Meeting Session Highlights ARMI

A dedicated session highlighting studies conducted by the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) in the West was held at the joint annual meeting of the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology and Washington Chapter of The Wildlife Society at Gig Harbor, Washington on March 25th. The session, organized by Steve Corn, Research Zoologist at the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Missoula, Montana, included presentations by ARMI scientists from five different science centers and addressed the main themes of ARMI since its inception in 2000: monitoring of status and trends of amphibian populations, research into causes of amphibian declines, and development of new sampling methods.

Presenters, followed by the title of their talks, included: Gary Fellers, Western Ecological Research Center, Point Reyes National Seashore, CA (Population size, survival, longevity, and movements of Rana draytonii, and R. sierrae at two closely monitored sites: tracking population trends); Mike Adams, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR (Does the probability of local extinction for northern red-legged frogs relate to introduced fish or bullfrogs?); Nate Chelgren, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR (Spatial and temporal variation in the demography of coastal tailed frogs (Ascaphus truei): isolating aquatic from terrestrial stage dynamics); Erin Muths, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO (Compensatory effects of recruitment and survival on population persistence); Tara Chestnut, Oregon Water Science Center, Portland, OR, (The ecology of the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the aquatic environment); Blake Hossack, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Missoula, MT (Wildfire and fragmentation: effects on amphibian populations and associated nematodes); David Pilliod, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, ID (Introducing an automated pattern recognition program for leopard frogs); and Steve Corn, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Missoula, MT (How well do call indices represent abundance of breeding anurans?).