Maps of area of habitat for Italian amphibians and reptiles

Abstract

Planning conservation actions requires detailed information on species’ geographic distribution. Species distribution data are most needed in areas hosting unique or endangered biodiversity. Italy is one of the European countries with the highest levels of herpetological diversity and endemism and is home to several threatened species of amphibians and reptiles. Information on the distribution of species’ habitats can help identify sites where the species is most likely to thrive, as viable populations depend on it. Area of Habitat (AOH) maps reveal the distribution of the habitat available to the species within their geographic range. We produced high resolution, freely accessible global area of habitat maps for 60 species of reptiles and amphibians distributed in Italy, which represent 60% of all Italian amphibian and reptile species. We validated a total of 44 AOH maps through a presence-only based evaluation method, with 86% of these maps showing a performance better than expected by chance. AOH maps can be used as a reference for conservation planning, as well as to investigate macroecological patterns of Italian herpetofauna. Furthermore, AOH maps can help monitoring habitat loss, which is known to be a major threat to many reptile and amphibian species in Europe.

An automated approach for systematic detection of Key Biodiversity Areas

“…We estimated the AOH of 59 species of amphibians and reptiles within their geographic range in Italy. For 55 species, we used AOH maps from Nania et al (2022), These maps were built using the ranges downloaded from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2021). For four species endemic to Italy we built new AOH maps based on ranges that were obtained from specific Italian datasets because of their higher accuracy.…”

“…We applied our approach to Area of Habitat (AOH) maps. The AOH maps provide information on the spatial distribution of available habitat for the species within its distribution range and altitude limits (Rondinini et al, 2011;Lumbierres et al, 2022). AOH represents a useful tool for large-scale assessments of the geographic distribution of species' populations for conservation purposes (Brooks et al, 2019), and is considered a valid proxy of population size by the Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (IUCN, 2016).…”

“…Seven amphibians and two reptiles occurring in Italy are listed as threatened by the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, 2021). The geographical distribution as well as habitat availability for many reptiles and amphibian species in Italy is well known (IUCN, 2020;Nania et al, 2022). We assessed the effects of KBA criteria, grid size, and species attributes (such as distribution extent, degree of endemism and IUCN Red List status) on the total area of potential KBAs identified.…”

Drivers of habitat availability for terrestrial mammals: Unravelling the role of livestock, land conversion and intrinsic traits in the past 50 years

“…For instance, birds are typically extensively studied, and obtaining historical data for them can be relatively straightforward. Additionally, there is already available AOH data for this group (Lumbierres et al., 2022), and similar models for other taxa, such as amphibians and reptiles, are either under development or already accessible at the local scale (Nania et al., 2022). Our results not only highlight the need for effective conservation efforts to address the negative impacts of human activities on biodiversity and natural systems but also provide evidence on which species can potentially recolonize parts of their former range if other threats stop.…”

Insects as indicators of Key Biodiversity Areas

“…Following the procedure adopted by Nania et al (2022), we increased the information accuracy on the global distribution of the species by producing high-resolution AOH maps for all 28 species/subspecies. AOH maps show the habitat available to a species within its distribution range; they can be produced by combining the distribution range with a land cover map and altitude data (Rondinini et al, 2011).…”