10.5061/DRYAD.75S51
Westgate, Martin J.
Australian National University
Scheele, Ben C.
Australian National University
Ikin, Karen
Australian National University
Hoefer, Anke Maria
ACT and Region Frogwatch, Ginninderra Catchment Group, Canberra, ACT,
2615, Australia
Beaty, R. Matthew
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Evans, Murray
Environment and Planning Directorate, ACT Government, Canberra, ACT,
2601, Australia
Osborne, Will
University of Canberra
Hunter, David
NSW Office of Environment & Heritage
Rayner, Laura
Australian National University
Driscoll, Don A.
Australian National University
Deakin University
Data from: Citizen science program shows urban areas have lower occurrence
of frog species, but not accelerated declines
Dryad
dataset
2016
landscape ecology
2016-10-12T00:00:00Z
2016-10-12T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140973
363577 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Understanding the influence of landscape change on animal populations is
critical to inform biodiversity conservation efforts. A particularly
important goal is to understand how urban density affects the persistence
of animal populations through time, and how these impacts can be mediated
by habitat provision; but data on this question are limited for some taxa.
Here, we use data from a citizen science monitoring program to investigate
the effect of urbanization on patterns of frog species richness and
occurrence over 13 years. Sites surrounded by a high proportion of bare
ground (a proxy for urbanization) had consistently lower frog occurrence,
but we found no evidence that declines were restricted to urban areas.
Instead, several frog species showed declines in rural wetlands with
low-quality habitat. Our analysis shows that urban wetlands had low but
stable species richness; but also that population trajectories are
strongly influenced by vegetation provision in both the riparian zone and
the wider landscape. Future increases in the extent of urban environments
in our study area are likely to negatively impact populations of several
frog species. However, existing urban areas are unlikely to lose further
frog species in the medium term. We recommend that landscape planning and
management focus on the conservation and restoration of rural wetlands to
arrest current declines, and the revegetation of urban wetlands to
facilitate the re-expansion of urban-sensitive species.
Data from: Citizen science program shows urban areas have lower occurrence
of frog species, but not accelerated declinesThis contains all data
necessary to duplicate the analyses described by Westgate et al.,
including: descriptions of all sites; all observations of frogs at those
sites between 2002-2014; a list of species names; and a key to column
headings.Frogwatch_dataset.xlsx
Canberra
Australian Capital Territory
Australia