Effective amphibian conservation requires knowledge of both the aquatic and terrestrial phases of life. As extinction probabilities are a function of population size, it is crucial not only to understand the habitat requirement of the species but also to estimate its population size. In this work, we studied the endangered fire salamander, Salamandra infraimmaculata, and analyzed the population size at a total of 14 sites—eight temporary and six permanent. For identifying the local and landscape scales factors predicting S. infraimmaculata’s breeding sites we monitored 54 aquatic sites. We found that permanent sites support larger populations of adult salamanders. The breeding site characteristics analyses revealed that at the local scale water depth and shade were the most important factors and two regional variables were found to be important: proximity to another breeding site and elevation. This work provides two clear conservation implications permanent breeding sites will support much larger populations compared to temporary sites, particularly if close to other potential breeding sites, and both terrestrial and aquatic features are important for a site to be suitable for breeding.

中文翻译：

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火鲵(Salamandra infraimmaculata)繁殖地特征与成虫种群规模的关系

有效的两栖动物保护需要了解水生和陆生两个阶段。由于灭绝概率是种群规模的函数，因此不仅要了解物种的栖息地需求，还要估计其种群规模，这一点至关重要。在这项工作中，我们研究了濒临灭绝的火蝾螈，Salamandra infraimmaculata，并分析了总共 14 个地点的种群规模——8 个临时地点和 6 个永久地点。为了确定预测 S. infraimmaculata 繁殖地点的当地和景观尺度因素，我们监测了 54 个水生地点。我们发现永久性站点支持更多的成年蝾螈种群。繁殖地特征分析表明，在局部尺度上，水深和遮荫是最重要的因素，发现两个区域变量很重要：靠近另一个繁殖地和海拔。这项工作提供了两个明确的保护意义，与临时地点相比，永久繁殖地点将支持更多的种群，特别是如果靠近其他潜在繁殖地点，并且陆地和水生特征对于适合繁殖的地点都很重要。