Association of common brown froglets, Crinia signifera, with clearcut forest edges in Tasmania, Australia
We examined the response of the common brown froglet, Crinia signifera, to recently clearcut forest edges in Tasmanian wet Eucalyptus obliqua forest. We established transects of pitfall traps crossing coupe edges, within coupes, and within mature forest interiors (riparian and non-riparian) at three study sites. Pitfall captures of C. signifera were greatest at the immediate logged forest edge (which corresponded with a firebreak constructed as part of standard clearfell, burn and sow silvicultural practices in Tasmania). Capture rates were lower in both the coupe interior and the immediate unlogged forest edge and declined to negligible numbers in the unlogged forest interior. Edge penetration was estimated to be generally 50-100 m. We suggest that Tasmania's current management of wet forest may provide additional habitat for C. signifera by changing the age structure of the forest and providing additional forest edge/firebreak habitat. However, C. signifera is common and disturbance tolerant, and thus these findings should not be extrapolated to other Australian frog species that may be disadvantaged by current logging practices. © CSIRO 2006.
History
Publication title
Wildlife ResearchVolume
33Pagination
29-34ISSN
1035-3712Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
CSIRO PublishingPlace of publication
AustraliaRepository Status
- Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Native forestsUsage metrics
Categories
Keywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorksRefWorks
BibTeXBibTeX
Ref. managerRef. manager
EndnoteEndnote
DataCiteDataCite
NLMNLM
DCDC