Getting to Know Vernal Pool organisms - Marbled Salamander
Getting to Know Vernal Pool organisms - Marbled Salamander
Grade Levels
Course, Subject
Organism Name
Photo by Solon Morse.
Common Name: Marbled Salamander
Scientific Name: Ambystoma opacum
Classification Information
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Caudata
Family: Ambystomatidae
Genus: Ambystoma
Species: Ambystoma opacum
Geographic Range and Habitat
Geographic Range: Ambystoma opacum is found throughout most of the Midwest and even into northern Florida. Its Midwest range is, however, limited. It is only in the southern most part of Michigan and the southern part of New England.
Habitat: The Marbled salamander, being an amphibian, is extremely susceptible to desiccation. Because of this, it prefers habitats close to ponds, streams, or damp woodlands. This species however, is not known to enter the water. Occasionally can be found around dry hillsides, but never far from a moist environment.
Physical Characteristics
Physical Description: The Marbled salamander is one of the smaller species in the Ambystomatidae family. It attains an adult length of approximately 9-10.7 cm. Sometimes called the banded salamander, because of its white or light gray crossbands across the head, back, and tail. Considered sexually dimorphic, males have silvery white crossbands, which become very white along with swollen cloacal glands, during the breeding season, (early autumn). The female, being the larger of the two, possesses silvery gray crossbands.
Diet

Diet: Even with its small size, the Marbled Salamander is a voracious, carnivorous, predator, consuming large amounts of food. Small worms, insects, slugs, and even snails, make up its diet. Attracted to movement as well as odor, this species will not eat dead prey.

Reproduction
Reproduction: Unlike most others in this family, the Marbled Salamander has a very unusual reproductive strategy. Instead of breeding ponds or other permanent water sources, in spring months, the Marbled Salamander is a fall breeder, and breeds entirely on land. After finding his mate, the male will court with the female, often moving in a circular fashion with her. The male will then proceed to undulate his tail, and raise his body. Following this, the male will deposit a spermatophore onto the ground. If interested, the female will then proceed to pick it up with her cloacal lips. After mating the female will venture off and select a small depression in the ground. This depression is usually a reduced pond, or dried bed of a temporary pond, or ditch.
Eggs: The female will lay a clutch of between fifty and one hundred eggs. Once deposited the female will remain with them to keep them moist, until nests are flooded. As soon as the autumn rains come the eggs will hatch in the depression they were originally laid in. If rain never comes the eggs will "over-winter", if temperatures do not fall too low, then hatch the following spring.
Larvae: Once hatched the gray colored larvae (1 cm) grow extremely quickly, eating primarily macrozooplankton. Large larvae, however, will eat amphibian larvae and eggs. The timing on metamorphosis depends on geographic location. Those that are found in the South can go through metamorphosis in as little as two months. Those in the northern climates generally take between eight to nine months. Young juveniles are approximately 5 cm, and attain sexual maturity in about 15 months, after metamorphosis.
The Marbled Salamander is an Obligate Species and must live or breed in vernal pools.
Natural History
Natural History: The Marbled Salamander is, for the most part, a solitary species, spending most of the time under leaf litter or underground (up to one meter). It is thought that species will defend burrows they inhabit against others of the same species. Occasionally, adults will share burrows with each other. Adults do however, tend to be more aggressive towards each other when food is scarce. The only time species are in contact with one another is during the breeding season. Males will often arrive at potential sites about a week before the females.
Conservation
Vernal Pool Conservation
What you can do:
- Resist the temptation to clean up in and around vernal pool habitats. Leave trees, bushes, and understory vegetation, as well as brush, logs, and dead trees.
- Leave a buffer of natural vegetation around the pool for as great a distance as possible back from the edge of the pool's high-water mark. A buffer of at least 100 feet will help maintain water quality, but will do little to protect amphibians living around the pool. Vernal pool breeders require at least 300 yards of natural habitat around their pools in order to survive.
- Do not fill in the pool, even when it is dry, by dumping leaves or other debris in it.
- In areas with more than one pool, try to maintain travel corridors of natural vegetation between them. If some clearing is necessary, avoid drastic alterations that remove most of the trees and other cover. If habitat alterations are necessary, conduct these activities between November and March, when amphibians are less likely to be present. Activities done when the ground is frozen will cause much less damage to the soil than those conducted during warmer months.
- Avoid activities that inadvertently alter the movement of surface water (hydrology) of the upland area that drains into the pool. Digging ditches and similar activities can change runoff into the pool, thereby altering its flooding cycle.
- Do not dig into the bottom of the pool, even when it is dry, as this will disturb the non-permeable layer of soil that allows the pool to flood.
- Work with local conservation commissions and other interested individuals to identify and document vernal pools in your area.
*Adapted from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.
Did You Know?
Photo by Tom Lautzenheiser.
A vernal pool is a temporary or semi-permanent body of water, typically filled in the spring by snow melt and spring rain, and holding water for two or three months in the spring and summer.
Vernal pools form in contained basin depressions, meaning that while they may have an inlet, they have no permanent outlet forming a downstream connection to other aquatic systems. They are typically small, rarely exceeding 50 m in width, and are usually shallow. While most are filled with meltwater and spring rains, others may be filled during the fall or with a combination of seasonal surface runoff and intersection with seasonally high groundwater tables. Typical substrates are formed primarily of dense leaf litter. While most vernal pools are found in upland forest, several types have been identified, including floodplain basins, swamp pools and marsh pools.
Periodic drying is a key feature of the ecology of vernal pools. Drying precludes the establishment of permanent fish populations, which would otherwise act as predators on the eggs and larvae of species that live or breed in the pool. While a typical vernal pool is dry during at least part of the year, others may contain some water throughout the year (or for several years), but a combination of shallow water, summer heat, winter freezing, and periodic oxygen depletion prevent the establishment of fish populations.
Additional Information
Terms:
Obligate Species: Species must live or breed in vernal pools.
Facultative Species: Species may be found in vernal pools, but can reproduce in other aquatic habitats where they are available.
Acanthal ridges: Ridges (with light lines) extending from the eyes to the nostrils in spring salamanders.
Costal grooves: The grooves present along the sides of the bodies of many salamanders. When counting them for identification purposes, include only those between the front legs and the hind legs.
Keeled tail: A salamander tail that narrows to a knife edge along its dorsal (top) surface.
Nasolabial grooves: Narrow grooves that extend from the nostrils to the mouth in salamanders of the family Plethodontidae.
Portions Adapted From
Rogers, G. 2000. "Ambystoma opacum" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web
Accessed March 30, 2004 at https://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ambystoma_opacum.html
Description
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is a national, non-profit nature education organization with headquarters in Jamestown, New York, birthplace of world renowned artist and naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). In collaboration with the Center for Applied Technologies in Education, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute has provided these animal profiles to offer a glimpse into the diversity of Vernal Pools in our region.