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

在过去的200年里，土地被用于农业用途、工业发展和城市扩张，极大地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。碎片化将曾经连续的自然栖息地分割成更小的碎片，这些碎片往往被不适合维持可生存种群的区域分开。拟议研究的目标是了解池塘养殖两栖动物模型系统中自然栖息地的碎片化如何改变当地种群和集合种群的重要过程。这项拟议研究的主要目标是在实验上比较两栖动物在清晰的(有或没有粗木质碎屑)、部分砍伐的、边缘的和完整的森林栖息地中的人口统计和行为反应。这些结果将有助于更好地了解当地种群成功招募和生存所需的栖息地，以及两栖动物如何通过支离破碎的地貌分散。这将使人们能够对碎片化导致的两栖动物集合种群动态的破坏以及如何防止种群下降和灭绝做出强有力的推断。此外，来自该项目的信息对于州自然资源机构、美国农业部林业局和土地管理局制定保护和管理计划至关重要。

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.