Direct and indirect effects of pine silviculture on the larval occupancy and breeding of declining amphibian species

1. Plantation silviculture is increasing globally and is particularly intensive in temperate coniferous forests, where densely planting trees requires practices common to non-conifer systems that can alter forest floor microhabitat, and potentially threaten amphibian persistence. Most declining amphibian species depend on specific forest microhabitats as terrestrial refugia, but amphibian extirpation associated with tree harvest alone appears unlikely, suggesting that impacts of planting forests on groundcover might better predict recent declines in amphibian occupancy. 2. We repeatedly sampled larval presence or absence of 10 amphibian species native to temperate coniferous forest in the Southeastern United States for one year at 62 isolated wetlands located in either naturally regenerating or planted forest (plantation) to assess three direct ways that planted forests might reduce amphibian breeding site occupancy by: 1) increasing conifer densities, 2) decreasing groundcover, and 3...