Abstract
Habitat destruction and fragmentation alter the quality of habitats and put populations under the risk of extinction. Changes in population parameters can provide early warning signs of negative impacts. In tropical forests, where habitat loss and fragmentation are vast, such indicators are of high relevance for directing conservation efforts before effects are irreversible. Most of our knowledge from tropical ecosystems originates from community level surveys, whereas our understanding of the influence of habitat conversion on vital rates of species is limited. This study focused on the influence of anthropogenic habitat fragmentation on the survival probability and abundance of three leaf-litter frog species (Rhinellaornata, Ischnocnemaguentheri and I.parva) in forest patches of the Atlantic rainforest of South-east Brazil compared to a continuous forest. The species differ in their matrix tolerance: high for R.ornata and low for I.guentheri and I.parva and, thus, we examined whether their survival and abundance correspond to this classification. Ischnocnemaguentheri showed highest abundances in all study sites and low mortality in the forest patches compared to the continuous forest; I.parva was encountered only in isolated fragments, with very low mortality in one isolated fragment; and the matrix tolerant species had generally low abundance and showed no clear pattern in terms of mortality in the different sites. Our counter-intuitive results show that even matrix sensitive amphibian species may show high abundance and low mortality in small forest patches. Therefore, these patches can be of high value for amphibian conservation regardless of their degree of matrix aversion. Landscape level conservation planning should not abandon small habitat patches, especially in highly fragmented tropical environments.
Highlights
Habitat destruction and fragmentation are amongst the major causes for the loss of terrestrial biodiversity (Saunders et al 1991, Pimm and Raven 2000, Laurance and Cochrane 2001, Henle et al 2004a)
This study focused on the influence of anthropogenic habitat fragmentation on the survival probability and abundance of three leaf-litter frog species (Rhinella ornata, Ischnocnema guentheri and I. parva) in forest patches of the Atlantic rainforest of South-east Brazil compared to a continuous forest
The species differ in their matrix tolerance: high for R. ornata and low for I. guentheri and I. parva and, we examined whether their survival and abundance correspond to this classification
Summary
Habitat destruction and fragmentation are amongst the major causes for the loss of terrestrial biodiversity (Saunders et al 1991, Pimm and Raven 2000, Laurance and Cochrane 2001, Henle et al 2004a). Besides loss of suitable area and isolation of remaining habitats, the fragmentation process may result in changes of habitat geometry and the physical environment, influencing habitat quality parameters both directly (Lovejoy et al 1986, Saunders et al 1991, Laurance 2000, Fahrig 2003) and indirectly, e.g. through edge effects (Murcia 1995, Ewers and Didham 2006) This in turn can influence individual traits (Steinicke et al 2015) as well as the extinction risk of populations and the composition of communities within patches (Saunders et al 1991, Davies et al 2001, Wiegand et al 2001, Hokit and Branch 2003, Ewers et al 2007, Zurita et al 2012). Habitat specialists often exhibit lower tolerance to the matrix surrounding the remnants (Gascon et al 1999, Bentley et al 2000, Henle et al 2004a, Hoehn et al 2007) and they are considered to be more prone to extinction than habitat generalists (Sarre et al 1996, Henle et al 2004a)
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