Aquatic Habitats and Communities

A method is described for the analysis of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds in tissue samples. Cleanup by hexane-aceto-nitrile partitioning and Florisil column chromatography are performed on samples before oxidative treatment to convert DDE to DCBP. PCB components are then determined semi-quantitatively by TLC. No prior separation of PCB from chlorinated pesticides is required...

Introduced American Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) have become widely established in the Pacific Northwest over the last century and are thought to be an important predator of native amphibians throughout the western United States. The Northern Red-Legged Frog (Rana aurora aurora) and Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa) historically coexisted in portions of the Pacific Northwest now...

Few ecologists would dispute that exposure to high levels of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B) is detrimental to organisms. It is well established that UV-B has been a critical factor shaping the physiology (Blum et al. 1949, Hansson 2000), behavior (Pennington and Emlet 1986, van de Mortel and Buttemer 1998), and distribution (Williamson et al. 2001, Leavitt et al. 2003) of many aquatic...

Introduction In the past two decades, scientists around the world have increasingly noted losses of amphibian populations. Many of these declines have occurred in protected areas like national parks, where the causes mostly remain mysterious. However, in multipleuse landscapes, resource managers frequently face more obvious conservation problems and must make decisions that will affect...

We used a large forested preserve (Olympic National Park, USA) to examine the habitat associations of a unique and environmentally sensitive stream amphibian fauna: Ascaphus truei Stegneger, Rhyacotriton olympicus (Gaige) and Dicamptodon copei Nussbaum. We quantified the relative abundance of stream amphibians and compared them to physical, topographic, climatic and landscape variables...

Increased exposure to ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation has been proposed as a major environmental stressor leading to global amphibian declines. Prior experimental evidence from the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) indicating the acute embryonic sensitivity of at least four amphibian species to UV-B has been central to the literature about amphibian decline. However, these results have not...