with automated recording devices being deployed for a 10-day period. Park boundaries were used as the sampling frames and a suite of spatially-balanced random sampling locations were drawn from a 0.5-ha grid. Recordings were first machine processed to match vocalization hits using species-detecting algorithms, before being manually processed by researchers for QA/QC purposes. Over 9,000 individual observations covering approximately 70 species were made at 13 NPS park units in 2009-2010. Data collected under these two protocols are stored in the SECN data management system and are available online in the Integration of Resource Management Applications (IRMA) database maintained by the Inventory and Monitoring Division national office located in Fort Collins, Colorado.