FROGLOG Newsletter of the IUCN /SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG)
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Bufo viridis by Tim Halliday ISSN 1026-0269 FROGLOG Newsletter of the IUCN /SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) October 2006, Number 77 between two or more factors that available to Seed Grant donors and IUCN /SSC Amphibian Specialist have been identified as actual or ASG members. A reporting structure Group (ASG) potential causes of amphibian will be provided with award letters. Seed Grants 2007 population declines and which, Please contact Jeanne McKay if The IUCN/SSC Amphibian implement amphibian conservation clarification or advice is required. Specialist Group (ASG) is pleased on the ground. to announce a new round of Seed Applicants should indicate which Tropical amphibian diversity Grants for 2007. These are of the above categories they wish and edge effect intended as one-time awards of their application to be considered By J. Nicolas Urbina-Cardona between $500 and $2000 for the for, but we will consider applications Instituto de Biologia, UNAM, support or initiation of research that in the ARMI and Chester Zoo Mexico D.F. furthers the ASG’s mission to categories also in the Unrestricted Amphibian diversity is threatened by conserve biological diversity by category. direct threats (e.g. diseases, stimulating, developing, and Proposals should be no more pesticides, habitat loss and trade) executing practical programmes to than 4 pages and contain 1) Name, and indirect threats (e.g. climate study, save, restore, and manage affiliation and contact information of change, invasive species and amphibians and their habitats the proposer(s), (2) Project title, (3) synergistic effects), which reduce around the world Description of the intended work, their population viability and There are three categories in this including localities and species increase their vulnerability to year’s round, thanks to generous involved, (4) Start date and extinction (Semlitch, 2003). One of support from Andy Sabin, the US schedule of the project, (5) the most important factors causing Department of the Interior’s Explanation of how the project will tropical amphibian decline is habitat Amphibian Research and Monitoring further the ASG’s mission, (6) loss (Semlitch, 2003) which often Initiative (ARMI), and from the North Budget breakdown, including details results in a seminatural landscape of England Zoological Society- of additional funding obtained or composed principally of forest Chester Zoo in the UK. sought from elsewhere (please note fragments immersed in an that we do not provide funds to agricultural matrix (Saunders et al., ARMI AWARDS. The criterion for support salaries), (7) References, if these awards is that the proposed 1991). Edge effects play an appropriate, and (8) Any other important role in fragmented work should be done on species or pertinent information. issues of concern in the USA. ARMI habitats, and edge-avoiding Please send proposals by the amphibians are particularly prone to is particularly interested in funding 15th of December, 2006 to Jeanne research on potential stressors of local extinction (Lehtinen et al., McKay at: [email protected] or 2003). amphibian populations. For more to: Jeanne McKay c/o The Durrell information about ARMI, go to: For my doctoral dissertation at Institute for Conservation and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma http://armi.usgs.gov/ Ecology (DICE), The University of de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico D.F., CHESTER ZOO AWARDS. Grants Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, the relationship between amphibian are available to support specific Kent CT2 7NR , UK. diversity and their microhabitat was amphibian conservation action for All information acquired with the evaluated along a pasture–edge– new or existing initiatives. This support of the ASG remains the interior gradient, in the tropical action may be captive breeding, intellectual property of the grant rainforest at Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, local community initiatives, habitat recipient, but must be freely Mexico. To investigate the protection or population monitoring. available to the ASG for use in relationships between microhabitat furthering its mission. Successful UNRESTRICTED AWARDS. The variables and species composition applicants are generally expected to ASG welcomes applications that and richness, 14 ecotones were publish the results of their projects in address any aspect of amphibian each divided into three habitats refereed journals, or as articles in declines, but favours joint (pasture, forest edge and forest the ASG newsletter, Froglog. In applications involving partnerships interior). Three transects per habitat addition, Seed Grant recipients will between herpetologists in developed were then sampled