Effects of time since urbanization on anuran community composition in remnant urban ponds

Abstract

SUMMARYLow-density residential development, the fastest growing land use in the USA, is increasingly occurring adjacent to protected areas and in areas of high biodiversity. Thus, determining the environmental impacts, including the cumulative impacts, of proposed residential developments is a pressing challenge. The relative abundance and species richness of anurans in 19 ponds surrounded by landscapes with varying ages of residential development were measured, while endeavouring to control for local habitat quality effects on the anurans. Age of residential development was a predictor in the best models describing the responses of four individual anuran species and total anuran relative abundance. In particular, all of the best models of gray treefrog Hyla versicolor relative abundance included age of residential development as a predictor. Present-day anuran communities in remnant urban ponds are evidently responding to the effects of residential development that occurred up to 54 years in the past.