Abstract
Environmental and isolation variables relating to abundance of breeding amphibians, species richness and community structure at different spatial scales were examined in the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, Evros, Greece. Logistic regression and a generalized linear model were used to relate several habitat characteristics to species occurrence and species richness. The community structure responses to breeding-pond features were examined at four spatial scales using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The richest communities live in low-altitude ponds, with stony or clay bottoms, high solar exposure and abundant submerged and floating vegetation. The CCA models were significant (p < 0.005) and revealed the influence of altitude, percentage of field and broadleaf forest coverage, and number of water bodies on amphibian species assemblages at all four spatial scales. There is a specific need for holistic management of amphibians that will consider habitat connectivity, particularly between aquatic and terrestrial habitats, at a larger, more interconnected scale.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Hellenic National Agency – Youth in the frame of the Future Capital Project. We are grateful to Dr Panagiota Maragou and Alkis Kafetzis for making suggestions and comments on a first draft of the paper. Dr Ioli Christopoulou and Michael de Courcy Williams made linguistic corrections. We thank our colleagues Mikis Bastian and Gregory Mercier for their field assistance.