Factors Influencing Occupancy, Detection, and Phenology in a Pennsylvania Salamander Assemblage

Assemblage structure, monthly activity, and occupancy were examined among surface-active salamanders with coverboard surveys in a mature forest from the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania during February–October 2023. Among the five species detected, the Allegheny Mountain dusky salamander, Desmognathus ochrophaeus, was approximately two, four, and eight times more frequently encountered than the next three most-encountered species with at least one encounter. We found variation in the influence of both site- and survey-specific covariates among the different species, with occupancy probability being positively influenced by the distance to a major creek in two species. Detection probability covariates were more variable with survey temperature positively influencing two species and negatively for another. Comparisons with surveys conducted during 1982–1983, 2003, and 2020–2021 mirrored the highly uneven assemblage we detected in 2023. We argue that the interspecific interactions thought to shape assemblage structures in Plethodontidae may provide resiliency in the face of short-term shifts in activity and long-term climatic changes..