Specific conductance of flatwood salamander breeding ponds: pre- and post-Hurricane Michael, 2013-2018

Hurricane Michael impacted the gulf coast of the southeastern USA in October 2018. During this storm, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, located along the northern Gulf of Mexico's coast in the panhandle region of Florida, experienced storm surge that was 2.3 to 3.3 m above sea level. Storm surge pushed sea water into some ephemeral freshwater ponds used for breeding by the federally-threatened Frosted Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum). Not all breeding wetlands were inundated by storm surge but, of those that were, conductivity was 11.2 to 216.7 times greater than in spring 2018. After the storm, specific conductance varied from 80 to 23,100 microsecond/cm (compared to 75 to 445 microsecond/cm in Spring 2018), setting the stage for varying population responses across this coastal landscape. Importantly, we found live individual flatwoods salamanders at both overwashed and non-overwashed sites, although we cannot yet assess the demographic consequences of this storm.