Download or read book Population Connectivity and Multi stage Habitat Selection in a Montane Amphibian written by Anicka Kratina-Hathaway and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pond-breeding amphibian populations have life histories requiring discrete habitat types and therefore present ideal study systems in which to evaluate seasonal habitat selection, migration, and population connectivity. Additionally, amphibians are experiencing precipitous declines, necessitating the ecological study of diverse populations, especially isolated populations. In the Bighorn Mountains of north-central Wyoming, Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris ) persist as a relictual population, where little is known about their ecology. Throughout the summers of 2013 and 2014 we monitored frog habitat selection and movements through radio telemetry, and collected genetic samples to determine population connectivity of this population throughout its limited range. We found that frog habitat selection varied seasonally, and was directed to spatially discrete water bodies when breeding habitat consisted of ephemeral water bodies. Additionally, in contrast to other Columbia spotted frog studies which found sites with predatory fish less successful, our study found that large, permanent breeding sites, such as lakes with predatory fish were the most productive and provided all seasonal habitats. An attribute in common across sites were dense microhabitats that provided cover, primarily in the form of willows. Frog macrohabitat selection was stronger than microhabitat selection, and indicated that the geographical location, in particular wet meadows, was initially most important and that when wet meadows were selected, microhabitats were less limiting. Frog movements also varied between ephemeral and permanent breeding sites, with frogs traveling longer distances at ephemeral sites. We observed one adult movement between breeding sites. One transmittered frog crossed over a dam to access the largest breeding area, Sibley Lake. No additional adult movements were observed between breeding sites, despite adult frogs’ abilities to travel long distances (over 300 m in two days). Genetic results however suggest much more movement is taking place. We found 3 genetic clusters within the Bighorn Mountains and found varying levels of gene flow between breeding sites, with some sites showing high levels of population structure. Additionally, potential barriers to gene flow (such as roads and rivers) did not appear to completely inhibit movements, and in the case of waterways, appeared to enhance movements. Our results indicate that an approach combining multiple methods across various spatial scales is needed to accurately manage and conserve habitats for this population.

Download or read book Integrating Molecular and Visual Surveys to Determine Factors Impacting Detection and Habitat Selection of Native Montane Amphibians in Wyoming and Colorado written by Andrew C. Gygli and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 2015 and 2016 my technicians and I surveyed for all montane amphibian species in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. We surveyed wetlands with environmental DNA (eDNA) and visual methods to detect five amphibian species: Pseudacris maculata, Ambystoma mavortium, Lithobates sylvaticus, Anaxyrus boreas, and Lithobates pipiens. I then used occupancy models to determine how detection rates varied among species and survey methods. Combining methods results in more precise estimates of detection for each species. Second, I used occupancy models to delineate and predict all species’ distributions across my study area. All species depended on annual precipitation and temperature in their habitat selection. I cross-validated species-specific models and most were accurate, but boreal toad models, performed worse than expected by random chance. Finally, I determined how sample design, survey method, and survey unit size impact accuracy of occupancy models of all target species. The optimal relationship between dollars spent and occupancy model precision. In general, sample design and methods used had no effect on accuracy or precision of models. Small survey units were far more accurate than large units at a great increase in cost. However, larger survey units show promise as a cost-effective way to monitor for exceptionally rare species at low cost.

Download or read book Effects of Habitat Characteristics on Amphibian Use of Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments written by David Anthony Dimitrie and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Habitat characteristics can affect how organisms use environments. Individuals are expected to have evolved the ability assess habitat quality to maximize their fitness. I investigated the effects of habitat characteristics on aquatic and terrestrial environment use in multiple amphibian life-stages. In Chapter 1, I investigated how female breeding habitat selection is influenced by competitors and how this affects offspring performance. Female eastern gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) used pools without larval competitors more than pools with green frog (Rana clamitans) or bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles. Treefrog tadpoles developed faster and grew larger without heterospecifics, indicating larval performance matched female preference. Males may use habitat quality cues differently. In Chapter 2, I evaluated male use of these same habitats and the male quality as potential mates for females using recordings of male advertisement calls. Males used pools with heterospecifics the same as pools without, and the advertisements of males at all habitat types were similar. Thus, while females avoided pools with heterospecifics, males did not. In Chapter 3, I tested if male treefrogs using fringe habitats differ from residents at an adjacent core pond by comparing the calls of males in both habitats. I also evaluated how fringe males changed their calls at the core pond. Fringe males produced more yet shorter calls than males in the core habitat, but called at a similar effort. When fringe males were moved to the core habitat, they adjusted their calls to match the core males. Finally, in Chapter 4, I investigated how the terrestrial environment affects juvenile development. In collaboration with David Burke at the Holden Arboretum, I tested how forest acidification affects the American toad (Anaxyrus americanus) and its interaction with the invertebrate community. Toads tended to grow larger in elevated soil pH, although survival and diet were not affected by pH. I found no effect of pH on the invertebrate community or forest floor trophic dynamics. My studies found that biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics can affect amphibian development and male and female use of breeding habitats in complex ways. These effects have implications for individual fitness, population dynamics, and community assembly.

