Assessing multi-scale habitat relationships and responses to forest management for cryptic and uncommon herpetofauna in the Missouri Ozarks, USA

Abstract Behaviorally cryptic or uncommon herpetofauna are often understudied due to the extensive effort it requires to obtain adequate data for statistical analysis. Additionally, potential impacts from forest management on these already small or difficult to study populations may have a dissimilar effect in comparison to more common species. To address this, we examined species-specific responses of uncommon herpetofauna within the Missouri Ozarks to even-aged and uneven-aged silvicultural systems at multiple scales, as well as their habitat relationships. Using capture histories collected over 23 years (1992–2014) on the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) we examined the cumulative effects of two harvest entries (1996 and 2011) at both the local- (stand-level) and landscape-scale (compartment-level) for eight uncommon herpetofauna, which includes one toad, two salamanders, one skink, and four snakes. We modeled capture probabilities with respect to multiple habitat- and harvest-related covariates. Three species showed compartment-level declines in the post-treatment period, however only two of the declines appeared to be related to forest management; the decline for the third species was observed in both treatment and control compartments suggesting that the cause was environmental related. In contrast to compartment-level responses, we observed stand-level responses in five species, mostly positive. In general, our observed declines were minimal and currently we have no concerns that forest management will lead to the loss of any of the uncommon herpetofauna species considered here. Our models showed habitat relationships for multiple species, which aids our understanding of species’ life history strategies and can also guide future management efforts.