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Browsing by Author "Andersen, Desiree"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Breeding phenology and landscape use in all amphibian species from the Republic of Korea based on open-source data
    Groffen, Jordy; Andersen, Desiree; Borzee, Amael (Frontiers, 2022-10)
    Biodiversity is declining worldwide with habitat loss and climate change being among the main threats. While it is easy to quantify habitat loss, the impacts of climate change are less obvious. It is therefore important to understand species habitat use and breeding phenology before a significant shift results in the loss of knowledge. Here, we determined the habitat use and breeding phenology for all Korean amphibian species based on citizen science (8,763 observations), collected between 1997-2020. We found the breeding seasons as we defined them to be generally shorter than described in the literature despite large variations between species. Species were further dichotomised into early and late breeders with breeding periods peaking in mid-March and mid-June respectively. We found early breeding species to have a shortened hibernating period with only six days being consistently devoid of observations over the 23 years of the period studied for the species with the shortest inactive season. Habitat use was significantly different between all species, with pair-wise comparisons highlighting greater differences among rather than within genera, highlighting the threats to species across all genera. In addition, our results set a baseline for future analyses about climate change and habitat use.
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    Climate change-based models predict range shifts in the distribution of the only Asian plethodontid salamander: Karsenia koreana
    Borzee, Amael; Andersen, Desiree; Groffen, Jordy; Kim, Hyun-Tae; Bae, Yoonhyuk; Jang, Yikweon (Springer Nature, 2019-08-14)
    Populations see their range fluctuate in relation to environmental variations, including climate change, and their survival is linked to the maintenance of large enough populations and broad enough distributions during these variations. Most amphibian populations are threatened by numerous ecological and anthropogenic variables acting in synergy with climate change. Accumulating basic ecological data such as range enables the development of population and range dynamics, themselves resulting on adequate conservation plans. Karsenia koreana is the only known Asian plethodontic salamander, occurring in a very restricted area only. Based on presence data, we created an ecological model using six bioclimatic factors with low multicollinearity to define the adequate habitat of the species, and we modelled the predicted suitability of the Korean landscape following four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) predicting climate change scenarios based on CO2 concentrations in 2050 and 2070. The maximum entropy model for the current distribution produced a landscape suitability considerably wider than the current known distribution. The projected ranges for each RCP indicated marked increases, decreases and shifts in areas with suitable landscapes due to climate change. The lowest RCP prediction resulted in an increase in suitable area, although potentially without connectivity with current populations, while the highest RCP predictions resulted in a decrease. Our results highlight the potential negative impact of climate change, thus requiring updates in conservation plans for K. koreana. The methods used here can be replicated with any land-dwelling species, and our results reflect expected range shifts for most amphibians of the northern hemisphere.
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    Yellow sea mediated segregation between North East Asian Dryophytes species
    Borzee, Amael; Messenger, Kevin R.; Chae, Shinhyeok; Andersen, Desiree; Groffen, Jordy; Kim, Ye Inn; An, Junghwa; Othman, Siti N.; Ri, Kyongsin; Nam, Tu Yong; Bae, Yoonhyuk; Ren, Jin-Long; Li, Jia-Tang; Chuang, Ming-Feng; Yi, Yoonjung; Shin, Yucheol; Kwon, Taejoon; Jang, Yikweon; Min, Mi-Sook (2020-06-24)
    While comparatively few amphibian species have been described on the North East Asian mainland in the last decades, several species have been the subject of taxonomical debates in relation to the Yellow sea. Here, we sampledDryophytessp. treefrogs from the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China to clarify the status of this clade around the Yellow sea and determine the impact of sea level change on treefrogs' phylogenetic relationships. Based on genetics, call properties, adult morphology, tadpole morphology and niche modelling, we determined the segregated status species ofD.suweonensisandD.immaculatus. We then proceeded to describe a new treefrog species,D.flaviventrissp. nov., from the central lowlands of the Republic of Korea. The new species is geographically segregated fromD.suweonensisby the Chilgap mountain range and known to occur only in the area of Buyeo, Nonsan and Iksan in the Republic of Korea. While the Yellow sea is the principal element to the current isolation of the three clades, the paleorivers of the Yellow sea basin are likely to have been the major factor for the divergences within this clade. We recommend conducting rapid conservation assessments as these species are present on very narrow and declining ranges.