Vernal Pools

 

Thanks to BRFAL Master Naturalist Posie for restarting our Vernal Pools Project by organizing a field training session this month.  Posie was joined by Karen, Nancy, Drema, and I.  We watched an excellent training video, created by Hannah Bement of the Cooperative Vernal Pools Project of Virginia. Our trainers, were two Master Naturalists from Roanoke: Mary and Jeff, a reputed vernal pools discoverer. We joined them at the park and visited the sites of five reported vernal pools. Mary and Jeff reviewed procedures for the safe observation (do no harm!) of the ponds and how to collect the data required by the project. 

Vernal pools form in the spring and dry up by summer. The pools are vital to the reproduction and survival of several ‘obligate’ species. For a pool to be called ‘vernal’, a member of these ‘obligate’ species must be found in it. While there are many ‘obligate’ salamanders, frogs and toads found throughout Virginia, according to the VA Herpetology Society, there are only four ‘obligate’ species that have been identified to date in BRFAL’s catchment area: the marbled salamander, the spotted salamander (most common), the wood frog and a small crustacean called fairy shrimp.

For our project, we will be recording the depth and size depth of the pools, listening for frogs and toads, identifying and counting egg masses, larvae and any adults we see. This data will be entered into a collective data base called CitSci.

When we visited the five known pools at the park last Saturday, we discovered two had water in them and much to our surprise—what we presume are marbled salamander larvae! Their egg masses were already very cloudy and disintegrating at the bottom of the pool. In the weeks ahead, we will continue to monitor these larvae, verify their identification and be on the lookout for other critters visiting and living in the pools. 

Who knows? We’ll certainly see spotted salamander larvae and maybe we’ll find the first report of Jefferson salamander eggs in Bedford County!

By Beth P.