FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Scaphiopus intermontanus | Great Basin Spadefoot 



DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS : 
Fire probably has no direct effect on Great Basin spadefoots.  Adults
would stay their burrows during the dry weather associated with fires.
Because their environment is aquatic, tadpoles are probably not greatly
affected by fire either.


HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS : 
Research on the effects of fire on Great Basin spadefoots is lacking.
Habitat alteration by fire probably has no great impact on Great Basin
spadefoots, however.  Great Basin spadefoots are not dependent upon
vegetation for cover.  Fire would alter species composition of their
primarily arthropod prey base, but overall numbers of arthropod prey
would probably not change.  Since Great Basin spadefoots are not
dependent upon any particular arthropod species as prey, they are
probably able to find food in the postfire environment.

Due to runoff, nutrient levels of breeding pools may increase after
fire, which could benefit tadpoles by encouraging growth of bacteria,
algae, and other tadpole foods.  However, high levels of sediment, which
may wash into breeding pools as a result of postfire erosion, may
adversely impact tadpoles by reducing oxygen levels.  Even if fire does
render breeding pools in a given basin inhospitable to tadpoles,
however, fire proabably has no serious impact on the Great Basin
spadefoot population of that basin.  A large number of a tadpoles and
morphs in a Great Basin spadefoot population succumb to desiccation in
most breeding years, with population levels increasing greatly during
wet years [3,10].  Since most adults are probably unaffected by fire,
Great Basin spadefoot populations probably survive fire by the same
reproductive adaptations that enable them to survive drought.


FIRE USE : 
NO-ENTRY


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Scaphiopus intermontanus | Great Basin Spadefoot