Distribution of amphibians and reptiles in agricultural landscape across Europe

Abstract ContextTo understand the herpetofauna decline in agricultural landscapes with herpetofauna presence and evaluating the species-specific and species richness patterns in response to their features.ObjectivesThis work aimed to explore how different crop categories (i.e. agroforestry, irrigated, dry and woody crops and pastures), crop extent and heterogeneity affect herpetofauna distribution and diversity patterns at two different spatial resolutions, UTM 50km2 and UTM 10km2.MethodsWe documented the occurrence of European amphibians and reptiles in crops and quantify crop extent and heterogeneity in 50km2 and 10km2 grid cells. ResultsWe recorded 72 amphibian and 142 reptile species at UTM 50 km2 and UTM 10 km2 grids. The geographic location of peaks and troughs of crop extent and of species richness at UTM 50km2 did not coincide with those at UTM 10km2. Our results showed that amphibian and reptile species presence and richness are influenced by crop category, extent and heterogeneity and that spatial patterns were scale dependent. Species richness of both amphibians and reptiles was generally negatively correlated with crop extent but was enhanced by crop heterogeneity.ConclusionsOur results provide useful information for future risk assessment studies of herpetofauna, such as to identify candidates (i.e. “representative species”) for pesticide effect field studies or for studies of risk refinement though radio-tracking.