Data from: Landscape distribution of the South Mountains gray-cheeked salamander (Plethodon meridianus)
Data files
Jul 31, 2025 version files 23.53 KB
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abundance_data.csv
10.76 KB
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occupancy_data.csv
11.19 KB
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README.md
1.59 KB
Abstract
Since being described in the year 2000, little ecological information has accumulated for the South Mountains Gray-cheeked Salamander (Plethodon meridianus), a narrowly-distributed species in southern Appalachia. In this study, we used repeat surveys to model occupancy and abundance of P. meridianus along a transect running from the approximate range center to range edge. We found a strong effect of elevation and distance to streams as predictors of occupancy and abundance. The number of days since rain had a strong impact on detection probability, likely due to its effect on salamander surface activity (i.e., time outside of burrow), as opposed to observer error. Treating elevation as a proxy for distance to the range edge, we found that occupancy and abundance declined toward the range edge, supporting the center-periphery hypothesis. Our findings matched that of similar, previous studies: at low elevations in dry habitat, salamanders are only found along the cooler microhabitat of streams, while at high elevations, salamanders are more widespread across the landscape.
This was an observational study, where occupancy and abundance of the South Mountains Gray-cheeked Salamander were modeled as functions of the environment. Data were collected from repeat field surveys of 4m x 4m plots. Data were analyzed using JAGS and R.
Description of the Data and file structure
abundance_data.csv - counts of individual salamanders with covariates. The site column represents individual plots used in the study. The ‘y’ columns represent counts from separate visits. The ‘Elevation’, ‘Canopy_percentage’ (percentage canopy cover), and ‘StreamDist’ (minimum distance to stream) columns are abundance covariates. The ‘Days_since_Rain’ and ’T_degC’ (temperature in Celsius) are detection covariates.
occupancy_data.csv - detection history of plots salamanders with covariates. The site column represents individual plots used in the study. The ‘y’ columns represent detection histories from separate visits. The ‘Elevation’, ‘Canopy_percentage’ (percentage canopy cover), and ‘StreamDist’ (minimum distance to stream) columns are occupancy covariates. The ‘Days_since_Rain’ and ’T_degC’ (temperature in Celsius) are detection covariates.
abundance_submission.jags - code to conduct Bayesian N-mixture model.
occupancy_submission.jags - code to conduct Bayesian occupancy model.
Model_script_submission.R - R code used to pre-process data before interfacing with JAGS to build occupancy and N-mixture models.