Abstract
Context
Conversion of landscapes is widely associated with loss of biodiversity. While there are several competing hypotheses for the local extinction of species in developed landscapes, experimental approaches are seldom applied to elucidating mechanisms.
Objectives
In this study, we focus on the habitat degradation hypothesis and predict that poor quality of relictual wetlands in developed landscapes contributes to the absence of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica = Lithobates sylvaticus) by decreasing their performance.
Methods
In a translocation experiment, we reared wood frog larvae within enclosures in seven ponds where they naturally occur and in five ponds in developed landscapes where they are absent. Premature pond drying precluded assessing performance in one present pond and one absent pond.
Results
Absent ponds were surrounded by upland buffers dominated by developed land covers while ponds with wood frog breeding populations were surrounded primarily by intact forest. Ponds were largely similar in their attributes. Survival and growth rate did not differ between pond types. Development tended to be slightly more rapid in some absent ponds perhaps related to higher water temperatures.
Conclusions
Despite the highly altered landscapes surrounding them, we find no evidence that absent wetlands provide inferior habitat for wood frog larval recruitment. Performance in absent ponds matched or exceeded that observed in present ponds implying that absence of this species may stem from influences mediated by the upland landscape. These results provide a caution to the typically unexamined presumption that relictual habitats in developed landscapes are degraded in their utility for wildlife.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan JD, Flecker AS (1993) Biodiversity conservation in running waters. BioScience 43:32–43
Baldwin RF, Calhoun AJK, deMaynadier PG (2006) Conservation planning for amphibian species with complex habitat requirements: a case study using movements and habitat selection the wood frog Rana sylvatica. J Herpetol 40:442–453
Baldwin RF, deMaynadier PG (2009) Assessing threats to pool-breeding amphibian habitat in an urbanizing landscape. Biol Conserv 142:1628–1638
Bauer DM, Paton PWC, Swallow SK (2010) Are wetland regulations cost effective for species protection? A case study of amphibian metapopulations. Ecol Appl 20:798–815
Becker CG, Fonseca CR, Haddad CFB, Batista RF, Prado PI (2007) Habitat split and the global decline of amphibians. Science 318:1775–1777
Booth DB, Reinelt LE (1993) Consequences of urbanization on aquatic systems—measured effects, degradation thresholds, and corrective strategies.In: Proceedings of the Watershed’93 conference, pp 545–550
Brady SP (2013) Microgeographic maladaptive performance and deme depression in response to roads and runoff. PeerJ 1:e163
Brearley G, Rhodes J, Bradley A, Baxter G, Seabrook L, Lunney D et al (2012) Wildlife disease prevalence in human-modified landscapes. Biol Rev 88:427–442
Calhoun AJK, Miller NA, Klemens MW (2005) Conserving pool-breeding amphibians in human-dominated landscapes through local implementation of best development practices. Wetl Ecol Manag 13:291–304
Czech B, Krausmann PR, Devers PK (2000) Economic associations among causes of species endangerment in the United States. BioScience 50:593–601
David JA, Froend R (1999) Loss and degradation of wetlands in southwestern Australia: underlying causes, consequences and solutions. Wetl Ecol Manag 7:13–23
Eigenbrod F, Hecnar SJ, Fahrig L (2008) The relative effects of road traffic and forest cover on anuran populations. Biol Conserv 141:35–46
Falcucci A, Maiorano L, Boitani L (2007) Changes in land-use/land-cover patterns in Italy and their implications for biodiversity conservation. Landscape Ecol 22:617–631
Faulkner S (2004) Urbanization impacts on the structure and function of forested wetlands. Urban Ecosyst 7:89–106
Felson AJ (2013) The design process as a framework for collaboration between ecologists and designers. In: Pickett STA, McGrath B (eds) Resilience in ecology and urban design: linking theory and practice in sustainable cities, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5341-9
Findlay CS, Bourdages J (2000) Response time of wetland biodiversity to road construction on adjacent lands. Conserv Biol 14:86–94
Fry J, Xian G, Jin S, Dewitz J, Homer C, Yang L et al (2011) Completion of the 2006 national land cover database for the conterminous United States. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 77:858–864
Gagne SA, Fahrig L (2007) Effect of landscape context on anuran communities in breeding ponds in the National Capital Region, Canada. Landscape Ecol 22:205–215
Gibbs JP (1998) Distribution of woodland amphibians along a forest fragmentation gradient. Landscape Ecol 16:263–268
Gosner KL (1960) A simplified table for staging anuran embryos and larvae. Herpetologica 16:183–190
Grimm NB, Foster D, Groffman P, Grove JM, Hopkinson CS, Nadelhoffer KJ et al (2008) The changing landscape: ecosystem responses to urbanization and pollution across climatic and societal gradients. Front Ecol Environ 6:264–272
