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  • Writer's pictureHighlands IE

'Mander Update

Everybody knows that salamanders are wicked cool. Since you were little, we have all spent hours and hours turning over rocks and logs, perusing creek beds for your favorite slimy amphibious friends. Sure, you appreciated the scalier species, the snakes, lizards, turtles, but those are just reptiles. Breathing through nostrils like the rest of us, but more prized as a novelty to spot in the wilderness. Salamanders, however, are still an object of admiration in any abundance. From rare to common, from barely 2 inch pygmy salamander to the two foot snot otters, they are all spectacular slimers.
















Highlands Biological Station is nested smack in the middle of a region housing great abundance and biodiversity of salamander species. The Appalachian Mountains, holding the claim to fame of the richest salamander biodiversity, is home to an estimated 77 of the world's 655 salamander species. The Blue Ridge Mountains in particular hold about half of those, and there are a variety of reasons for southeastern mountains to be a haven for the most adorable amphibian. First, we are one of few temperate rainforests on the planet, providing plenty of streams and adequately moist habitat. These mountains are also some of the oldest mountains to have existed, housing lush diversity in species and ecosystems even on a single face of a mountain. This is due to high levels of variation in terrain concentrated in relatively small areas. This causes unrivaled concentrated biodiversity found in fauna, substrates, insect prey populations, and therefore hospitable salamander havens.



Spring Salamander and Santeelah Dusky



the Green Salamander.


Each salamander species is a specialist, extremely well adapted to thriving within their highly particular conditions. Many require a narrow range of conditions to survive at all. This puts them at high risk from disturbances like climate change and human development. The green salamander, for example, belongs to an extremely niche habitat. They live in the horizontal cracks in rocks, especially mossy and slightly damp boulders. But even with a semantically different habitat like slightly wetter rock crevices, the black bellied salamander and other dusky species seem to fare better. For reasons still speculated upon by scientists, the green salamander is endangered and steadily diminishing in population. Some point to the disappearance of the American Chestnut, a theoretically critical habitat, others to broader habitat destruction and climate change.





Phenomenal little buggers, that lot









At highlands biological station, a myriad of research studies are going into these amicable amphibians. A team leads an annual survey to track life histories of salamanders in Nantahala National Forest. In the fifteen year study, many salamanders have been caught since 2007 and are still found this year. Trying to accurately distinguish the same salamanders year after year poses challenges, and another team working with IE is attempting to apply AI software to speed up the identification process for recaptured ‘manders. Other methods, like marking captured species with unique identifiable codes, are also in use. The oldest salamander confirmed by this study is a Blue Ridge Two Lined Salamander, who turned at least 22 years old this year. Despite overwhelming support from the scientific community, the lab did not celebrate his 21st birthday. Other studies include a biochemical analysis of salamander slime, investigating the chemical properties that allow them to breathe through their skin. They use surfactant, a substance also found in our lungs that reduces surface tension and maintains structure of our delicate alveoli, preventing collapse on exhalation. The role of surfactant in salamanders is still not fully elucidated, but hypotheses include maintaining moisture content, a role in immunity, increasing convection, and plenty of other posits.

On rainy nights, if you rummage the rhododendron for ‘manders, they’re often out on the prowl en masse, foraging, frolicking, flirting, and mating. I was fortunate enough to assist a couple other students' research endeavors to find and document the Blue Ridge Two Lined Salamander population right here at the biological station.

They document the coloration and spots with highly glamorous photo shoots. See if you can tell which one I took.





All stories must come to an end, but some stories have a moral as well. This story belongs to the former of the two.


-CP2




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