Forest stands characteristics of the Salamandra atra aurorae Trevisan habitat: a study at the Bosco del Dosso (Asiago, Italy)

Houda Ben Salah 2015. Forest stands characteristics of the Salamandra atra aurorae Trevisan habitat: a study at the Bosco del Dosso (Asiago, Italy). Master Thesis, University of Padua. Padua, Italy.  
Advisors: Dr. Tommaso Sitizia and Dr. Thomas Campagnaro, University of Padua.

"Abstract: 

Anthropogenic habitat loss and the reduction of suitable habitat for a species have been implicated as among the key drivers of biodiversity crisis. Salamandra altra aurorea is
considered to be critically endangered by the IUCN red list and is included as “priority taxon” in the European Union Habitat directive due to its very limited geographic distribution and the potential threat of habitat loss resulting from wood harvesting. My first goal in this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the habitat of Salamandra atra auroae in “Bosco del Dosso” in the plateau of Asiago, by focusing on various parameters, and investigating the influence of environmental and management factors. The second goal was to compare results on habitat characteristics with those of the previous year before any forestry intervention was carried out. This study is part of a larger project aimed at studying the habitat of this species and the effect of experimental forest exploitation on the subspecies under investigation. In 2015, for these reasons, based on the presence of the salamander recorded in 2014, 17 trees were cut from a total number of 50 trees. In 2015 there was a higher total number of vascular plant species in the herbaceous layer and, consistently, also the cover of this vegetation layer increased.  The removal of the canopy could have had an affect also on the regeneration. The number of stones and bark pieces significantly increased between the two years whether the trees were cut or left standing. Based also on the observations of last year, this study highlights the importance of considering an important amount of shelters as stones and pieces of bark to better understand the habitat of Salamandra atra aurorae and the possible changes driven by forest exploitation."