Guerry AD, Hunter ML Jr (2002) Amphibian distributions in a landscape of forests and agriculture: an examination of landscape composition and configuration. Conserv Biol 16:745–754
Hamer AJ, McDonnell MJ (2005) Amphibian ecology and conservation in the urbanizing world: a review. Biol Conserv 141:2432–2449
Hamilton PB, Nicol E, DeBastos ESR, Williams RJ, Sumpter JP, Jobling S et al (2014) Populations of a cyprinid fish are self-sustaining despite widespread feminization of males. BMC Biol 12:1
Hansen AJ, Knight RL, Marzluff JM, Powell S, Brown K, Gude PH, Jones A (2005) Effects of exurban development on biodiversity: patterns, mechanisms, and research needs. Ecol Appl 15:1893–1905
Harper EB, Rittenhouse TAG, Semlitsch RD (2008) Demographic consequences of terrestrial habitat loss for pool-breeding amphibians: predicting extinction risks associated with inadequate size of buffer zones. Conserv Biol 22:1205–1215
Heatwole H (1961) Habitat selection and activity of the Wood Frog, Rana sylvatica Le Conte. Am Midl Nat 66:301–313
Houlahan JE, Findlay CS (2004) Estimating the ‘critical’ distance at which adjacent land-use degrades wetland water and sediment quality. Landscape Ecol 19:677–690
Kowarik I (2011) Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation. Environ Pollut 159:1974–1983
Lenth BA, Knight RL, Gilgert WC (2006) Conservation value of clustered housing developments. Conserv Biol 20:1445–1456
McKinney ML (2002) Urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation. Bioscience 52:883–890
McKinney ML, Lockwood JL (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends Ecol Evol 14:450–453
Natural Resources Conservation Service (2008) Chapter 13. Wetland restoration, enhancement or creation restoration. In Part 650, Engineering Field Handbook, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
Patrick DA, Hunter ML, Calhoun AK (2006) Effects of experimental forestry treatments on a Maine amphibian community. Forest Ecol Manag 234:323–332
Pillsbury FC, Miller JR (2008) Habitat and landscape characteristics underlying anuran community structure along an urban-rural gradient. Ecol Appl 18:1107–1118
Porej D, Micacchion M, Hetherington TE (2004) Core terrestrial habitat for conservation of local populations of salamanders and wood frogs in agricultural landscapes. Biol Conserv 120:399–409
Regosin JV, Windmiller BS, Reed JM (2003) Terrestrial habitat use and winter densities of the wood frog (Rana sylvatica). J Herpetol 37:390–394
Schlesinger MD, Manley PN, Holyoak M (2008) Distinguishing stressors acting on land bird communities in an urbanizing environment. Ecology 89:2302–2314
Semlitsch RD, Bodie JR (2003) Biological criteria for buffer zones around wetlands and riparian habitats for amphibians and reptiles. Conserv Biol 17:1219–1228
Semlitsch RD, Skelly DK (2007) Ecology and conservation of pool-breeding amphibians. In: Calhoun A, deMaynadier P (eds) Science and conservation of Vernal Pools in Northeastern North America. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 127–147
Shochat E, Warren PS, Faeth SH, McIntyre NE, Hope D (2006) From patterns to emerging processes in mechanistic urban ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 21:186–191
Skelly DK (2001) Distributions of pond-breeding anurans: an overview of mechanisms. Isr J Zool 47:313–332
Skelly DK, Bolden SR, Dion K (2010) Intersex amphibians concentrated in suburban and urban landscapes. EcoHealth 7:374–379
Skelly DK, Bolden SR, Holland MP, Freidenburg LK, Freidenfelds NA, Malcolm TR (2006) Urbanization and disease in amphibians. In: Collinge S, Ray C (eds) Ecology of disease: community context and pathogen dynamics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 153–167
Skelly DK, Halverson MA, Freidenburg LK, Urban MC (2005) Canopy closure and amphibian diversity in forested wetlands. Wetlands Ecol Manag 13:261–268
Smits AP, Skelly DK, Bolden SR (2014) Amphibian intersex in suburban landscapes. Ecosphere 5:1–9
Urban MC, Skelly DK, Burchsted D, Price W, Lowry S (2006) Stream communities across a rural-urban landscape gradient. Divers Distrib 12:337–350
Zinn JA, Copeland C (1997) Wetland issues, CRS issue brief. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC, p 14
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to several private landowners and to the Madison Land Conservation Trust for making this study possible by allowing us to work in their ponds. We thank M. Holgerson, M. Lambert, and M. Rogalski for assisting with fieldwork and M. Lambert for help with land cover analysis. M. Lambert and two anonymous reviewers provided comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Finally, we thank J. Gibbs for sharing information on his earlier survey of the Milford/Orange ponds.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the study: AS, DKS, LKF. Carried out the experiment: AS, LKF, DKS. Conducted Analyses: AS, DKS. Wrote the manuscript: DKS, LKF, AS.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shepack, A., Freidenburg, L.K. & Skelly, D.K. Species absence in developed landscapes: an experimental evaluation. Landscape Ecol 32, 609–615 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0464-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0464-9