Breeding site characteristics of Italian agile frog, Rana latastei, in Croatia

Marija KULJERI *, Sunica STRIKOVI

INTRODUCTION

Croatian Herpetological Society - Hyla, Raduka 15, Zagreb, Croatia; HR-10000 * e-mail: mkuljer@inet.hr

Italian agile frog is a threatened species endemic to the Po basin (northern Italy, southern Switzerland) and Istria (Slovenia, Croatia). Main threats are extensive habitat alteration and destruction, human disturbance and water pollution. In the IUCN Red List it is listed as vulnerable (VU). It is a habitat specific species that breeds in still or slow moving waters, usually in forested habitat. In Croatia it is most abundant in Motovun forest, a lowland riparean area where large scale water managament regulations and reclamation of land for agriculture occured about 40 years ago. Some of the streams that are known breeding sites for R. latastei are regulated (canalized) and once per year cleared from vegetation. It is expected that this type of management will continue and even expand to the other water bodies the area.

Figure 1. The Italian agile frog (Rana latastei)

This preliminary research is a part of the monitoring scheme for Rana latastei in Croatia within we want to see how human activities affect this species, and try to influence stakeholders to adopt better management techniques. The main question was to see what are the main differences in microhabitat characteristics of breeding sites between regulated (canalized) and non-regulated (natural) localities.
Variables
Habitat type (lolwand, hills) Habitat management (natural, regulated) Depth of water at breeding site (cm) Water flow rate (0-3) Amount of shade (%) Low vegetation on the bank (0-3) Shrubs on the bank (0-3) Trees on the bank (0-3) Vegetation on water surface (0-3) Vegetation in water gauge (0-3) Submerged branches from shore and deadwood (0-3) pH Conductivity (S/cm) Temperature of water (at 10 cm depth) Shore inclination (0-30%, 30-60%, 60-90%) Number of spawn

Code
HAB MANAG DEPTH FLOW SHAD SV_VERD SV_SHRUB SV_TREE WV_SURF WV_GAUG WV_WOOD pH COND TEMP SHORE SPAWN

MATERIALS and METHODS

We carried out sampling at majority of known breeding sites during monitoring surveys in March 2009. On each of 146 active breeding sites (Fig. 2) we noted habitat management as absent or present (MANAG), type of habitat as lowland - riparian or hilly - streams at the rest of the area (HAB), number of spawn balls and measured 13 variables (see Table 1 for details). We caried out multivariate analysis to see what are the main differences in microhabitat characteristics between regulated and non-regulated localities.
Figure 2. Location of sampled breeding sites. Marked green is the riparian Motovun forest (lowland area).

Table 1. Variables measured at each breeding site

RESULTS

A factor analysis performed on microhabitat data retained three factors that jointly explained 61% of the variation in the data. Further analysis showed that there is a signifficant difference between natural and regulated localities (Wilks lambda=0.304, F3,138=105.352, P<0.001) and indicated significant effect of regulation on factor one (F1,140=284.240, P<0.001) (Fig. 4). Factor one showed strong positive correlation with SHAD, SV_TREE, WV_WOOD, while it was strongly negatively correlated with TEMP. Factor one shows high score for natural localities and low score for regulated ones. We also performed separate analyses for lowland and for hilly localities which yelded very similar results. Difference in number of spawn balls per breeding site between natural and regulated localities is almost significant (Mann-Whitney U, P=0.051). All regulated localities have breeding sites with less than 100 spawn balls, while natural localities have 13% of breeding sites within data set with 100 to 325 spawn balls (Fig. 5).
Figure 4. Separation of breeding sites between natural and regulated localities A. first and second factor, B. first and third factor.

Figure 3. Natural breeding site. River Butoniga, Motovun forest.

Figure 5. Box-plot diagram - number of spawn between natural and regulated localities.

Our findings suggest that natural localities have more high vegetation - trees in riparian area and shrubs in hilly area - at the edge of the freshwater body, deadwood and branches in the water, more shade over the breeding site and also lower temperature of water than regulated localities. Separate analysis of breeding sites at streams (hills) also points on less amount of verdure on shores, which is present in other analyses but not significant. Although there is no clear difference between number of spawn per breeding site, we can state that natural localities provide breeding habitat of higher quality.

Although this research doesnt point out the water flow rate as one of the differentiating factor, in some situations high water flow can have a devastating effect on egg masses in regulated localities. When heavily rainy period coincides with recent clearing of vegetation and egg development period, large amount of spawn fixed on soft water vegetation gets washed away. In natural localities those high water waves are mitigated by stronger vegetation that grows on banks and at the edge of the water and also females have more stronger substrate to wrap the eggs around.

DISCUSSION

Slow-flowing, shaded water bodies with submerged deadwood are habitat characteristics that are considered favoured by this species. Looking further into the results of this reseach we can say that most important habitat characteristic of natural breeding sites for Rana latastei is the amount of trees and shrubs at the banks, because it leads to shaded (and cooler) water with large quantities of submerged deadwood and branches from shrubs and trees.

Recommendations for habitat management on regulated localities: allow the growth of higher vegetation on the banks different time regimes of cleaning water vegetation - autumn period and not every year include low technology and manual cleaning of water vegetation
LITERATURE: Pozzi, A. 1980. Ecologia di Rana latastei Boul. Atti Soc. ital. Sci. nat. Museo civ. Stor. nat. Milano; 121(4): 221-274 Ficetola, G.F., de Bernardi, F. 2004. Amphibians in a human-dominated landscape: the community structure is related to habitat features and isolation. Biological Conservation 119: 219230.

Field work was a part of the pojekt Monitoring of Italian agile frog, Rana latastei, in Croatia financed by the State Institute for Nature Protection, Croatia. For assistance with field work many thanks go to Lana Novosel, Marc Antoine Marchand, Boris Lau, Toni Koren, Ivona Buri and Ana tih.