The data set contains count data of amphibians from surveys of grazing properties in the Central and Southern Tablelands of NSW, Australia. Amphibians were surveyed using pitfall and funnel trapping along transects. Twelve properties were surveyed for the data set. Each property was surveyed 5 times for five trap nights on each survey between 2014 and 2015. A total of 2378 amphibians were captured from 11 different species during the surveys. All species captured were from one of three families: Limnodynastidae (three species), Myobatrachidae (four species) and Hylidae (four species).
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Purpose
The project aimed at examining the influence of a range of agricultural management actions on native amphibians in grazed woodland landscapes. We examined the influence of remnant patches, paddock management, grazing regimes and environmental factors on these amphibian assemblages.
Lineage
Pitfall and funnel trapping: Trapping for amphibians was undertaken in 12 sites (farms) that contained remnants of woodland. At each farm four transects were set up that ran for 80m within a remnant and then for 80m in one of four adjoining matrix treatments. The four matrix were: grazed paddock, linear planting, fence line running between two grazed paddocks and a grazed paddock with coarse woody debris added. Six of the farms did not contain the linear planting treatment as not enough of appropriate replicated could be found. Seven of the farms were grazed in a continuous method and five were grazed using a rotational method. Each transect consisted of 6 trapping arrays: at 20, 50 and 80 metres from the edge into the remnant and the matrix treatment. Each trapping array consisted of a 10 metre long drift fence, two pitfall buckets (15L) and two funnel traps. Each farm was surveyed five times over the austral summers of 2014 and 2015. Each survey consisted of five trapping nights and sites were surveyed in pairs. Traps were checked daily and animals were released after measurements were taken. Local environmental variables (vegetation cover, coarse woody debris volume and grass height) were measured in a 10 metre diameter circle around each trapping array. The vegetation cover was visually estimated using the precent cover of grass, forbs, ferns and rushes, fine organic litter, cryptogams, bare ground rocks and trees. The coarse woody debris was determined by measuring length and width of all in situ down wood that was greater than 5 cms in diameter. The grass height was measured by taking 8 measurements of a rising plate meter and averaging the readings. One unit the rising plate meter readings are equal to 5mm of compressed grass height. Elevation, aspect and slope were measured at each trapping array and averaged across the 20, 50 and 80m trapping arrays. The elevation was measured using a GPS, the aspect was measured using a compass and the slope was measured with a clinometer. Rainfall and temperature values were sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) data base using the nearest appropriate station to each property. The average maximum temperature and average monthly rainfall for the trapping months was calculated, as was the average annual rainfall for 2013 and 2014. The percent woody vegetation and remnant area were calculated using zonal statistics in Arc Map. I drew polygons around the remnants, and calculated the percent of woody vegetation in a 3km radial circle around the midpoint of each remnant using data of the extent of native woody vegetation in 2011 (Office of Environment and Heritage (2015) NSW SPOT Woody extent and FPC for 2011 with 5 m pixels. NSW, Australia). The distance to nearest water body (Dist.Water) was calculated by measuring the Euclidean distance between the midpoint of each half transect and the nearest visible water body on Google Earth. The number of water bodies was calculated by counting water bodies in 300 and 1000m radial circles around the midpoint of each half transect. All data has been pooled into half transects and over trapping
