Effects of landscape heterogeneity and breeding habitat diversity on rice frog abundance and body condition in agricultural landscapes of Yangtze River Delta, China.

Abstract

Amphibians play a key role in structuring biological assemblages of agricultural landscapes, but they are threatened by global agricultural intensification. Landscape structure is an important variable influencing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. However, in the Yangtze River Delta, where a "farmland-orchard-fishpond" agricultural pattern is common, the effects of landscape construction on anuran populations are unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of agricultural landscape parameters on the abundance and body condition of the rice frog (Fejervarya multistriata), which is a dominant anuran species in farmland in China. Employing a visual encounter method, we surveyed rice frog abundance for 3 years across 20 agricultural landscapes. We also calculated the body condition index (BCI) of 188 male frog individuals from these agricultural landscapes. Landscape variables, comprising landscape compositional heterogeneity (using the Shannon diversity index of all land cover types except buildings and roads), landscape configurational heterogeneity (using landscape edge density), breeding habitat diversity (using the number of 5 waterbody types available as breeding habitats), and areas of forest were also measured for each 1-km radius landscape. We found that the amount of forest in each agricultural landscape had a significant positive relationship with rice frog abundance, and breeding habitat diversity was positively related to the BCI of male rice frogs. However, body condition was negatively impacted by landscape configurational heterogeneity. Our results suggested the importance of nonagricultural habitats in agricultural landscapes, such as waterbodies and forest, to benefit rice frog population persistence.