Impacts on terrestrial and streamside herpetofauna by mountaintop removal mining in southern West Virginia

Abstract

Mountaintop removal mining, a mining technique used in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and nearby states, converts mature forests to grassland and shrub-pole habitats. I sampled terrestrial herpetofauna using drift fences with pitfalls and funnel traps from 2000-2002 to evaluate habitat use of unmined native habitat (intact forest), habitat on reclaimed mountaintop removal mines (reclaimed grassland, reclaimed shrub-pole habitat, and fragmented forest), and early successional off-mine habitats that were created by other types of disturbance and were structurally similar to reclaimed grasslands and reclaimed shrub-pole habitats. I searched transects in valley fill and reference streams from 2001-2002 to evaluate impacts of valley fill construction on streamside salamanders and sampled coverboard transects that traversed reclaimed habitats and adjacent forests from 2001-2002 to determine edge effects of reclaimed mine habitat on salamanders. Salamander relative abundance levels were lower in reclaimed habitats in all three components of this study and increased into forests with increasing distance from reclaimed habitat edges. Snake abundance and species richness were higher in reclaimed habitats. Creation of grassland and shrub-pole habitats adversely affected less mobile habitat specialists and benefited more mobile habitat generalists. Anuran species richness and abundance did not differ among treatments; lizards and turtles were not captured in levels sufficient to conduct statistical analyses. Soil compaction on and reduced vertical structure of reclaimed mine surfaces may deter salamanders from burrowing into minesoils. Reduced vertical structure of reclaimed habitats may make them too dry for salamanders. Higher small mammal abundance on reclaimed habitats could have favored snakes. More silt cover in valley fill streams may have reduced available habitat for stream salamanders. Time since disturbance varied from 10-28 years in reclaimed habitats. Salamander populations in these reclaimed habitats have not reached abundance levels found in intact forests. Past research has shown that salamander populations in clearcut areas may recover and reach pre-cut abundance levels in 15-70 years. Both mountaintop removal mining and clearcutting involve tree removal. However, tree removal associated with mountaintop removal mining covers a larger area and is coupled with large-scale soil removal. These features may mean that salamander populations on reclaimed mines will take as long or longer than 15-70 years to reach levels of intact forests.

Grasshopper sparrow reproductive success and habitat use on reclaimed surface mines varies by age of reclamation

“…Although we could not identify which predators were responsible for depredated nests, Ammer () observed 17 predatory species on or near our study plots. Numerous mammalian (Chamblin ), avian (Balcerzak ), and reptilian (Williams ) species that occur on these mines are potential nest predators. Snakes, which were common in grasslands on our study sites (Williams ), can be a common predator of grassland bird nests depending on geographic location (Klug et al , Thompson and Ribic ).…”

“…Numerous mammalian (Chamblin ), avian (Balcerzak ), and reptilian (Williams ) species that occur on these mines are potential nest predators. Snakes, which were common in grasslands on our study sites (Williams ), can be a common predator of grassland bird nests depending on geographic location (Klug et al , Thompson and Ribic ). Reclaimed surface mines appear to harbor a diverse assemblage of potential nest predators as suggested in other studies (Wray et al , Ingold and Dooley ) particularly when encroachment of woody plants occurs in reclaimed grasslands (Graves et al ) or if grasslands occur near wooded edges (Ribic et al ).…”

Terrestrial salamander abundance on reclaimed mountaintop removal mines

“…Intact forest tracts surrounding the mines contained 60–80‐year‐old, second‐growth, mature hardwoods and were not directly impacted by current or past mining activity. Overstory tree species included tuliptree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ); red and sugar maples ( Acer rubrum and A. saccharum ); American sycamore ( Platanus occidentalis ); northern red, white, and black oaks ( Quercus rubra, Q. alba , and Q. velutina ); pignut, bitternut, and shagbark hickories ( Carya glabra , C. cordiformis , and C. ovata ); American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ); white ash ( Fraxinus americana ); and black birch ( Betula lenta ; Williams ). Understory species (seedlings, saplings, small trees) included black gum ( Nyssa sylvatica ), flowering dogwood ( Cornus florida ), ironwood ( Carpinus caroliniana ), spicebush ( Lindera benzoin ), and other common hardwood species, including the above‐mentioned overstory species.…”

“…Shrublands contained shrub, sapling, and occasionally pole‐sized (<8 cm diam) tree stems; predominant species included autumn olive, multiflora rose, red maple, American sycamore, tuliptree, European black alder ( Alnus glutinosa ), blackberry and raspberry ( Rubus spp. ), sourwood ( Oxydendrum arboreum ), black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia ), and scotch and white pines ( Pinus sylvestris and P. strobus ; Williams ). Many of the grass and forb species found in the grassland treatment also occurred in the shrubland treatment.…”

“…Native soils in the region tended to be deep, well‐drained, and steep (e.g., Carpenter , Wolf ) and had high leaf‐litter cover (Williams ). Thomas et al () sampled native and reclaimed soils on one of the mines that we studied.…”