Land-use correlates of anuran community richness and composition in southeastern Ontario wetlands

Abstract

In light of increasing evidence of declining anuran populations worldwide, an important conservation issue is the extent to which declines are consequences of smaller-scale stresses such as local habitat loss or degradation, or larger-scale stresses such as climate change. Here we show that anuran richness in 77 southeastern Ontario wetlands is negatively correlated with the density of roads on lands within 1 km of the wetland, and positively correlated with the percentage of forest cover. Logistic regression analysis shows that the presence of at least two species, the mink frog (Rana septentrionalis) and the wood frog (Rana sylvatica), is negatively related to road density, while the pickerel frog (Rana palustris) shows significant positive association with adjacent forest cover. These results suggest that in southeastern Ontario, significant conservation gains can be achieved through local land-use planning and management decisions that mitigate the effects of existing roads, minimize the construction of new roads, and discourage further forest conversion on lands adjacent to wetlands.