Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Desert Southwest CESU

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The US Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to evaluate riparian ecosystems in the Sonoran Desert. Declines in native amphibians in Arizona have been attributed to degradation and fragmentation of habitat, reductions in surface water, disease, and invasions by nonnative species. The Center proposes to determine how rates of survival, reproduction, and growth of lowland leopard frogs and canyon treefrogs govern patterns of occupancy and abundance, and to test hypotheses about the links among these demographic processes, availability of surface water, and Bd infection. This information will be used to identify specific values of ranges of demographic rates that can serve as thresholds to differentiate stable metapopulations from those vulnerable to extinction in the foreseeable future given the anticipated range of future environmental conditions. The anticipation is that this information can be utilized within a structured decision-making context to help inform and develop management strategies that will address demographic rates and life stages that govern rates of change in occupancy and abundance, direct management actions to the appropriate spatial scale given demographic models and predicted effects of threats, and trigger management actions in time to prevent irreversible changes. The intent is to advance our understanding of factors that govern population dynamics of amphibians in desert riparian areas and provide resources to enhance their conservation and management.

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