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MA Press: Spotting salamanders

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THE TRANSCRIPT (North Adams, Massachusetts) 01 May 08 Spotting salamanders (Bonnie Obremski)
Williamstown: A salamander study in its third year at Williams College's Hopkins Mem-orial Forest could have "strong value" in measuring regional climate change if researchers could continue their efforts into the next decade, according to Andrew Jones, researcher and forest manager.
Researchers fear continued sample-taking could begin to cause salamanders to leave the shallow pools in favor of less-disturbed areas, however, according to Henry Art, another researcher and biology professor at the college.
Disturbing the pools would be the exact opposite of the study's initial goals. Two years ago, Art said, he started the project at the request of a housing developer who owned the pools and surrounding land at the time. The developer wanted to know if the development could impede on wildlife habitats.
The research team subsequently discovered a handful of state-protected Jefferson salamanders bred in the pools, in addition to perhaps 3,700 unprotected spotted salamanders. Faced with those in-creased environmental concerns, and other matters that challenged the project, the developer ultimately sold his land to several conservation-minded entities. Williams College bought the pools and some surrounding land.
Art said on Wednesday he and other research leaders will need to make a decision this year about how to proceed. They might decide to continue as they have been, reduce the amount of visits to the pools, or even let the pools completely alone for a year or more, he said.
Innovative software that Williams College students and professors are hoping to finish designing this year could help with the decision. Computer science professor Andr-ea Danyluk has been working with students for two years to develop a computer program that would allow a researcher to track a spotted salamander using digital, pattern-recognition technology.
If researchers can "tag" salamanders by putting their unique yellow spot-patterns into a database, they can then use the software to determine how many salamanders return to the pools year after year. The software would be capable of matching a photograph of a salamander's spots with a photograph in the database. That way, researchers can see more easily if fewer spotted salamanders are returning to the pools.
As for the Jefferson salamanders, which are mostly mud-colored, researchers are sticking with the traditional tagging technique of snipping one of the salamander's toes, which grow back in about two years.
"We're much closer than we've ever been before," Danyluk said of the software. "Right now, we are inputting images we know are duplicates (of ones in the database), and the program can match about half of them perfectly right."
The software works, she said, by laying a photograph of a salamander's back over each of the photographs in the database. If the spots line up, the computer selects it as a match.
Jones said tracking the salamanders would likely have wider appeal in the science field only if researchers can show the results of consistent work over long periods of time. In addition to tracking salamanders, researchers have also been taking a census of other woodland animals such as frogs and turtles.
"It could tell us if the timing of salamander migrations are changing. If they're earlier, it could be an indicator of climate change," Jones said.
The salamanders are in the thick of migration season right now with early spring's rain and moderate warmth. Beginning in March, salamanders travel about a quarter-mile from homes beneath the leaf litter to the pools to lay eggs in the water. At the Northwest Hill ponds, many of the migrating creatures fall into shallow, padded buckets along the pool's edges, set there by researchers.
Over the years, Art estimated about 60 people from across the county of all levels of experience have helped collect data. Those volunteers help Art and Jones carry the buckets a few hundred feet to a laboratory where the animals are photographed, weighed and measured before being released in the same spot they were found. The process happens every day, twice a day during the spring, and then once a day through November.
Researchers treat the animals with extreme care, but Jones said any amount of time spent in captivity can be stressful to wild creatures. Jones confirmed that the species' sensitivity to environmental conditions is one reason why they can be valuable indicators of the health of their environment.
"Their skin is very porous, which makes them susceptible to a lot of things," he said.
While the salamander study has the potential to produce results of regional or national interest, the project has already proven valuable to Berkshire County and Southern Vermont residents and college students. On Wednesday at 8:15 a.m., Kaite Ward, 16, and her mother Cindy Delfino of Bennington Vt., were on bucket duty with Art and Jones. The pair have helped with the project since it began.
"I get to have fun playing in the muck," Kaite said. "What could be better than that?"
http://www.thetranscript.com/localnews/ci_9118152
 
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