The effect of inundation on frog communities and chorusing behaviour

Sarker, Mohammad Abdur Razzaque; McKnight, Donald T.; Ryder, Darren; Walcott, Amelia; Ocock, Joanne; Spencer, Jennifer; Preston, David C.; Brodie, Sheryn; Bower, Deborah S.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109640

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Riverine floodplains are highly dynamic ecosystems spatially and temporally (Amoros & Bornette, 2002 ; Ward et al, 1999 ). Future studies should therefore be conducted over longer temporal scales to determine community responses across different flooding and hydrological conditions (e.g., Littlefair et al, 2021 ; Sarker et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrology is a major influence on amphibian abundance in a large European floodplain

et al. 2023

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River–floodplain ecosystems play a crucial role in connecting landscape patches through hydrological connectivity, but they are among the most threatened ecosystems. Floodplains provide important habitat for amphibians by connecting aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Modifications to floodplain hydrology can impact amphibian communities, yet few studies have examined amphibian metacommunities in floodplain wetlands. In this study, we assessed patterns in amphibian breeding abundance in one of the largest floodplains of the Danube River, Hungary, relative to hydrological connectivity and multi‐scale variables at 30 waterbody sites. Our aim was to determine whether these patterns aligned with the pond‐permanence gradient hypothesis, where breeding amphibian abundance is predicted to be highest in ephemeral ponds without large predatory fish. We used Bayesian hierarchical modelling to estimate multi‐species abundance from repeated survey (count) data collected over one breeding season. We detected the eggs and larvae of four amphibian species. The best model of abundance included covariates describing two principal component axes associated with waterbody hydrology and landscape composition within a 500‐m radius of a site. There was a positive relationship between mean community abundance at a site and hydrological disconnection from the main river channel; however, the common toad (Bufo bufo) was associated with hydrologically connected waterbodies. There was a positive relationship between mean community abundance and a high proportion of forest cover and low cover of agricultural land within a 500‐m radius around a site, although this relationship was clear for only two species. There was no support for models containing the number of large predatory fish species detected at a site. Although our results showed that amphibian abundance declined with hydrological connectivity, based on model selection we could not ascribe this relationship to an increased number of large predatory fish species detected in waterbodies close to the main river channel. Differences in life history and habitat requirements are likely to have explained interspecific responses to hydrological connectivity. Our results underscore the importance of addressing amphibian abundance at multiple spatial scales in floodplain wetlands, as landscape composition partly explained patterns in abundance. Application of multi‐species abundance modelling allowed us to investigate environmental relationships for common and infrequently detected species. Habitat restoration programmes in floodplains should provide waterbodies disconnected from main river channels as potential amphibian breeding sites and protect or restore forest as terrestrial habitat.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrology is a major influence on amphibian abundance in a large European floodplain

et al. 2023

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“…We encourage testing transferability of recognisers to other locations as site specificity of recognisers has rarely been investigated. While commonly used to monitor the outcomes of environmental flows (Gawne et al, 2020 ; Sarker et al, 2022 ), amphibians are also not the only soniferous taxonomic group that responds to environmental watering. Birds were responsible for the bulk of the manually annotated response curves described by Linke and Deretic ( 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating and optimising performance of multi‐species call recognisers for ecoacoustic restoration monitoring

Linke,

Teixeira,

Turlington

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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Monitoring the effect of ecosystem restoration can be difficult and time‐consuming. Autonomous sensors, such as acoustic recorders, can aid monitoring across long time scales. This project successfully developed, tested and implemented call recognisers for eight species of frog in the Murray–Darling Basin. Recognisers for all but one species performed well and substantially better than many species recognisers reported in the literature. We achieved this through a comprehensive development phase, which carefully considered and refined the representativeness of training data, as well as the construction (amplitude cut‐off) and the similarity thresholds (score cut‐offs) of each call template used. Recogniser performance was high for almost all species examined. Recognisers for Crinia signifera, Limnodynastes fletcherii, Limnodynastes dumerilii, Litoria peronii and Crinia parinsignifera all performed well, with most templates having receiver operating characteristics values (the proportion of true positive and true negatives) over 0.7, and some much higher. Recognisers for L. peronii, L. fletcherii and L. dumerilii performed particularly well in the training data set, which allowed for responses to environmental watering events, a restoration activity, to be clearly observed. While slightly more involved than building recognisers using commercial packages, the workflows ensure that a high‐quality recogniser can be built and the performance fine‐tuned using multiple parameters. Using the same framework, recognisers can be improved on in future iterations. We believe that multi‐species recognisers are a highly effective and precise way to detect the effects of ecosystem restoration.

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Managing flows for frogs: wetland inundation extent and duration promote wetland-dependent amphibian breeding success

Ocock,

Walcott,

Spencer

et al. 2024

Mar. Freshw. Res.

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Context River regulation is a key threat to amphibian communities that continue to face global declines. Prior work in regulated river catchments has indicated that wetland inundation from connecting river flows supports breeding in some frog species more than others. Aims Our aim was to identify flow metrics influencing breeding and recruitment success in flow-dependent frogs, to derive flow–ecology relationships. Methods We conducted repeat surveys of frog communities between 2015 and 2020 across two important wetlands in the northern Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Using random forest analyses, we investigated the influence of 22 explanatory variables on breeding activity and success. Key results Inundation extent was the most important driver of calling activity by flow-dependent species (increasing breeding attempts), whereas the volume of river flows in the preceding months was most important for increasing breeding success. Conclusions Two key features of the flow pulse are linked to breeding success for amphibians in floodplain wetland systems: (1) the size of the pulse as it relates to area of wetland inundated; and (2) the duration of connecting flows as a measure of wetland duration. Implications By establishing amphibian flow–ecology relationships, these species can be included in governmental environmental water objectives and management.

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The effect of inundation on frog communities and chorusing behaviour

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

Hydrology is a major influence on amphibian abundance in a large European floodplain

Hydrology is a major influence on amphibian abundance in a large European floodplain

Evaluating and optimising performance of multi‐species call recognisers for ecoacoustic restoration monitoring

Managing flows for frogs: wetland inundation extent and duration promote wetland-dependent amphibian breeding success

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