A guide to conserve amphibian species in Iran

ABSTRACT

Globally, amphibians are one of the most threatened vertebrate groups and are hypersensitive to human-imposed habitat changes. Here we explore ways to conserve amphibians in two of the least-known biodiversity hotspots on earth, the Caucasus and Irano–Anatolian regions. We used two techniques: (ⅰ) combining species richness, endemism, and endangerness indices and (ⅱ) a species distribution model (SDM) to identify high-priority areas for Iran’s seven endemic and/or threatened amphibian species. The identified amphibian high-priority areas were then targeted to assess the levels of protection granted by the network of conservation areas (CAs) in Iran. We also computed the species-specific extent of occurrence (EOO) and the area of occupancy (AOO) to detect conservation gaps for the targeted species. Our results indicate that amphibian high-priority areas in Iran are mostly distributed across the Hyrcanian forest in the north and Zagros Mountains in the west. The gap analysis revealed that based on the most optimistic metric, 40% of amphibian hotspots are covered by CAs in Iran. However, the species-specific gap analysis showed that Iran’s CAs perform poorly at representing the EOO of all of the endemic and/or threatened amphibian species. These results suggest that expansion of CAs in Iran is essential for amphibian conservation.

KEYWORDS:

• Endemic and endangered species
• amphibian high-importance areas
• conservation area network
• SDMs
• gap analysis
• Iran

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Forogh Goudarzi and Haji Gholi Kami for their help in collecting the dataset and for their technical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2023.2259330

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. KLH is supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Zahra Niknaddaf

Zahra Niknaddaf is currently a PhD student. Her areas of research interests are landscape ecology and conservation of endangered species and their ecosystems.

Karl Loeffler-Henry

Karl Loeffler-Henry is a postdoctoral fellow in the Sherratt Lab. He focuses on how natural selection influences animal coloration.

Mahmoud Reza Hemami

Mahmoud-Reza Hemami is a professor of Conservation Ecology whose research is mainly focused on the ecology and conservation of threatened species.