Romanok, K.M, Smalling, K.L., Bunnell, J.F., Cohl, J.A., Hazard, L., Monsen, K., Laidig, K.J., Akob, D.M., Hansen, A., Hladik, M.L., Abdalla, N., Ahmed, Q., Assan, A., Burritt, P.M., De Parsia, M., Griggs, A.L., McWayne-Holmes, M., Patel, N., Sanders, C.J., Shrestha, Y., Sobel, M.C., and Stout, S.M., 2018, Current-use pesticides and emerging amphibian pathogens in natural ponds, excavated ponds and stormwater basins from 24 sites varying in land-use classifications throughout the New Jersey Pinelands, 2014–2016: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F71G0K6G.
The study was designed to compare the functional equivalency of natural ponds and two types of created wetlands: excavated ponds and stormwater basins by analyzing them for current-use pesticides and emerging amphibian pathogens. Sites were selected based on land-use classifications within a 500 meter radius around each wetland from a pool of natural ponds, excavated ponds and stormwater basins determined as part of a larger study by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission. Water, bed sediment, anuran food (e.g., algae, leaves, detritus) and larval frogs were collected from four reference (minimum land-use impact) and four degraded (maximum land-use impact) from each wetland type for a total of 24 wetlands throughout the Pinelands National Preserve, New Jersey, 2014-16. The percent of altered land ranged from 0 to 60 % for the natural ponds, 0 to 64% for the excavated ponds and 23-79% for the stormwater basins. Prevalence of Ranavirus was determined based on tail clips collected from 60 individual larval frogs in each pond. Ten animals from each pond were swabbed for the presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Other constituents collected at each pond included turbidity, pH, specific conductance, dissolved organic carbon, total dissolved nitrogen, percent organic carbon in sediment, and larval frog lipid content.
