Marbled salamanders breed in late summer and autumn, on land rather than in water. The female excavates a shallow depression in the dry basin of a seasonal pool, lays around 50 to 200 eggs, and remains coiled with them, attending the clutch for weeks. She leaves once autumn or winter rain floods the depression, and hatching follows inundation.
The timing buys a head start. Larvae are in the water months before spring-breeding species such as the spotted salamander, so by the time those eggs hatch, marbled salamander larvae are large enough to prey on them. Where the two share a pool, marbled salamander larvae can measurably suppress the survival of later-hatching amphibians.
The strategy is also a gamble. If the basin does not flood, or floods too late, the clutch fails, and drought years produce near-total recruitment loss at a pool. Autumn breeding therefore trades reliability for a competitive advantage, and populations depend on pool basins remaining dry in autumn and filling in winter.