- Title
- Developing effective habitat restoration strategies for the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) through adaptive management
- Creator
- Pollard, Carla
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Traditional management of species and ecosystems is reliant on the ability to accurately predict the outcomes of management actions. Due to the high level of uncertainty in natural systems, this level of predictability is unlikely to be possible in the vast majority of management situations. Adaptive management is an alternative approach that can be effective regardless of how much is known about the species or system and the way in which it will respond to management, as actions are used as a series of experiments to test hypotheses and build knowledge about the way it functions. I used this approach to investigate the effectiveness of a range of management actions aimed at conserving the threatened green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), a species which was once common but has experienced large-scale declines since the 1970s. I found that the removal of the exotic predatory fish Gambusia holbrooki via pond draining was effective in greatly increasing the reproductive success of this species, and the addition of sodium chloride to increase the salinity of ponds was effective in reducing the prevalence of the pathogenic amphibian chytrid fungus, and in turn increasing L. aurea survival. Actions aimed at creating early-successional habitat (the removal of overgrown aquatic vegetation and shade trees) do not appear to be necessary to maintain habitat quality at sites that are dominated by urban or industrial land uses which provide incidental disturbance (though they may still be required to maintain pond function). Population supplementation via the release of captive bred tadpoles had temporary benefits for naive occupancy and abundance, but it is likely that this strategy can only be effective in the long term if the cause of declines can be determined and mitigated. No evidence was found to suggest that poor habitat quality is the cause of observed low occupancy at sites where L. aurea persists. Regardless of whether these actions were effective in meeting conservation goals in the short term, they were all valuable in the long term as they added to our understanding of the habitat requirements of this endangered amphibian and can inform and improve future management strategies.
- Subject
- amphibian; conservation; habitat restoration; green and golden bell frog; Litoria aurea
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1355269
- Identifier
- uon:31440
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Carla Pollard
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 74 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |