Reptile and Amphibian Projects

The National Park Service's Sonoran Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring Program is monitoring several vital signs that will likely show the effects of climate change. This article offers a summary of the network’s local-scale findings to date, as well as some examples of how monitoring will detect future change.

Climate change models predict a warmer and drier southwestern United States, and land managers want to know how plants and animals may be affected by these changes. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with university scientists in Arizona and New Mexico to model the effects of a changing climate on 12 southwestern bird and reptile species as a project of the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center.

When organisms adapt to a novel environment, a possible consequence is speciation (where one species splits into two or more new species). White Sands (the landscape feature) is an ideal system for studying adaptation and speciation.

Saguaro National Park was established to protect the saguaro cactus, but the park also provides habitat for many unique animals. The lowland leopard frog (Rana yavapaiensis) is a native frog that depends on unique desert waters. It has declined in the desert Southwest and is considered a species of special conservation concern.

In May 2003, Saguaro National Park sponsored a “pulse study” of the Madrona Ranger Station area in the park’s Rincon Mountain (east) District.

In 2003 and 2004, the University of Arizona conducted an inventory of reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna) in six National Park Service Chihuahuan Desert Network parks. Primary objectives of this inventory were to document reptile and amphibian species, map the distribution of all species found, and determine a rough relative abundance for each species.

The American Southwest, including the Chihuahuan Desert Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Network (CHDN), is well known for its abundance and diversity of reptiles. The area is less well known for its amphibians, but they are abundant in some habitats, particularly during favorable weather conditions.