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Relationships among breeding site characteristics and adult population size of the fire salamander, Salamandra infraimmaculata

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by ISF Grant 961-2008 awarded to Leon Blaustein, German-Israel Project Grant BL 1271/1-1 und STE 1130/8-1 awarded to Leon Blaustein, Sebastian Steinfartz, Arne Nolte and Alan Templeton. The Field collection of salamanders, experimentation, and their release were conducted according to the Nature and Parks Authority permit 2015/41180 and with accordance to the guidelines of the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee at Haifa University permit number 033_b9947_6. We thank Antonina Polevikove and Shi Koren for her help with the field work.

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  1. Institute of Evolution and Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel

    Iftah Sinai, Ori Segev, Avi Koplovich, Alan R. Templeton & Leon Blaustein

  2. Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Man and his world street, Jerusalem, Israel

    Iftah Sinai

  3. Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Alan R. Templeton

  4. Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, ARO, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

    Lior Blank

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  1. Iftah Sinai
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Sinai, I., Segev, O., Koplovich, A. et al. Relationships among breeding site characteristics and adult population size of the fire salamander, Salamandra infraimmaculata. Hydrobiologia 847, 2999–3012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04302-1

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