Identifying climate-resistant vernal pools: Hydrologic refugia for amphibian reproduction under droughts and climate change

Ecohydrology
By: , and 

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Abstract

Vernal pools of the northeastern United States provide important breeding habitat for amphibians but may be sensitive to droughts and climate change. These seasonal wetlands typically fill by early spring and dry by mid-to-late summer. Because climate change may produce earlier and stronger growing-season evapotranspiration combined with increasing droughts and shifts in precipitation timing, management concerns include the possibility that some pools will increasingly become dry earlier in the year, potentially interfering with amphibian life-cycle completion. In this context, a subset of pools that continue to provide wetland habitat later into the year under relatively dry conditions might function as ecohydrologic refugia, potentially supporting species persistence even as summer conditions become warmer and droughts more frequent. We used approximately 3,000 field observations of inundation from 449 pools to train machine-learning models that predict the likelihood of pool inundation based on pool size, day of the year, climate conditions, short-term weather patterns, and soil, geologic, and landcover attributes. Models were then used to generate predictions of pool wetness across five seasonal time points, three short-term weather scenarios, and four sets of downscaled climate projections. Model outputs are available through a website allowing users to choose the inundation thresholds, time points, weather scenarios, and future climate projections most relevant to their management needs. Together with long-term monitoring of individual pools at the site scale, this regional-scale study can support amphibian conservation by helping to identify which pools may be most likely to function as ecohydrologic refugia from droughts and climate change.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Identifying climate-resistant vernal pools: Hydrologic refugia for amphibian reproduction under droughts and climate change
Series title Ecohydrology
DOI 10.1002/eco.2354
Volume 15
Issue 5
Year Published 2022
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Description e2354, 23 p.
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