1,721,014 research outputs found
Feeding habits of the European pond terrapin Emys orbicularis in Camargue (Rhône delta, Southern France)
No full textLand abandonment may reduce disturbance and affect the breeding sites of an Endangered amphibian in northern Italy
No full textAlthough human-related disturbance is usually detrimental for biodiversity, in some instances it can simulate natural processes and benefit certain species. Changes in the disturbance regime, both natural and human-driven, can affect species that rely on it. The Apennine yellow-bellied toad Bombina variegata pachypus, an amphibian endemic to peninsular Italy, has declined throughout its range in the last 3 decades. We sought to identify the drivers of the decline in the region of Liguria, at the north-western limit of its distribution. In 2009 and 2010 we surveyed sites where the species occurred until 2005 and related the persistence of breeding activity to the characteristics of sites. Populations had disappeared from 50% of the sites between 2005 and 2009. Current breeding sites have less aquatic and bank vegetation, fewer predators and better insolation. Frequent disturbance events (desiccation and floods) were related to reduced vegetation, which in turn may decrease predator densities and increase insolation. In this region disturbance is provided by natural factors or, in the case of artificial water bodies, by regular maintenance carried out by landowners. The widespread land abandonment in Liguria can disrupt disturbance regimes, interrupting the removal of vegetation, and thus rapidly reduce the suitability of artificial sites. This was confirmed in our study, with most abandoned breeding sites occurring in formerly cultivated areas. Possible short-term conservation actions include creating new ponds, maintaining artificial water bodies and clearing vegetation. However, long-term conservation may be more problematic as the land abandonment process is unlikely to be reversed
Posthatching Parental Care in Salamanders Revealed by Infrared Video Surveillance
No full textPosthatching parental care is known in amphibians for frogs and caecilians but, thus far, has never been reported for salamanders. Here, we describe the parental behavior of a female Northwest Italian Cave Salamander, Speleomantes strinatii, from egg deposition to nest site abandonment. The female was kept in seminatural conditions and filmed in complete darkness by an infrared video camera. In November 2007, the female laid nine eggs in a small depression of the terrarium floor, displaced the clutch with hind limbs, and showed antipredator behaviors toward a conspecific female and an intruding Roof Rat (Rattus rattus). During egg brooding, the female remained in contact with the clutch for about 98 of the time. In September 2008, two young hatched and shared the nesting site for six weeks with the female, which attended the nesting site for 87 of the time. Hatchlings repeatedly climbed over the female's body, lying on her for hours. The female walked out of the nesting site with a young on its back twice. These prolonged skin contacts between parent and offspring should be considered as the first certain case of young attendance in salamanders. This behavior may be related to increased survival of hatchlings during their first weeks of life, when young are particularly vulnerable to predation, skin infection, and dehydration. Copyright 2010 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Conservation of the European pond turtle through population reinforcement in Liguria, Northern Italy
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The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Predators and Prey
No full textSalamanders are relevant components of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, despite the importance of salamanders in many resource–consumer networks, their functional role remains remarkably understudied. Therefore, this volume, entitled The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Prey and Predators, provides an opportunity for researchers to highlight the new research on the ecological role of salamanders and newts in prey–predator systems, their trophic behavior, and the variability of their trophic niche in space and time. Various innovative methods, such as COI metabarcoding and network analysis, are applied in the present study to test both the classical and new hypotheses concerning the trophic ecology of salamanders and their interactions with their prey. The present volume is composed of one review and seven research papers, all of which are published after undergoing a complete and impartial peer-review process
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Predators and Prey
Full text linkSalamanders are relevant components of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, despite the importance of salamanders in many resource–consumer networks, their functional role remains remarkably understudied. Therefore, this volume, entitled The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Prey and Predators, provides an opportunity for researchers to highlight the new research on the ecological role of salamanders and newts in prey–predator systems, their trophic behavior, and the variability of their trophic niche in space and time. Various innovative methods, such as COI metabarcoding and network analysis, are applied in the present study to test both the classical and new hypotheses concerning the trophic ecology of salamanders and their interactions with their prey. The present volume is composed of one review and seven research papers, all of which are published after undergoing a complete and impartial peer-review process
Florian Doré, Marc Cheylan, Pierre Grillet. Le Lézard ocellé - Un géant sur le continent européen
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