The advantages of amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) as vertebrate indicators of environmental change is increasingly recognized, and their use for this purpose is becoming more common. However, herpetofauna consists of a broad range of species with very diverse natural histories, making the design of a strategy for sampling entire assemblages challenging. We developed a hierarchical, 4-tiered strategy, designed to sample the complete herpetofaunal assemblage along tributary streams in an ecologically complex northern California watershed. Our approach was to first combine 3 complimentary methods for sampling the more diverse aquatic/riparian species assemblage, then to include an optional fourth method to sample upland (terrestrial) forms. To test this approach we sampled aquatic, riparian, and upland sites along 15 tributaries of the Mattole River watershed. We detected 1108 individual amphibians and reptiles, and 23 of the 28 potential species of reptiles and amphibians found in the Mattole. We discuss the merits of this approach as well as some specific considerations relative to sampling herpetofauna.
|
