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Brian Kron

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As human-modified landscape and climate changes proliferate, maintaining biodiversity and understanding the function and quality of available habitat is imperative. As Anurans (frogs/toads) can be indicator species of habitat quality and ecosystem productivity, studying the Anuran community in a mixed-land use region provides an opportunity to better understand the relationship between species and landscape modification. Certain species, such as Pseudacris crucifer, can also be utilized as indicator species. We explored this relationship by assessing the effects of spatial and temporal heterogeneity on the presence of Anurans across an urbanization gradient. Within the Toledo Metropolitan Area, including the biodiversity hotspot Oak Openings Region, we surveyed 67 different wetlands (N=1800) over three years. There was a difference in community assemblage between rural and suburban/urban habitats driven by human-modification (impervious surface), composition (landcover type) and productivity (e.g., NDVI). The differences in spatial structure but lack of differences in temporal variables among sites suggest spatial factors explain these discrepancies. Areas with more impervious surface, lower amounts of swamp forest, and lower NDVI had fewer species, lower average species per survey, and lower relative abundance of Anuran species. Utilizing Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling, we found that P. crucifer relative abundance and greater richness were the best predictors of ecosystem productivity. Our research demonstrates the value of non-invasive Anuran call surveys to assess ecosystem productivity and species richness on a large scale, while also offering a method to evaluate conservation efforts internationally. This scalable approach can be applied anywhere with sufficient environmental data, and we recommend utilizing Anurans as indicator taxa for understanding ecosystem function, especially in human-modified landscapes.