Although >12 million ha of southeastern United States are intensively managed pine forest, we have little
understanding of biological contributions of aquatic systems embedded in pine plantations. Further, the
influence surrounding forest stand structure on assemblages of wetland-associated species in managed
forests are poorly understood. To address these gaps, we investigated herpetofaunal assemblages across
three ephemeral aquatic system types [unaltered sites (n = 16), altered sites (n = 18), and roadside ditches
(n = 19)] embedded in an intensively managed pine landscape in eastern North Carolina, USA. These
aquatic systems varied in their disturbance intensity and landscape context. Unaltered sites were avoided
by silvicultural activities (set aside), altered sites were actively managed as part of the surrounding plantation,
and ditches received maintenance as part of routine forest management. We examined amphibian
and reptile species richness and assemblage composition at 53 aquatic sites surrounded by early-,
middle-, or late-rotation aged pine plantations. During January–July 2013 and January–June 2014, we
detected 34 amphibian and reptile species with visual encounter, dipnet, and call surveys at aquatic sites.
We estimated species richness and used Analysis of Similarity to assess differences in species richness
and assemblage structure by aquatic system type and stand age class. Amphibian species richness was
greatest in unaltered and altered sites but was similar among stand age classes. Reptile species richness
was similar among aquatic system types and stand age classes. Analysis of Similarity results revealed that
amphibian assemblages were similar among stand age classes but were significantly different among all
aquatic systems. Reptile assemblages also were similar among stand age classes but differed between
altered sites and roadside ditches. Differences between richness and assemblage results may have been
related to low detections of reptiles because our non-metric multi-dimensional scaling analysis, which
only included species with >1 detection, revealed less obvious differences among reptile assemblages
by aquatic system type. Despite dramatic variation in disturbance intensity and site-level environmental
metrics, we did not find distinct herpetofaunal assemblages among aquatic system types or stand age
classes. Our results suggest that aquatic systems in reconfigured landscapes not only support a range
of herpetofaunal species, but that amphibian and reptile assemblages are similar across system types.