Species richness — pond area relationships of amphibians and birds in two Natura 2000 protected areas of Romania

Hartel, T. and Moga, C. I. and David, A. and Coroiu, I. (2009) Species richness — pond area relationships of amphibians and birds in two Natura 2000 protected areas of Romania. Community Ecology, 10 (2). pp. 159-164. ISSN 1585-8553

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Abstract

In this paper, we present regional differences in pond area by focusing on species — pond area relationships between two groups of vertebrates differing in life cycles and ecological requirements: amphibians and birds. The study was conducted in two regions of Romania: the Târnava Basin and the Fizeş Valley. Ponds from Târnava were more vegetated with emergent aquatic plants ( Phragmites australis and Typha sp.). The amphibian species richness in ponds was higher in Târnava than in Fizeş and, conversely, Fizeş contained a higher number of bird species. The diversity of the amphibian species is not related to pond area, however, there was a positive relationship in both regions between amphibian species richness and the percentage of emergent vegetation cover. Bird’s species richness, on the other hand, was positively related to both pond area and vegetation cover in Târnava whereas only to vegetation cover in Fizeş. The z values of the species-area relationship for amphibians were low in both regions and slightly negative in Târnava. In case of birds, the z value was larger in Târnava than in Fizeş, suggesting that the number of species increased more with pond area in Târnava than in Fizeş.

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