Collaborative Research: Land-Use Practices and Persistence of Amphibian Populations

在过去的200年里，土地转为农业用途，工业发展和城市扩张大大减少了许多物种的自然栖息地，被认为是对生物多样性的最严重威胁。破碎化将曾经连续的自然栖息地分割成更小的块，这些块往往被不适合维持可生存种群的地区分隔开。拟议的研究的目标是了解如何重要的本地人口和集合种群的过程中改变了自然栖息地的模式系统的池塘繁殖两栖动物的碎片。拟议的研究的主要目标是实验比较人口和行为反应的两栖动物在明确的（有和没有粗木质残体），部分切割，边缘，和完整的森林栖息地周围复制的自然繁殖池塘。 这些结果将导致更好地了解成功招募和当地种群生存的栖息地要求，以及两栖动物如何通过破碎的景观分散。它将允许强有力的推论，在两栖动物的集合种群动态的破坏所造成的破碎化，以及如何防止人口下降和灭绝。此外，从这个项目的信息是必不可少的保护和管理计划的国家自然资源机构，美国农业部林业局和土地管理局的发展。

Over the past 200 years, conversion of land for agricultural use, industrial development, and urban sprawl has drastically reduced natural habitat for many species and is considered the most serious threat to biological diversity. Fragmentation divides once continuous natural habitats into smaller pieces that are often separated by areas unsuitable to sustain viable populations. The goal of the proposed research is to understand how important local population and metapopulation processes are altered by fragmentation of natural habitats in a model system of pond-breeding amphibians. The primary objectives of the proposed study are to experimentally compare demographic and behavioral responses of amphibians in clear-cut (with and without coarse woody debris), partial-cut, edge, and intact forest habitats around replicated natural breeding ponds. These results will lead to a better understanding of the habitat requirements for successful recruitment and survival of local populations, and how amphibians disperse through fragmented landscapes. It will allow strong inferences about the disruption of metapopulation dynamics in amphibians caused by fragmentation and about how to prevent population declines and extinctions. Further, information from this project is essential to the development of conservation and management plans in state natural resource agencies, the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.