| Roads and culverts have many effects on stream salamanders. We examined 120 culvert crossings in the Shavers Fork and Dry Fork watersheds in eastern West Virginia. Complete barriers to salamander passage occurred at 55.0% of the sites visited and partial barriers at 34.2%. Analyses showed that 20.6% of the total stream length in the Dry Fork watershed and 18.4% in the Shavers Fork watershed were isolated by barriers. We conducted salamander sampling at 16 streams and used Akaike's Information Criterion to select the best a priori models explaining salamander diversity, richness, and abundance. Roads benefited disturbance tolerant species while negatively affecting other species. Mitigation efforts should focus on lessening impacts on salamander habitat by preventing negative effects to streams such as sedimentation, pollution, excessive disruption to the riparian zone, and barriers to movement. |
