Mt St. Helens - ponds - amphibians??

[sharon]

Can anyone explain to me HOW terrestial salamanders "Terrestrial salamanders walked to the new ponds, eventually devolved to purely amphibian form because the barren landscape was hostile to their survival" and didn't die during the walk?? It must have been a mile or MILES to get to these new ponds. Wouldn't have all the ash clogged their pores?

And in the spare years since it erupted - how did the salamanders/amphibs/treefrogs become "purely" aquatic? They mention finding a red-legged tree frog in a pond also.

I'm reading this from an AOL newstory about returning life to Mt St Helens. Not exactly complete from the scientific point....

Sharon}

 

[paris]

most probably they pond hopped, once rain came down and created all those mud slides it wasnt so bad-it was just all mud. you will have to post the link for the article, im sure colonization didnt happen over night, but i probably did happen over a period of seasons by (excuse the nonintended pun) a leap frog progression (for the few that morphed and left), if the ground didnt have places stable to hide or food available during the non aquatic times then there would be no way they would benefit by leaving the water-it sounds like the article is suggesting the landscape wasnt suitable for the normal terrestrial existence any more-but it can rain heavy out there-and that may be an oppurtune time to go check out if there's life in other ponds, walking catfish can travel large distances for not having any legs!what sort of terrestrial sals are they talking about?-im pretty sure they arent referring to lungless varieties -cause that would be a BIG adaption, but perhaps neoteny in ambystomids might be what they are talking about.

 

[sharon]

The link will only work for those w/AOL lemme see if I can find the original article...

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050512143809990001&_ccc=5&cid=842

For those who have aol... I tried the different news sites I know of trying to find the original news article.

I could copy and paste the article in its entirety or pertinant portions if its ok?

Sharon

 

[kim]

Im not with AOL and it workied fine for me... Interesting read tho..

 

[sharon]

OH!! Great news then! I didn't know it would work for non ao-heLlo members.. it didn't use to work that way.

 

[john]

I've heard plenty of tall tales of wading birds accidentally carrying fish roe on their legs and depositing them into ponds. I'm not sure i believe it but i have seen stock ponds dug and a couple of years later have fairly healthy populations of minnows without the farmer stocking it. If there is any truth in that, perhaps it's a mechanism to explain how these guys made it to these new ponds.

 

[joan]

There's a lake in Colorado called Hanging Lake. It's up on the side of a mountain (WAY up the side of the mountain), fed by snow runoff, that has a fairly healthy trout population. The only way I can figure they got there is by birds.

 

[mike]

Hi Sharon,

Many amphibians can cover a significant amount of ground. For instance, mark-recapture studies have found that CA newts (Taricha torosa) will easily cover 5 km in a coulpe months after breeding. Pacific treefrogs can move at least 3 km over a 2-year period.

Do you recall if the article was referring to red-legged frogs or tree frogs?

Joan S., it is more likely that Hanging Lake was stocked with trout in the last 50 years by the US Forest Service or by trout fisherman moving their favorite sportfish into beautiful, scenic locations. In either case, this often has disasterous consequences for high-elevation amphibian populations.

All the best,

Mike

 

[sharon]

Dang I'm usually pretty good at copying things properly - it said "red legged frog".

But to trudge through the ash to get to the ponds?? Miles of it? I wish the article had been more in depth..

Sharon