Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue, N2L 3C5, Waterloo, Canada,
Environ Monit Assess. 2013 Nov;185(11):8879-89. doi: 10.1007/s10661-013-3221-4. Epub 2013 Apr 27.
Anuran populations are sensitive to changing environmental conditions and act as useful indicators. Presently, much information collected concerning frog populations comes from volunteers following the North American Amphibian Monitoring Protocol. Does weather variability allowed within protocol affect the abundance of calling frogs? For 10 years, Credit Valley Conservation (Ontario, Canada) has been collecting anuran data concerning nine frog species employing three frog monitoring runs. Records include frog abundance by protocol code and five weather variables. Antecedent precipitation and temperature were determined from the nearest weather station. Locations with large source populations of two Hylidae species were selected (spring peeper calling in April and gray tree frog in May). Spearman correlations suggested there were no significant relationships between calling abundance of Hylidae species and ambient wind speed or humidity. However, gray tree frogs were temperature sensitive and calling was significantly related to increased water and air temperatures as well as day time high temperatures over the previous 2 weeks. Both species of calling Hylidae were affected by the volume and timing of precipitation (though, in different ways). Gray tree frogs seem to prefer drier conditions (when temperatures are significantly warmer) while spring peepers prefer to call during, or closely following, precipitation. Monitors targeting gray tree frog should track local weather conditions and focus on evenings when it is (a) warmer than the minimum temperatures and (b) drier than suggested by the protocol. It is recommended that an additional monitoring run could be added to reduce detection variability of this species.
蛙类种群对环境条件的变化很敏感，是有用的指示物。目前，许多有关青蛙种群的信息都是由志愿者根据北美两栖动物监测协议收集的。协议中允许的天气变化是否会影响鸣叫青蛙的数量？10 年来，Credit Valley Conservation（安大略省，加拿大）一直在收集有关 9 种青蛙的数据，采用了 3 种青蛙监测方案。记录包括按协议代码和 5 个气象变量记录的青蛙数量。前期降水和温度是根据最近的气象站确定的。选择了两种 Hylidae 物种的大型种群源地（四月的春蛙鸣叫和五月的灰树蛙）。Spearman 相关性表明，Hylidae 物种的鸣叫丰度与环境风速或湿度之间没有显著关系。然而，灰树蛙对温度敏感，鸣叫与过去 2 周内的水温和空气温度升高以及白天高温显著相关。两种鸣叫的 Hylidae 物种都受到降水的数量和时间的影响（尽管方式不同）。灰树蛙似乎更喜欢干燥的条件（当温度显著升高时），而春蛙更喜欢在下雨时或紧随其后鸣叫。针对灰树蛙的监测人员应跟踪当地的天气状况，并在夜晚进行监测，当夜晚的温度（a）高于最低温度和（b）比协议建议的更干燥时。建议增加一次额外的监测运行，以减少该物种的检测变异性。
