Abstract A number of factors contribute to the process of amphibian decline, among them population fragmentation and road-kills. In this work we evaluated the effects of a road that separates the hibernation area of the Fire Salamander population from their breeding site on the demography and movement behavior. For that we monitored the population for four years using transects along the road and along a river that runs in parallel to the road and serve as the breeding site. We found that the estimated percent of the population killed on the road steadily increased minimally from 2.56 % to 10.78 % over a four year period of increasing vehicular activity. Interestingly, only a small number of individuals were documented on both sides of the road, suggesting there is a potential for population fragmentation due to the road. Additionally, we used geostatistics to reveal that the spatial distribution pattern of the population and road-kills along the road is not random. Thus, conservation efforts that focus on preventing salamanders from accessing the road surface should focus on the areas where the population and road-kills aggregate.

中文翻译：

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估计道路死亡对沿河火蝾螈种群的影响

摘要 导致两栖动物数量减少的因素有很多，其中包括种群分裂和道路死亡。在这项工作中，我们评估了一条将火蝾螈种群的冬眠区与其繁殖地分开的道路对人口统计学和运动行为的影响。为此，我们使用沿道路和与道路平行并作为繁殖地的河流沿线对种群进行了四年监测。我们发现，在车辆活动增加的四年期间，估计在道路上丧生的人口百分比从 2.56% 稳步上升到 10.78%。有趣的是，只有少数人被记录在道路两侧，这表明道路有可能导致人口分裂。此外，我们使用地统计学揭示了道路沿线人口和道路死亡的空间分布格局不是随机的。因此，专注于防止蝾螈进入路面的保护工作应该集中在人口和道路死亡聚集的地区。