Thawing out

Hello from the east coast!

The vernal pools in Massachusetts are finally coming alive after a cold winter.

In the last two weeks we've deployed all ten of our water level loggers to track changes in vernal pool water depth over the summer. Now we've started night surveys looking for large groups of salamanders, known as breeding aggregations, which form in the vernal pools to breed. Once the breeding aggregations dissipate, the salamanders head out of the vernal pools to spend the summer in upland forest. When this happens, we'll focus our surveys on frog and salamander egg masses left in the pools. We'll also complete daytime surveys of the pools, recording attributes like what plant communities are growing in the pool, the pool depth and dimensions, water quality, substrate type, land-use around the pool, and expected hydroperiod.

Check out some of the animals we've found using vernal pools so far:

First up is a pair of spring peepers in amplexus:

 

 Fairy shrimp:

 

 Spotted salamander:

 

 Redback salamander:

 

Amplexed wood frogs:

 

Wood frog egg mass: