Influence of the COVID‐19 pandemic on amphibian road mortality

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related human activity shutdowns provide unique opportunities for biodiversity monitoring through what has been termed the "anthropause" or the "great human confinement experiment." The pandemic caused immense disruption to human activity in the northeastern United States in the spring of 2020, with notable reductions in traffic levels.

Recovery of ghost crabs metapopulations on urban beaches during the Covid-19 “anthropause”

“…This included closure or restriction of beach use for recreational purposes resulting in beaches almost devoid of beachgoers for at least 3 months and very low frequency for several months. At first, authors reported that reduced human activity during COVID-19 termed “anthropause” was positive, resulting in fewer human-wildlife encounters, higher breeding success of resident species, and improved ecosystem condition worldwide ( Manenti et al, 2020 ; LeClair et al, 2021 ; Soto et al, 2021 ). However, negative impacts stemming from COVID-19 shutdowns have also been reported, including the increasing in beach pollution by personal protective equipment ( Ben-Haddad et al, 2021 ; Thiel et al, 2021 ) and spreading of illegal activities such as vehicle traffic due to reduction in law enforcement ( Manenti et al, 2020 ).…”

Anthropause Opportunities: Experimental Perturbation of Road Traffic and the Potential Effects on Wildlife

“…The anthropause-provided opportunities to study the effects of traffic on wildlife are already paying dividends, with noted reductions in WVCs (Manenti et al, 2020;Abraham and Mumma, 2021;Bates et al, 2021;Bil et al, 2021;Driessen, 2021;LeClair et al, 2021;Shilling et al, 2021;Łopucki et al, 2021) and rapid behavioral shifts that may increase fitness (Derryberry et al, 2020). We further posit additional potential changes to species interactions, behavior, fitness, animal distributions and gene flow due to the global respite from traffic impacts (Figure 2).…”

“…The most dramatic reductions in traffic (Figure 1), coincided with a period of high mobility for many species in the northern hemisphere: the breeding season and migration period. Amphibians, the most seriously declining taxa on Earth, normally suffer huge road mortality due to site philopatry (Beebee, 2013), but the largest reduction in traffic coincided with their peak period of movement, which appears to have translated into significantly reduced amphibian mortality in some countries (Manenti et al, 2020;Bates et al, 2021;LeClair et al, 2021).…”

“…Reduced traffic may lead to loss of "barrier effects, " isolation and/or, fragmentation of local populations which, in the longterm could be manifested as changes in gene flow and improved fitness (Figure 2; Benítez-López et al, 2010). Pollution events (Manenti et al, 2020;Bates et al, 2021;Bil et al, 2021;Driessen, 2021;LeClair et al, 2021;Shilling et al, 2021;Łopucki et al, 2021) and behavioral changes (Derryberry et al, 2020) have been observed due to anthropause mediated reductions in traffic volume and traffic noise, respectively. could be expected to reduce because even low concentrations of contaminants (associated with vehicle tires) can cause significant die-offs in fish (Tian et al, 2021).…”

“…FIGURE 2 | Overview of the anthropause-mediated changes (reduced traffic and noise) and the posited and realized ecological effects of the anthropause on wildlife-vehicle conflicts (WVC). To date, reductions in mortality(Manenti et al, 2020;Bates et al, 2021;Bil et al, 2021;Driessen, 2021;LeClair et al, 2021;Shilling et al, 2021;Łopucki et al, 2021) and behavioral changes(Derryberry et al, 2020) have been observed due to anthropause mediated reductions in traffic volume and traffic noise, respectively.…”