LAND COVER AS AN INDICATOR OF AMPHIBIAN SPECIES RICHNESS IN FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND WETLANDS

Abstract

Amphibians are often used as environmental indicators because their populations are affected when there are undesirable environmental conditions present. Amphibian species richness at 14 wetland sites in Frederick County, Maryland was observed for five years. A 200-m buffer of the adjacent land cover around wetland sites was manually digitized into land covers as agriculture, impervious, lawn, natural cover, or water using ArcMapᵀᴹ 10.1. The amount of each land cover type was compared to amphibian species richness found at each wetland site. The area of natural cover was significant in predicting amphibian species richness at wetlands. Agriculture, impervious, and lawn covers correlated negatively with amphibian species richness while natural cover and water correlated positively.