Committee Chair

Litchford, R. Gary

Department

Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Surface mining throughout the southeastern United States leading to acid mine drainage (AMD) has caused significant declines in plethodontid salamander communities in AMD affected streams. The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that each navigable body of water in the United States be assigned a use designation and a support status based upon the stream's use designation and how it is affected by local pollution to be published in the CW A 305(b) report. Three streams on the Cumberland Escarpment, outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, representing CWA 305(b) fully-supporting, partiallysupporting, and non-supporting status were surveyed for aquatic plethodontid salamanders. Plethodontid salamanders were collected in a non-destructive manner using coverboards and visual encounter surveys from April 2002 to October 2002. Wilcoxon's Signed Ranks Tests indicated that there was a significant difference in the abundance of plethodontid salamanders in the fully-supporting stream when compared to both the partially-supporting and non-supporting streams, while there was no significant difference between the partially-supporting and non-supporting streams. Aquatic salamanders were observed to be affected by AMD in the streams surveyed. These results suggest that a biotic survey coupled with the established abiotic testing may be necessary to adequately assess CW A 305(b) support status.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2003

Subject

Salamanders; Stream ecology

Keyword

Acid mine drainage; Plethodontid salamanders

Discipline

Environmental Sciences

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

24 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

LB2369.2 .H682 2003

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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