Copses are suitable for initial movement of common frog (Rana temporaria) in intensively utilised agricultural landscape

Copses are suitable for initial movement of common frog (Rana temporaria) in intensively utilised agricultural landscape | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Copses are suitable for initial movement of common frog (Rana temporaria) in intensively utilised agricultural landscape Florian Göbel, Doreen Gabriel, Alexandra Esther This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7804887/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In intensively used agricultural landscapes, exposure to plant protection products (PPPs) has been identified as a potential threat to amphibians. Amphibians’ persistence depends on the availability of sufficient terrestrial habitats and is disproportionately sensitive to dispersal of juvenile. The initial juvenile movement phase, when individuals leave their natal ponds, represents the first terrestrial life stage at risk of direct PPP exposure, particularly when juveniles enter cultivated fields. During this phase, PPP-free habitats that are favoured for settlement could serve as an effective measure to protect amphibian populations. Therefore, we surveyed the movement phase via trapping of newly metamorphosed common frogs ( Rana temporaria ) at four ponds located in north-western Germany. The movement phase began in June and lasted about 30 days. At distances of 10 m and more, fewer individuals were captured than expected from trappings at pond banks, with trapping numbers decreasing by up to 94% at distances of 30 m from the natal ponds and more in agricultural areas than in copses. Generalised additive mixed modelling indicated that juvenile activity depends on regional minimum or mean temperature (> 16°C) and mean humidity (55–85%) at night and maximum temperature (~ 25°C) and minimum humidity (~ 55%) during the day. At distances of 10–30 m, the highest activity is expected in copses, in grassland during the night and in cereal fields during the day. Copses were highlighted as suitable habitats of newly metamorphosed juveniles, providing a stable microclimate on ground-level even under high temperature. These results emphasise the importance of copses and vegetation cover as potential buffer zones around ponds, especially given the ongoing local decline of the widespread European anuran species, Rana temporaria , and of the context of climate change. habitat properties temperature humidity newly metamorphosed amphibian pitfall trapping Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplement.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7804887","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":549300935,"identity":"27ab05c2-2dcb-4aa0-97ab-513c43c51d31","order_by":0,"name":"Florian Göbel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Florian","middleName":"","lastName":"Göbel","suffix":""},{"id":549300942,"identity":"9ef949b9-5727-4ebe-897b-f2df24045ddb","order_by":1,"name":"Doreen Gabriel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Julius Kühn 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landscape","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"habitat properties, temperature, humidity, newly metamorphosed amphibian, pitfall trapping","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7804887/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7804887/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn intensively used agricultural landscapes, exposure to plant protection products (PPPs) has been identified as a potential threat to amphibians. Amphibians\u0026rsquo; persistence depends on the availability of sufficient terrestrial habitats and is disproportionately sensitive to dispersal of juvenile. The initial juvenile movement phase, when individuals leave their natal ponds, represents the first terrestrial life stage at risk of direct PPP exposure, particularly when juveniles enter cultivated fields. During this phase, PPP-free habitats that are favoured for settlement could serve as an effective measure to protect amphibian populations. Therefore, we surveyed the movement phase via trapping of newly metamorphosed common frogs (\u003cem\u003eRana temporaria\u003c/em\u003e) at four ponds located in north-western Germany. The movement phase began in June and lasted about 30 days. At distances of 10 m and more, fewer individuals were captured than expected from trappings at pond banks, with trapping numbers decreasing by up to 94% at distances of 30 m from the natal ponds and more in agricultural areas than in copses. Generalised additive mixed modelling indicated that juvenile activity depends on regional minimum or mean temperature (\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;16\u0026deg;C) and mean humidity (55\u0026ndash;85%) at night and maximum temperature (~\u0026thinsp;25\u0026deg;C) and minimum humidity (~\u0026thinsp;55%) during the day. At distances of 10\u0026ndash;30 m, the highest activity is expected in copses, in grassland during the night and in cereal fields during the day. Copses were highlighted as suitable habitats of newly metamorphosed juveniles, providing a stable microclimate on ground-level even under high temperature. These results emphasise the importance of copses and vegetation cover as potential buffer zones around ponds, especially given the ongoing local decline of the widespread European anuran species, \u003cem\u003eRana temporaria\u003c/em\u003e, and of the context of climate change.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Copses are suitable for initial movement of common frog (Rana temporaria) in intensively utilised agricultural landscape","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-24 13:53:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7804887/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"13a9f8bd-0951-4ddb-a22e-09d9d3c05184","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 24th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-17T18:38:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-24 13:53:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7804887","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7804887","identity":"rs-7804887","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}