Download or read book Habitat selection of amphibians during their terrestrial phase written by H. Strijbosch and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Multi scale Habitat Selection and Breeding Pond Assessment of an Isolated Wood Frog Lithobates Sylvaticus Population in Wyoming written by Katrina A. Cook and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isolated populations that are separated from the species’ more contiguous range may be particularly susceptible to habitat degradation or disease. Amphibians have experienced population declines worldwide from habitat change because they are sensitive to habitat conditions, and from the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) in Wyoming exist as isolated, glacial relicts. We identified the habitat preferences of a Wood Frog population across multiple seasons and spatial scales, and in relation to chytrid fungus status in the Snowy Range of Wyoming, USA. We also investigated the associations between non-invertebrate and invertebrate metrics with egg mass densities (as a measure of habitat use) and late-stage tadpole densities (as an index of reproductive success). During summer and fall, frogs preferred to be closer to waterbodies and selected aspen, willow, and wet meadow macrohabitats. Summer microhabitat preferences included denser, taller vegetation, higher soil moisture, and those closer to standing water and refugia. When chytrid-positive, frogs in terrestrial habitats tended to switch to areas with higher soil moisture. The density of very tolerant taxa (tolerance value ≥8) slightly outperformed the average biomass of June phytoplankton as the top metric related to egg mass density. Tadpole densities were slightly higher in ephemeral ponds and ponds lacking vertebrate predators. Our results demonstrate spatiotemporal variation in habitat preferences of an isolated amphibian population of concern, and that adults may have specific habitat requirements for choosing a breeding pond. Our work contributes to a growing body of evidence demonstrating interactions between animal behavior, disease, and habitat.

Download or read book Implications of Environmental and Landscape Change for Population Connectivity and the Persistence of Aridland Amphibians written by Meryl Mims and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of how population structure and persistence are shaped by attributes of species and the environment is a central scientific pursuit in ecology and conservation. In this dissertation, I explore four themes central to this pursuit. First, I examined the extent to which species' ecological strategies - their life histories, biology, and behavior - predict patterns and drivers of population connectivity. This research represents a critical step in evaluating the potential of multi-taxa inference in landscape genetics. I examined a suite of hypothesized relationships between genetic connectivity and landscape connectivity for three desert anuran species and found a positive relationship between population differentiation and water dependency, e.g. longer larval development periods and site fidelity for reliable water sources. I also found that aquatic connectivity is important across all species, particularly when considered with topography (slope). Second, I built upon the work of my first chapter and proposed more general traits-based frameworks to enhance the utility of landscape genetics in multispecies conservation. I proposed guiding principles for the formal development, testing, and generalization of traits-based frameworks to advance the utility, efficiency, and effectiveness of genetic inference in contemporary ecology and conservation. Third, I employed population genetic techniques to examine the population structure, diversity, and connectivity of Hyla wrightorum, an anuran native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. Hyla wrightorum exists as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) in the Huachuca Mountains and Canelo Hills of southeastern Arizona, USA. Due to concerns about declining observations of the species within the DPS, its small geographic and isolated extent within the Huachuca Mountains and Canelo Hills, and presumably small population sizes, the DPS is currently a candidate for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. I found evidence of larger than expected effective population sizes, significant genetic differentiation between populations, and an isolation-by-distance pattern among populations. These results suggest that the DPS may be less vulnerable to extirpation than previously expected, but some small effective population sizes and the limited geographic extent of the DPS justify current concern for the persistence of this DPS. Finally, I used a spatially-explicit individual based model to simulate the response of the Arizona Treefrog (Hyla wrightorum) to reductions in breeding habitat availability in an isolated portion of its range. I found that reductions in breeding habitat resulted in population declines, with the greatest population declines for H. wrightorum associated with both a reduction in breeding habitat availability and recruitment failure. Reduced breeding habitat also resulted in increased synchrony and decreased variability through time, which likely indicates a transition from a metapopulation to isolated populations. Taken together, the four chapters of this dissertation advance the use of landscape and population genetics in multispecies conservation, and they will contribute directly to the conservation of dryland aquatic species.

