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Can road stormwater ponds be successfully exploited by the European green frog (Pelophylax sp.)?

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Abstract

Stormwater ponds (“SWPs”) are artificial roadside structures, conceived to retain and clean polluted runoff water, before its release to the environment. SWPs were not designed as suitable habitats for wildlife. However, SWPs in Europe are frequently used as breeding sites by amphibians, especially by the European green frog (Pelophylax sp.). Yet, the potential long-term effects of pollutants within SWPs on the populations of this species are unknown. In this study, we investigated the suitability of SWPs as a habitat for European green frogs living in Alsace, NE France, a region with a highly modified landscape that mainly consists of croplands with few natural wetlands remaining. We compared various biological indicators of individual health in 709 green frogs belonging to different life history stages, living in 9 semi-natural ponds (SNPs) and in 25 SWPs. There were no differences between these two pond types for most of the indicators investigated. However, juveniles had a lower body condition (−124%) in SWPs, while adults were 8.3% larger and 41.4% heavier in SWPs. Based on these results, we suggest that SWPs are not a suitable habitat for the development of European green frogs (i.e. juveniles), but may serve as a substitute habitat for adults in a highly modified landscape with few natural wetlands remaining. SWPs may especially act as relay sites, allowing frogs to colonize relict wetlands.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the students who participated in this study and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Code availability

The codes used with R software during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Funding

This study was conducted within the framework of the CERISE project and was funded by the French Minister of Ecology (DREAL Grand-Est), the Region Grand-Est, and the Conseil Départemental du Bas-Rhin (CD67). The funders had no role in any aspect of the study and agree to its publication.

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  1. Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, F-67000, Strasbourg, France

    Antonin Conan, Nathan Dehaut, Manfred Enstipp, Jean-Yves Georges & Yves Handrich

  2. Conseil Départemental du Bas-Rhin, Place du Quartier Blanc, Cedex 9, 67964, Strasbourg, France

    Antonin Conan, Jonathan Jumeau & Nathan Dehaut

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All authors approve this version of the manuscript for publication. They agree to be accountable for the aspects of the work that they conducted, and will ensure that any questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of their work are appropriately investigated and resolved. AC, JJ, & YH conceived the study and designed the methods; AC & ND collected the data; AC & JJ analysed the data; AC drafted the manuscript with contributions from JJ, ND, ME, JYG & YH.

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Correspondence to Antonin Conan.

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All experimental protocols for this study complied with national legislation and were approved by the appropriate authorities: “Arrêté Préfectoral n° 2019-DREAL-EBP-0030”.

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The original version of this article was revised: The author names were presented as family name and given name.

Antonin Conan and Jonathan Jumeau are co-first authors.

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Conan, A., Jumeau, J., Dehaut, N. et al. Can road stormwater ponds be successfully exploited by the European green frog (Pelophylax sp.)?. Urban Ecosyst 25, 35–47 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01129-z

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