case2202: Characteristics Associated with Salamander Habitat
Description
The Del Norte Salamander (plethodon elongates) is a small (5--7
cm) salamander found among rock rubble, rock outcrops and moss-covered
talus in a narrow range of northwest California. To study the habitat
characteristics of the species and particularly the tendency of these
salamanders to reside in dwindling old-growth forests, researchers
selected 47 sites from plausible salamander habitat in national forest
and parkland. Randomly chosen grid points were searched for the
presence of a site with suitable rocky habitat. At each suitable
site, a 7 metre by 7 metre search are was examined for the number of
salamanders it contained. This data frame contains the counts of
salamanders at the sites, along with the percentage of forest canopy
and age of the forest in years.source
Ramsey, F.L. and Schafer, D.W. (2002). The Statistical Sleuth: A
Course in Methods of Data Analysis (2nd ed), Duxbury.References
Welsh, H.H. and Lind, A.J. (1995). Journal of Herpetology
29(2): 198--210.