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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #378872
Research Project: Agricultural Water Management in Poorly Drained Midwestern Agroecosystems

Location: Soil Drainage Research

Title: Understanding factors that influence the effectiveness of cover boards for sampling snakes within forested riparian habitats in central Ohio

Author
item HUTCHINSON, DANIELLE - The Ohio State University
item Smiley, Peter - Rocky

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/3/2020
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Cover boards are a common sampling method for collecting snakes. Many factors have been found to influence capture effectiveness of cover boards including board materials, time of day, and temperature. In 2018 we observed a surprisingly low number of snake captures in forested riparian sites as compared to herbaceous riparian sites in central Ohio. Thus, we became interested in understanding potential factors that could influence the effectiveness of cover boards. Our research questions were: 1) is snake community structure correlated with soil moisture and elevation in forested riparian sites? and 2) does snake community structure differ between 2018 and 2019? We sampled snakes in 2018 and 2019 using six to twelve wood cover boards placed in four forested riparian sites in Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed, Ohio. We measured soil moisture with handheld soil moisture meter and elevation and distance of each board from the stream using a real-time-kinematic system. Two snake species were caught from fifteen captures in 2018 and 2019. We observed a negative correlation (P = 0.043) between snake species richness and soil moisture and that percent occurrence and abundance were not correlated (P >0.05) with soil moisture. Additionally, we found that percent occurrence, abundance, and species richness were not correlated (P > 0.05) with elevation of the cover board relative to the stream. Snake percent occurrence, abundance, and richness from cover boards located in the same position did not differ (P > 0.05) between 2018 and 2019. Our results indicate that soil moisture, elevation, and year did not influence our assessment of snake community structure within forested riparian sites.