articleScienceDec 13, 2007GREEN OA

Habitat Split and the Global Decline of Amphibians

Universidade de São Paulo · Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) · +3 more institutions

PubMed
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Abstract

The worldwide decline in amphibians has been attributed to several causes, especially habitat loss and disease. We identified a further factor, namely "habitat split"-defined as human-induced disconnection between habitats used by different life history stages of a species-which forces forest-associated amphibians with aquatic larvae to make risky breeding migrations between suitable aquatic and terrestrial habitats. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, we found that habitat split negatively affects the richness of species with aquatic larvae but not the richness of species with terrestrial development (the latter can complete their life cycle inside forest remnants). This mechanism helps to explain why species…

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