Terrestrial habitats surrounding wetlands are critical to the management of natural resources. Although the protection of water resources from human activities such as agriculture, silviculture, and urban development is obvious, it is also apparent that terrestrial areas surrounding wetlands are core habitats for many semiaquatic species that depend on mesic ecotones to complete their life cycle. For purposes of conservation and management, it is important to define core habitats used by local breeding populations surrounding wetlands. Our objective was to provide an estimate of the biologically relevant size of core habitats surrounding wetlands for amphibians and reptiles. We summarize data from the literature on the use of terrestrial habitats by amphibians and reptiles associated with wetlands ( 19 frog and 13 salamander species representing 1363 individuals; 5 snake and 28 turtle species representing more than 2245 individuals ). Core terrestrial habitat ranged from 159 to 290 m for amphibians and from 127 to 289 m for reptiles from the edge of the aquatic site. Data from these studies also indicated the importance of terrestrial habitats for feeding, overwintering, and nesting, and, thus, the biological interdependence between aquatic and terrestrial habitats that is essential for the persistence of populations. The minimum and maximum values for core habitats, depending on the level of protection needed, can be used to set biologically meaningful buffers for wetland and riparian habitats. These results indicate that large areas of terrestrial habitat surrounding wetlands are critical for maintaining biodiversity.

Understanding the movement of animals is critical to many aspects of conservation such as spread of emerging disease, proliferation of invasive species, changes in land‐use patterns, and responses to global climate change. Movement processes are especially important for amphibian management and conservation as species declines and extinctions worldwide become ever more apparent. To better integrate behavioral and ecological data on amphibian movements with our use of spatially explicit demographic models and guide effective conservation solutions, I present 1) a synopsis of the literature regarding behavior, ecology, and evolution of movement in pond‐breeding amphibians possessing biphasic life cycles to distinguish between migration and dispersal processes, 2) a working hypothesis of juvenile‐based dispersal, and 3) a discussion of conservation issues that follow from distinguishing the spatial and temporal movements of amphibians at different scales. I define amphibian migration as intrapopulational, round‐trip movements toward and away from aquatic breeding sites. Population‐level management, in general, can be focused on spatial scales of <1.0 km with attention focused on adult population and juveniles that remain near the natal wetland. I define amphibian dispersal as interpopulational, unidirectional movements from natal sites to other breeding sites. Metapopulation‐ or landscape‐level management can be focused on movements among populations at spatial scales >1.0–10.0 km and on importance of terrestrial connectivity. The ultimate goal of conservation for amphibians should be long‐term regional persistence by addressing management issues at both local and metapopulation scales.

The "good genes" hypothesis predicts that mating preferences enable females to select mates of superior genetic quality. The genetic consequences of the preference shown by female gray tree frogs for long-duration calls were evaluated by comparing the performance of maternal half-siblings sired by males with different call durations. Offspring of male gray tree frogs that produced long calls showed better performance during larval and juvenile stages than did offspring of males that produced short calls. These data suggest that call duration can function as a reliable indicator of heritable genetic quality.

We used an experimental approach to investigate the effects of landscape composition on the initial dispersal success of juvenile amphibians. Larval amphibians—spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), small‐mouthed salamander (A. texanum), and American toad (  Bufo americanus )—were added to artificial pools in four dispersal arrays on forest edges. Each array consisted of a pool surrounded by a circular drift fence with pitfall traps and two 2.5 × 50 m enclosures (runs) extending into forest and old‐field habitat. Juveniles captured at the circular fences were individually marked and released into either field or forest runs. We determined initial distance, initial rate, total distance, and net distance moved by juveniles in the field versus forest from recaptures in the runs. We also conducted 24‐hour dehydration trials to compare the rates of evaporative water loss by spotted and small‐mouthed salamanders in field and forest. Initial orientation of spotted salamanders and toads was significantly biased toward forest. Orientation of small‐mouthed salamanders did not differ significantly from random expectations. The avoidance of open‐canopy habitat by juvenile American toads in particular indicates that predictions of dispersal behavior based on adult habitat use may be misleading. Spotted salamanders moved almost four times farther and toads more than three times farther into the forest than into the field, and recapture rates of both species were much lower in the field. We attribute the lower recapture rates and shorter distances moved in the field to higher mortality due to desiccation or an abundance of predators. Juvenile spotted and small‐mouthed salamanders experienced greater evaporative water loss in the field. Our data on movement behavior and dehydration rates suggest that old‐field habitats offer greater landscape resistance to dispersing juveniles of some species. Thus, forest fragmentation is likely to reduce dispersal rates between local populations of these three species, with potentially negative consequences for population persistence in altered landscapes.

Landscape genetics has seen tremendous advances since its introduction, but parameterization and optimization of resistance surfaces still poses significant challenges. Despite increased availability and resolution of spatial data, few studies have integrated empirical data to directly represent ecological processes as genetic resistance surfaces. In our study, we determine the landscape and ecological factors affecting gene flow in the western slimy salamander (Plethodon albagula). We used field data to derive resistance surfaces representing salamander abundance and rate of water loss through combinations of canopy cover, topographic wetness, topographic position, solar exposure and distance from ravine. These ecologically explicit composite surfaces directly represent an ecological process or physiological limitation of our organism. Using generalized linear mixed-effects models, we optimized resistance surfaces using a nonlinear optimization algorithm to minimize model AIC. We found clear support for the resistance surface representing the rate of water loss experienced by adult salamanders in the summer. Resistance was lowest at intermediate levels of water loss and higher when the rate of water loss was predicted to be low or high. This pattern may arise from the compensatory movement behaviour of salamanders through suboptimal habitat, but also reflects the physiological limitations of salamanders and their sensitivity to extreme environmental conditions. Our study demonstrates that composite representations of ecologically explicit processes can provide novel insight and can better explain genetic differentiation than ecologically implicit landscape resistance surfaces. Additionally, our study underscores the fact that spatial estimates of habitat suitability or abundance may not serve as adequate proxies for describing gene flow, as predicted abundance was a poor predictor of genetic differentiation.