Bruce A. Kingsbury1*, Omar Attum1, Yu Man Lee2, and John H. Roe3

An unrealized value of metapopulaton and landscape ecology concepts such as connectivity and patch size is their application to test the importance of upland-wetland linkages for wetland species. We examined how habitat connectivity and patch size influenced the distribution of two common wetland species, the northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon) and midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata), and two rare wetland species, the copper-bellied watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta) and Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). We tested whether connectivity (wetland distance to other wetlands), connectivity quality (wetland distance to roads and forest area within 30 m, 125 m, 250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m of the wetland), and patch size (wetland size and shoreline length) affected the distribution of these four species. Our results show that both common species were more likely to occur in larger, less isolated wetlands, but their distribution was not influenced by proximity to roads or the amount of adjacent forest area. In contrast, both rare species were more likely to occur in wetlands with more shoreline length, were farther away from roads and with increased forest area up to 250 m buffer zones. However, wetland distance to the nearest wetland were not significant predictors of either rare species’ distribution. Our results suggest that management practices for even common species should protect groups of wetlands, and that recovery strategies for the rare N. erythrogaster and E. bandingii should focus on using shoreline length instead of wetland size as an index of available wetland habitat and improve landscape connectivity quality by maintaining forests surrounding wetlands and reducing road effects.
Graduate Research Oral

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