Distribution and habitat associations of the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) in the Oldman River Drainage /
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Long-toed salamanders are designated as Sensitive in Alberta due to their occurrence in patchy, isolated populations, and their vulnerability to habitat destruction or alteration.Three long-toed salamander breeding populations have been identified within the Oldman River drainage: Waterton Lakes National Park, Castle River and Crowsnest.Seven independent long-toed salamander presence/absence surveys occurred in those areas between 1993 and 2002.Numerous field and experimental studies in Western North America have documented long-toed salamander population declines or extirpations due to the presence of non-native trout.In Alberta, stocking of non-native trout into mountain lakes has been a common practice since the early 1900's.Anecdotal evidence indicates that long-toed salamanders and fish rarely co-exist in southwest Alberta waterbodies.The objectives of this study were: 1) to increase knowledge of the distribution of long-toed salamanders in southwest Alberta, 2) to merge data derived from seven independent amphibian surveys in southwest Alberta, and 3) to characterize habitat/occurrence associations for long-toed salamanders in southwest Alberta, focusing on their distribution relative to introduced fishes.Results of a simulated pond experiment that examined the effects of various predators on longtoed salamanders are also presented.Forty-two lakes and ponds were examined for presence/no detection of long-toed salamanders and fish in 2002.Occurrence data collected during other surveys were derived from related reports.Long-toed salamanders were detected at 68 of 135 sites surveyed 1993-2002, at elevations from 1275 m to 2018 m.Thirteen previously unrecorded long-toed salamander breeding locations were documented in 2002.As has been observed in Montana, Idaho and Washington State, trout and long-toed salamanders do not co-exist in wetlands in the Castle and Waterton River drainages.Of the 31 wetlands where long-toed salamanders were observed, 100% lacked trout and 94% lacked minnows.Experimental ponds are commonly used to evaluate variation in amphibian life histories due to predation and competition.The effects of three predators (rainbow trout fry, fathead minnows, and dragonfly larvae) on the survival and growth rate of larval long-toed salamanders were evaluated in a series of 1200 L plastic tanks at the University of Lethbridge.On average, fewer than 10% of larval salamanders survived 30 days in the trout and minnow ponds, whereas between 25-60% of the larvae in control and dragonfly ponds survived.Exposure to minnows reduced the mass of larvae by 34-50% compared to larvae from the other three environments.Results of this ongoing project provide improved understanding of long-toed salamander habitat requirements in southwest Alberta, specifically the effects of non-native fishes on long-toed salamanders.Recommendations include continued long-toed salamander surveys, environmental monitoring, aquatic habitat restoration, and effective management of non-native species.IV '
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".