Otanoshike Wetland (Hasumi)

Otanoshike Wetland

The landscape of an Otanoshike wetland, Kushiro-shi, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, consisting of three regions: forest (upper), marsh (middle), and fen water (lower). This photograph exhibits that the surface of the water is frozen and snow partially covers fen-tussocks within a fen at the beginning of the breeding season (mid-April) of the salamander Salamandrella keyserlingii. By this time, several pairs of egg sacs have been deposited near the surface of the water by attaching the adhesive tips of the sacs to dead leaves of sedges, and therefore they are shut up temporarily in the ice (Hasumi and Kanda, 1998).