four times be required to provide a brief mid- and developing countries. We are between June 2003 and May 2004 term and final report of their project also prioritising projects that: using equal day and night efforts. so their findings can be made investigate synergistic effects Twelve environmental variables 1 describing the microclimate, is not large enough to exclude edge refereed journals, or as articles in vegetation structure, topography effects (Urbina-Cardona et al., Froglog. They are also required to and distance to forest edge and 2006). These species should be send reports, so that their results streams were evaluated. monitored more closely, since they can be made available to a wider A total of 1256 amphibians are highly sensitive to perturbation audience. Below is a list of reports belonging to 21 species (12 in the and are often the most vulnerable to that have been received recently. pasture, 14 at the edge, and 13 in fragmentation. Anyone wanting a copy of a report the interior) were recorded. The Relating the use of the pasture- should contact the author in the first greatest percentage of amphibian edge-interior gradient with instance; if you cannot reach the individuals was recorded in the amphibian microhabitat provides author, contact Tim Halliday - interior (47%) and on the edge important information for the [email protected]. (45%), while only 8% were captured development of conservation Ansel Fong G. (2001) Monitoring in the pasture. At the forest edge strategies to preserve amphibians amphibian populations in two and forest interior habitats, 52% of as a whole in seminatural sensitive habitats in Cuba. the individuals were adults, and 48% environments. Future studies should ([email protected]) were juveniles. In the pasture 81% therefore carefully explore the of the individuals were adults, and mechanisms and synergies that Ansel Fong G. and Jean-Marc Hero 19% were juveniles (Urbina- explain the amphibian ensembles (2003) Population dynamics of Cardona et al., 2006). The that inhabit the interior of the stream-dwelling frog surrounding pasture matrix was fragmented forest. Eleutherodactylus cuneatus on La Gran Piedra, eastern Cuba. (See dominated by the leprus chirping References: this FROGLOG) frog Syrrhophus leprus. The forest Lehtinen, R.M., Ramanamanjato, J. edge and forest interior habitat was ([email protected]) & Raveloarison, J.G. (2003) Edge dominated by the polymorphic effects and extinction proneness in a The following papers report work robber frog Craugastor rhodopis. herpetofauna from Madagascar. supported by previous DAPTF Towards the pasture, amphibian Seed Grants: Biodiversity and Conservation 12: species that displayed a 1357–1370. Andreone, F., Mercurio,. V. & reproductive mode with aquatic Saunders, D., Hobbs, R. & Mattioli, F. (2006) Between eggs and larvae (type 1) and Margules, C. (1991) Biological environmental degradation and occupation of terrestrial habitats consequences of ecosystem international pet trade: conservation increased. While towards the forest fragmentation: a review. strategies for the threatened interior amphibian species with Conservation Biology 5: 18–32. amphibians of Madagascar. Natura- direct embryo development and with Semlitsch, R. D. (2003) Amphibian Soc. it. Sci. nat Museo civ. Stor. nat. fossorial and arboreal habitats Conservation. Smithsonian Milano: 95; 81-96. increased (Urbina-Cardona & ([email protected]) Institution Press, USA. Reynoso, 2005). Urbina-Cardona, J.N., Olivares- Bank, M.S., J. Crocker, B. Connery, Amphibian community structure & A. Amirbahman. (2007) Mercury was strongly affected during the wet Pérez, M. & Reynoso, V.H. (2006) Herpetofauna diversity and bioaccumulation in green frog and season by the combination of bullfrog tadpoles from Acadia canopy cover, temperature, and leaf microenvironment correlates across the pasture-edge-interior gradient in National Park, Maine, USA. litter cover; and during the dry Environmental Toxicology & season by the combination of tropical rainforest fragments in the region of Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. Chemistry: 26; 37-44. distance to streams, temperature, ([email protected]) Biological Conservation 132:61-75. and leaf litter depth and cover. A high degree of complexity was Urbina-Cardona, J.N & Reynoso, Widder, P. D. & Bidwell, J. R. detected in the relationship between V.H. (2005) Recambio de anfibios y (2006) Cholinesterase activity and forest interior amphibian species reptiles en el gradiente potrero- behaviour in chlorpyrifos-exposed and their microhabitat (Urbina- borde-interior en la Reserva de Los Rana sphenocephala tadpoles. Cardona et al. 2006). The species Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México. Chapter Envtl. Toxicol. & Chem: 25; 2446- 2454. ([email protected]) Pseudoeurycea orchimelas, 15. In: Halffter, G., J. Soberón, P. Cranopsis valliceps, and Craugastor Koleff &