Many traditional farming landscapes have high conservation value. Conservation policy in such landscapes typically follows a ‘preservation strategy’, most commonly by providing financial incentives for farmers to continue traditional practices. A preservation strategy can be successful in the short term, but it fails to acknowledge that traditional farming landscapes evolved as tightly coupled social-ecological systems. Traditionally, people

1.Habitat loss is a major driver of biodiversity decline worldwide. Temporary water bodies are especially vulnerable because they are sensitive both to human impact and to climatic variations. Pond-breeding amphibians are often dependent on temporary water bodies for their reproduction, and hence are sensitive to loss of temporary ponds. 2.Here we present the results of a five year study regarding the use of temporary aquatic habitats by amphibians

Agricultural reform and infrastructural development are among the major drivers of biodiversity loss and landscape homogenization worldwide. Ponds and other small stagnant water bodies are crucial for maintaining regional biodiversity, yet they are vulnerable to human induced landscape change. We investigated for 199 ponds in the ‘département’ Pas-de-Calais in north-western France if pond persistence (n=86, 43%) or disappearance (n=113, 57%)

Spatial models are increasingly employed towards the understanding of the distribution of organisms and for establishing conservation priorities. Recent evidence suggests that the classic patch orientated models may have limited power to accurately predict the organisms` distributions. Pond breeding amphibians are appropriate study organisms because of their complex life cycle, low dispersal and sensitivity to environmental conditions. Here we tested

A massive decline of biodiversity is caused by land-use changes. Efforts must therefore be made to better understand the factors that govern organismal distribution, especially for countries where traditional management is about to be intensified such as in Romania. We here document the spatial distribution of amphibians from a Romanian rural landscape where land-use is still largely traditional. We related the occurrence of nine amphibian species

In this paper we present regional differences in species number - pond area relationships between two groups of vertebrates differing in life cycles and ecological requirements: amphibians and birds. The study was conducted in two regions of Romania: the Tarnava Basin and the Fizes Valley. Ponds from Tarnava are percentually more vegetated with emergent aquatic vegetation cover (Phragmites sp. and Typha sp.). The amphibian species richness in ponds

Amphibians are good indicators of human impact, declining steadily worldwide. We explored the relationships between the ponds and nearby landscape parameters and population size of the Agile Frog (Rana dalmatina), estimated from the number of egg masses, in a cultural landscape within the central section of Tarnava Mare Basin, Romania. Forty-three permanent ponds were surveyed in a 2600 km² area. The average number of egg masses per pond was 211.13

As ectotherm vertebrates, amphibians are sensitive to weather conditions. Weather conditions may influence the start of the breeding season, body condition, and survival during the winter. If the climatic conditions changes at large spatial and temporal scale, this can have adverse effects on amphibians including susceptibility to disease. In this study, I recorded the start of the breeding season (males and females separately) and monitored population

Fish introductions are considered one of the most widespread anthropogenic threats to aquatic ecosystems. Their negative impact on native amphibian communities has received increasing attention in recent years. We investigated the relationship between the introduced fish, emergent vegetation cover and native amphibians in man-made ponds generated by regulation and dam building along the Tarnava Mare Valley (Romania) during the last 40 years. We inventoried