Salamanders and Carbon Sequestration

A recent study on salamanders was conducted and published in the Ecosphere journal by Michael Best and Hartwell Welsh.  The article, titled “The trophic role of a forest salamander: impacts on invertebrates, leaf litter retention, and the humification process”, brings to light the idea that salamanders play a large role in sequestering carbon.  The study focused on Ensatina eschscholtzii in the woodlands of northern California and how it affects the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere via predation.  The salamander preys on insects and invertebrates that shred leaves, creating leaf litter and ultimately releasing carbon into the atmosphere.  With the woodland salamander present to prey on the insects and invertebrates, the amount of leaf litter would decrease and the carbon would be able to go into the soil instead of the atmosphere.  The experiment was conducted during the four winter months of two consecutive years and consisted of numerous field enclosures set deep in the forest.  Some of the enclosures contained salamanders while others were a control without salamanders.  Invertebrate samples were collected from the enclosures every 30 days and the leaf litter mass was recorded every 120 days.  Results show that the enclosures with salamanders had an effect on the amount of invertebrates; some groups of invertebrates decreased while others increased.  The leaf litter mass was also dependent on salamanders present in the enclosure.  It can be inferred from the results that 72.3 metric tons of carbon could be retained by this species during one season instead of entering the atmosphere.  This research shows that salamanders play a large role in maintaining the environment.  Salamanders can help prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere just through predation and can ultimately make an impact on climate change.  This information is valuable because we are destroying the habitat of the salamander, which, in turn, is raising the amount of carbon released.  If we actively protected the salamander and its habitat based on the fact that the salamander greatly adds to carbon sequestration, we would also be protecting the environment as a whole.



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