Short-term outcomes for juvenile amphibians after fire in a southern USA pine forest

Background/Question/Methods Prescribed fire is a common tool used to conserve and manage the integrity of forest ecosystems. We investigated short-term outcomes for juvenile amphibians subsequent to fire (i.e., one prescribed burn and two wildfires) in a southern USA pine forest. We surveyed amphibians and predatory invertebrates before and after fires occurring during summer 2010. We tested for treatment (i.e., control, wildfire, or prescribed burn) and status (i.e., pre-burn or post-burn) differences in: (1) genus-level captures, (2) predatory invertebrate abundance, and (3) amphibian health (inferred through a body condition index).

Results/Conclusions Bufo and Scaphiopus (NS) captures increased in the prescribed burn treatment; whereas, no differences in Gastrophryne captures were observed. Predatory invertebrate captures exhibited a decreasing trend in the prescribed-burn treatment, relative to control and wildfire treatments. Fire did not affect amphibian body condition during the study. Neither a low-intensity prescribed burn nor high-intensity wildfires negatively impacted short-term juvenile amphibian capture rates, and hence potentially their survivorship. Further, we speculate Bufo and Scaphiopus survivorship may have been higher after the prescribed burn, potentially a consequent of reduced predation.