Download or read book Habitat selection of amphibians during their aquatic phase written by H. Strijbosch and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Habitat Structure and Occupancy Patterns of the Montane Frog Rana Cascadae in the Cascade Range Oregon at Multiple Scales written by Catherine Brown and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Associations between occupancy patterns of a montane anuran species, Rana cascadae, and habitat structure at multiple scales were examined to investigate how population structure may influence persistence in spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments. Predictions were based on population dynamics suggested by source-sink and metapopulation models. Potential sites in three basins in the central Cascade Range, Oregon, were identified from aerial photos, fieldverified, and surveyed for eggs, tadpoles, and adults. Habitat quality at each site (i.e. vegetation, shoreline topography, area, water retention) and connectivity among sites (i.e. distance, gradient, connecting creeks) were measured to investigate factors that may be associated with distribution patterns at local and regional scales. Habitat structure at the site scale explained many of R. cascadae occupancy patterns. Breeding sites generally were small vegetated ponds with gradual shoreline topography, or flooded meadows. Adults, juveniles, and metamorphs were found in a wider variety of sites including small vegetated ponds, larger deeper lakes, meadows, and creeks. A strong association was found between occupancy and water retention. A large proportion of sites that retained water through the summer were occupied by at least one life history stage. Connectivity metrics were not associated with the distribution of breeding sites; breeding sites generally were dispersed when measured by all metrics. However, the occupancy patterns of adults suggested that frogs moved among sites. In McKenzie Pass, the high density of sites may provide stepping stones, whereas in Three Creeks and Todd Lake, the flowing creeks may provide corridors. Rana cascadae appears to be well adapted to living in a spatially and temporally heterogeneous environment. Breeding was associated with habitat characteristics that may favor rapid development. Habitat and adult occupancy associations suggested that the frog's home range may be larger than a single site. Given the unpredictable environment, use of other habitats such as creeks and large lakes may enable frogs to survive stressful periods. The apparent high mobility may facilitate access to potentially critical alternate habitat, immigration that may "rescue" extant populations, and recolonization of sites where populations have gone extinct. Conservation plans should protect the range of habitats required at multiple spatial scales.

Download or read book Habitat Selection and Movement Patterns of Amphibians in Altered Forest Habitats written by Gabrielle Joy Graeter and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Understanding Amphibian Distributions Population Dynamics and Population Connectivity by Using Ecological Modelling and Genetics written by Travis Seaborn and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One principle question in ecology is how temporal and spatial environmental heterogeneity influences species' ranges and connectivity of populations within the range. I aimed to integrate across disciplines to build a greater understanding of the impact of environmental heterogeneity on a variety of North American cold-adapted amphibian species. First, we found the last Northern Leopard Frog population in Washington is structured as three subpopulations, even at very small spatial scale (

Download or read book Forests of Iran written by Khosro Sagheb Talebi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work describes the general ecological aspects of Iran as well as West and Central Asia in the introduction. The book includes three chapters, each describing the climate, geology and soil characteristics, vegetation and forest types, site demands of the main tree species and the ecogram of them, management and socio-economic issues of three different phytogeographical regions, mainly the Hyrcanian, Irano-Turanian, and Saharo-Sindian. Each chapter contains a table for introducing the English and Botanical names of the plant species mentioned in the chapter. The information presented in this book is based on personal experiences and results of research projects of the authors, as well as experiences of other forest scientists in Iran. The references are given at the end of each chapter separately. The book contains 10 tables, 37 black and white and 55 color pictures.

