Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 180519150

What drives persisting patches? Understanding why Critically Endangered frogs survive or perish on a tiny scale.

 This research aims to resolve uncertainty around the drivers of decline for Geocrinia alba by examining the species habitat and hydrological requirements through a combination of field-based observational and experimental studies.

The specific aims are to:

1) Investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of decline in Geocrinia alba since it's discovery in the 1980's, utilising three decades of population monitoring data.

2) Identify crucial habitat for species survival through characterising microclimate and habitat characteristics of sites where frogs occur or have disappeared, and investigate the hypothesis that population extinctions and translocation failures are linked to site hydrology.

3) Determine the mechanisms through which lower soil moisture could be impacting populations, through investigating frog dehydration and rehydration rates, the vulnerability of adult and juvenile frogs to desiccation across different microhabitats, as well as comparing breeding behavior and population demographics across drier and wetter areas of the species range.

Project documents

• Research Article - Breeding phenology of a terrestrial-breeding frog is associated with soil water potential: Implications for conservation in a changing climate
• Project Findings Factsheet
• Research Article - Low desiccation and thermal tolerance constrains a terrestrial amphibian to a rare and disappearing microclimate niche
• Research Article - Drying microclimates threaten persistence of natural and translocated populations of threatened frogs
• The Naked Scientists - Project Article
• Science for Saving Species - Project Article




Project 180519150 location - Australia, Oceania