Responses of anuran diversity and community structure to an urbanization gradient in a subtropical Asian city
Journal
Urban Ecosystems
Journal Volume
28
Journal Issue
5
Start Page
Article Number:179
ISSN
1083-8155
1573-1642
Date Issued
2025-08-18
Author(s)
Abstract
Urbanization, particularly the land-use change, is a major driver of amphibian population and species richness declines, but its impacts on community structure remain underexplored in subtropical Asian cities. Urban landscapes comprise a mosaic of land cover types that differ in anthropogenic disturbance, not all of which are suitable as habitat for all species, and thus act as ecological filters with detrimental effects on both the composition and structure of amphibian assemblages. We examined how urbanization influences anuran diversity, community structure, and the distribution of ecological functional groups in Taipei, Taiwan—a densely populated basin characterized by distinct elevation shifts, variable forest cover, and heterogeneous land-use intensity. From surveys at 28 sites across four habitat types, we recorded 23 species, representing 85% of the region’s anuran fauna. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and PERMANOVA revealed clear community separation across the urbanization gradient, with habitat type explaining 45.5% of variation. Diversity metrics—species richness, abundance, Shannon diversity, and evenness—decreased as the urbanization level increased. Among nine ecological functional groups, only one group (disturbance-tolerant generalists) was significantly associated with more urbanized sites and detected across all sampling locations. Duttaphrynus melanostictus, the most abundant species in Taipei, also showed higher relative abundance in more urbanized cities across Taiwan. This pattern, along with its ecological traits such as generalist feeding, high fecundity, and tolerance of artificial habitats, supports its recognition as an urban-adapted species. In contrast, most amphibian groups were urban-avoiders, largely restricted to higher-elevation or forested sites. Our findings underscore the importance of habitat filtering in shaping amphibian communities under urbanization and highlight the need to preserve heterogeneous green spaces in rapidly developing cities.
Subjects
Amphibian diversity
Anuran community
Duttaphrynus melanostictus
Habitat filtering
Urbanization
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Type
journal article