The Effects of Landscape Heterogeneity on East China Anuran Communities: Identifying Spatial Scales in an Urbanizing Landscape
The Effects of Landscape Heterogeneity on East China Anuran Communities: Identifying Spatial Scales in an Urbanizing Landscape
复制标题
景观异质性对华东阿努拉群落的影响：识别城市化景观中的空间尺度
DOI：
10.3390/d14110968
复制
发表时间：
2022-11
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Gang Yang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wei Zhang;Ben Li;Gang Yang
Cities are growing rapidly worldwide, with over half of the human population living in cities. Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates on our planet and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of urbanization. While it is known that landscape features and scales are important for amphibians in urban areas, we do not adequately understand how the urban landscape affects diversity patterns, nor have we identified which spatial scale is most appropriate for evaluating how amphibians respond to urban environments. In this study, we examined the relationships between anuran abundance/richness and landscape features at four spatial scales in Shanghai, China. In order to determine the relative importance of landscape variables and the most appropriate spatial scale, a multi-model inference approach was used to evaluate and compare model weighted mean coefficients. Our results show that large spatial scales, i.e., 1500 m and 2000 m, best predicted relative anuran abundance and richness, while the total anuran abundance responded most strongly to landscape variables at smaller scales, i.e., 500 m and 1000 m. Patch richness and the interspersion and juxtaposition index play a large role in predicting the anuran species’ richness and abundance. The abundance of P. nigromaculatus, F. multistriata, and B. gargarizans increased with patch richness. Species richness and total abundance were most strongly related to the interspersion and juxtaposition index. Our research highlights the importance of identifying the most suitable spatial scale in urban environments because not all anuran respond to the same spatial scale. We found that the relationships between anuran relative abundance and species and urban habitat features are not consistent with the prediction of other landscapes (e.g., farmland, forest, and island). Additionally, constructing diverse habitat patches and more neighboring habitats may maintain or improve anuran communities in urbanizing landscapes.
