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AUTHORS: Jennifer Swanson, Iowa State University; Clay Pierce, US Geological Survey, Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Iowa State University; Kelly Smalling, US Geological Survey; Mark Vandever, US Geological Survey; Erin Muths, US Geological Survey, Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
ABSTRACT: Amphibian populations are declining, with habitat alteration due to land use change consistently identified as one of the biggest contributing factors. In agricultural landscapes, habitat loss may interact with other stressors such as environmental contaminants to exacerbate declines. Much of the landscape in northern Iowa has been transformed from a mosaic of seasonal wetlands and grasslands to row crops. In 2001, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) was created to help identify and restore wetlands lost through landscape modifications as a means to reduce nitrogen concentrations and loads to surface waters. These CREP wetlands may provide additional benefits, particularly as wildlife habitat. Our objective was to radio track northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens) to record their movement at CREP wetlands and assess the pesticides with which they may come in contact in both the aquatic and terrestrial environment. Although these wetlands are surrounded by vegetative buffers, they are often in close proximity to agricultural fields where pesticides and fertilizers are applied. During the summers of 2015 and 2016 we radio tracked frogs (n=72) at two CREP wetlands in Iowa from May until August. Passive sampling devices (PSDs) were placed in locations frequented by frogs and analyzed for a suite of pesticides to examine exposure as the frog moves through the environment. Presence and concentrations of pesticides on PSDs will be compared to corresponding values found in a subset of frogs that were euthanized after they had been tracked. Frogs moved from their original capture points to a variety of habitats at each wetland and traveled up to 1,000m during the tracking period.
