On January 25th 2018, our Radford University Field Biology/Phenology (Bio 481) class set up our salamander monitoring sites at Selu Conservancy in Radford, Virginia. This trip involved placing 48 artificial cover objects at four previously chosen locations seeking to attract local terrestrial salamander species. In hopes of successful observations, when choosing our four sites we decided to set up in locations where salamanders had been observed previously during a monitoring study conducted by a past Radford University research team. These sites included three sinkhole locations given the names Quad North, Quad South, and Elbow and one vernal pool location called Frog Pond. Each cover board was given a number (1-48) with 10 boards being placed at each sinkhole site and 18 boards being placed at the frog pong site (quad north 1-10, elbow 11-20, quad south 21-30, frog pond 31-48). Details about placement of the cover boards at each site can be found here. Additionally, six soil samples were taken from each site and taken back to the lab to measure soil moisture levels at each site. These cover boards will be revisited by the class every 3 weeks to collect data on the salamanders found beneath them. (Post by T. Thompson)
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