Download or read book Responses of Xishuangbanna s Frog Species to Their Environment written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate group and the main driver of amphibian population declines is habitat loss. Unfortunately, hotspots of amphibian diversity generally contain poorly studied species, and are located in areas with high rates of land cover change. This makes it a challenge to determine whether a landscape modification in a given area constitutes habitat loss for a species. I studied how amphibian species responded to two substantial changes to their aquatic and terrestrial habitats in an amphibian diversity hotspot: Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan Province, China. Over the past thirty years, over two-thirds of Xishuangbanna's rainforests have been converted into rubber plantations, yet the impact of this land conversion on frog populations has yet to be studied. Through surveys, I discovered that no frog species use the aquatic sites in rubber plantations for breeding and only disturbance tolerant species use rubber plantations outside the breeding season. This means rubber plantations represent a complete loss of habitat for disturbance-intolerant species like treefrogs. In addition to the changes to the terrestrial landscape, Xishuangbanna's aquatic habitats have been invaded by non-native tilapia fish. Tilapia were introduced about thirty-five years ago as food and have subsequently established in the main river systems in Xishuangbanna. Through a series of experiments, I examined the plastic phenotypic responses of three common tadpole species to tilapia and native odonate larvae predators. All three tadpole species exhibited phenotypic responses to both tilapia and odonates, with each tadpole species exhibiting species-specific responses to each predator. In follow-up predation trial experiments where tadpoles with previous exposure to predators were tested with free-roaming predators, previous exposure to tilapia was maladaptive for two tadpole species. Specifically, tadpoles with previous exposure to tilapia responded to tilapia, yet these phenotypic responses resulted in reduced survival. This is likely because tilapia have a different hunting style than the native fish they replaced. Overall, the results from this work suggest that the changes to the terrestrial and aquatic habitats are detrimental to frog species and could lead to population declines.

Download or read book Resource Selection by Animals written by B.F. Manly and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have written this book as a guide to the design and analysis of field studies of resource selection, concentrating primarily on statistical aspects of the comparison of the use and availability of resources of different types. Our intended audience is field ecologists in general and, in particular, wildlife and fisheries biologists who are attempting to measure the extent to which real animal populations are selective in their choice of food and habitat. As such, we have made no attempt to address those aspects of theoretical ecology that are concerned with how animals might choose their resources if they acted in an optimal manner. The book is based on the concept of a resource selection function (RSF), where this is a function of characteristics measured on resourceunits such that its value for a unit is proportional to the probability of that unit being used. We argue that this concept leads to a unified theory for the analysis and interpretation of data on resource selection and can replace many ad hoc statistical methods that have been used in the past.

Download or read book The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians written by Kentwood D. Wells and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 1162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consisting of more than six thousand species, amphibians are more diverse than mammals and are found on every continent save Antarctica. Despite the abundance and diversity of these animals, many aspects of the biology of amphibians remain unstudied or misunderstood. The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians aims to fill this gap in the literature on this remarkable taxon. It is a celebration of the diversity of amphibian life and the ecological and behavioral adaptations that have made it a successful component of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Synthesizing seventy years of research on amphibian biology, Kentwood D. Wells addresses all major areas of inquiry, including phylogeny, classification, and morphology; aspects of physiological ecology such as water and temperature relations, respiration, metabolism, and energetics; movements and orientation; communication and social behavior; reproduction and parental care; ecology and behavior of amphibian larvae and ecological aspects of metamorphosis; ecological impact of predation on amphibian populations and antipredator defenses; and aspects of amphibian community ecology. With an eye towards modern concerns, The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians concludes with a chapter devoted to amphibian conservation. An unprecedented scholarly contribution to amphibian biology, this book is eagerly anticipated among specialists.

Download or read book Habitat Relationships and Gene Flow of Martes Americana in Northern Idaho written by Tzeidle Nicole Wasserman and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Linkages in the Landscape written by Andrew F. Bennett and published by IUCN. This book was released on 2003 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats is one of the major issues in wildlife management and conservation. Habitat "corridors" are sometimes proposed as an important element within a conservation strategy. Examples are given of corridors both as pathways and as habitats in their own right. Includes detailed reviews of principles relevant to the design and management of corridors, their place in regional approaches to conservation planning, and recommendations for research and management.

Download or read book Amphibian conservation action plan proceedings IUCN SSC Amphibian Conservation Summit 2005 written by and published by IUCN. This book was released on 2007 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: