Recently, a novel work named as “Effects of multiple stressors on amphibian oviposition: Landscape and local determinants in central Japan” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107824) was published in Ecological Indicators (IF2020: 4.958, JCR_Q1) by Dr. Xiaojun Zheng in our institute. The work was completed by Jiangsu University, Nagoya University (JPN), and University of Sydney (AUS). And our institute contribute the most in this work.
Amphibian declines are caused by multiple stressors at the landscape and local levels, resulting in habitat loss, fragmentation, splits, and degradation. However, the combined effects of different landscape scales on the amphibian declines are poorly understood. We examined the breeding distribution of three frog species, Rana japonica, Rana ornativentris, and Bufo japonicus formosus, along an ecological gradient from urban to mountain areas. The number of egg masses and data on landscape and local variables were collected at 124 sites in Toyota, Okazaki, and Shitara, central Japan. The best model with the lowest value of the Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) was obtained using landscape variables at a 500-m-radius buffer for all three species. The number of egg masses increased with forest area for all frog species. This work not only assesses how the assemblage of frogs respond to different habitats at multiple spatial scales along the land use gradient (urban-mountain), but also emphasizes the importance of strategic management actions in agricultural landscapes, allowing the maintenance of habitat diversity for amphibians.
This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31800429), the Scientific Research Foundation for Senior Talent of Jiangsu University, China (Grant Nos. 20JDG067 and 20JDG41), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grant No.16H04735).
