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Human impacts on the biodiversity of amphibians

Biodiversity loss is driven by the combined effects of different processes, such as habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and the spread of alien species. The conservation status of the world’s biodiversity keeps deteriorating and, within vertebrates, amphibians are the group showing both the largest proportion of threatened species and the highest rates of decline. Since the late ‘90s, we monitor amphibian populations across Italy to unravel the ecological factors related to distribution and abundance of different species, assess species’ temporal trends and their drivers, and study life-history and behavioural responses to new challenges delivered by human-mediated alterations of the environment.

People

full professor

Francesco Gentile Ficetola

associate professor

Raoul Manenti

researcher

Mattia Falaschi

post-doc

Elia Lo Parrino

PhD student

Andrea Dalpasso

Publications

  1. Lo Parrino, E., Ficetola, G. F., Devin, M., Manenti, R., & Falaschi, M. (2025). Integrating adult occurrence and reproduction data to identify conservation measures for amphibians. Conservation Biology, 39(1), e14343. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14343
  2. Nania, D., Ficetola, G. F., Falaschi, M., Pacifici, M., Lumbierres, M., & Rondinini, C. (2024). A systematic approach for scoping potential key biodiversity areas. Conservation Science and Practice, 6(11), e13230. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13230
  3. Campbell Grant, E. H., Amburgey, S. M., Gratwicke, B., Acosta-Chaves, V., Belasen, A. M., Bickford, D., Bruhl, C. A., Calatayud, N. E., Clemann, N., Clulow, S., Crnobrnja-Isailovic, J., Dawson, J., De Angelis, D. A., Dodd, C. K., Evans, A., Ficetola, G. F., Falaschi, M., Gonzalez-Mollinedo, S., Green, D. M., … Muths, E. (2023). Priority research needs to inform amphibian conservation in the Anthropocene. Conservation Science and Practice, 5(9), e12988. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12988
  4. Dalpasso, A., Seglie, D., Eusebio Bergò, P., Ciracì, A., Compostella, M., Laddaga, L., Manica, M., Marino, G., Pandolfo, I., Soldato, G., Falaschi, M., 2023. Effects of temperature and precipitation changes on shifts in breeding phenology of an endangered toad. Scientific Report, 13, 14573. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40568-w
  5. Dondero, L., Allaria, G., Rosa, G., Costa, A., Ficetola, G. F., Cogoni, R., Grasselli, E., & Salvidio, S. (2023). Threats of the emerging pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) to Italian wild salamander populations. Acta Herpetologica, 18(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-13279
  6. Ficetola, G. F., Manenti, R., Lo Parrino, E., Muraro, M., Barzaghi, B., Messina, V., Giachello, S., Melotto, A., & Falaschi, M. (2023). Decline and Extinction of the Italian Agile Frog Rana latastei from Core Areas of Its Range. Animals, 13(20), 3187. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13203187
  7. Manenti, R., Forlani, M., Lapadula, S., Galbiati, M., Barzaghi, B., Ficetola, G. F., & Melotto, A. (2023). Landscape of fear in freshwater ecotones: How predation risk and light conditions affect mesopredator activity and foraging in springs. Freshwater Biology, 68(10), 1716–1725. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.14160
  8. Manenti, R., Kristensen, N., Cogliati, P., Barzaghi, B., Melotto, A., & Ficetola, G. F. (2023). Larval development and poor trophic resource availability: Local adaptations and plasticity in a widespread amphibian species. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 36(3), 529–541. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14155
  9. Marta, S., Druella, D., Talarico, L., Ficetola, G. F., & Gratton, P. (2023). Spatial prioritization of amphibian intraspecific genetic diversity: The need of accounting for palaeoenvironmental legacies. Biological Conservation, 284, 110179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110179
  10. Cogliati, P., Barzaghi, B., Melotto, A., Ficetola, G. F., & Manenti, R. (2022). How trophic conditions affect development of fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) larvae: Two extreme cases. Diversity, 14(6), 487. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14060487
  11. Dalpasso, A., Ficetola, G. F., Giachello, S., Lo Parrino, E., Manenti, R., Muraro, M., & Falaschi, M. (2022). Similar species, different fates: Abundance dynamics in spatially structured populations of common and threatened frogs. Diversity and Distributions, 28(4), 770–781. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13483
  12. Denoël, M., Duret, C., Lorrain-Soligon, L., Padilla, P., Pavis, J., Pille, F., Tendron, P., Ficetola, G. F., & Falaschi, M. (2022). High habitat invasibility unveils the invasiveness potential of water frogs. Biological Invasions, 24, 3447–3459. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02849-9
  13. Falaschi, M., Muraro, M., Gibertini, C., Delle Monache, D., Lo Parrino, E., Faraci, F., Belluardo, F., Di Nicola, M. R., Manenti, R., & Ficetola, G. F. (2022). Explaining declines of newt abundance in northern Italy. Freshwater Biology, 67(7), 1174–1187. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13909
  14. Manenti, R., Mercurio, S., Melotto, A., Barzaghi, B., Epis, S., Tecilla, M., Pennati, R., Scari’, G., & Ficetola, G. F. (2022). A new disease caused by an unidentified etiological agent affects European salamanders. Animals, 12(6), 696. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12060696
  15. Nania, D., Lumbierres, M., Ficetola, G. F., Falaschi, M., Pacifici, M., & Rondinini, C. (2022). Maps of area of habitat for Italian amphibians and reptiles. Nature Conservation, 49, 117–129. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.49.82931
  16. Falaschi, M., Giachello, S., Lo Parrino, E., Muraro, M., Manenti, R., & Ficetola, G. F. (2021). Long‐term drivers of persistence and colonization dynamics in spatially structured amphibian populations. Conservation Biology, 35(5), 1530–1539. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13686
  17. Melotto, A., Ficetola, G. F., Alari, E., Romagnoli, S., & Manenti, R. (2021). Visual recognition and coevolutionary history drive responses of amphibians to an invasive predator. Behavioral Ecology, 32(6), 1352–1362. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab101
  18. Melotto, A., Ficetola, G. F., Pennati, R., Ancona, N., & Manenti, R. (2021). Raised by aliens: Constant exposure to an invasive predator triggers morphological but not behavioural plasticity in a threatened species tadpoles. Biological Invasions, 23(12), 3777–3793. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02603-7https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02603-7
  19. Falaschi, M., Melotto, A., Manenti, R., & Ficetola, G. F. (2020). Invasive species and amphibian conservation. Herpetologica, 76(2), 216–227. https://doi.org/10.1655/0018-0831-76.2.216
  20. Ficetola, G. F., Lunghi, E., & Manenti, R. (2020). Microhabitat analyses support relationships between niche breadth and range size when spatial autocorrelation is strong. Ecography, 43(5), 724–734. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04798
  21. Lunghi, E., Giachello, S., Manenti, R., Zhao, Y., Corti, C., Ficetola, G. F., & Bradley, J. G. (2020). The post hoc measurement as a safe and reliable method to age and size plethodontid salamanders. Ecology and Evolution, 10(20), 11111–11116. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6748
  22. Manenti, R., Falaschi, M., Monache, D. D., Marta, S., & Ficetola, G. F. (2020). Network-scale effects of invasive species on spatially-structured amphibian populations. Ecography, 43(1), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04571
  23. Manenti, R., Melotto, A., Guillaume, O., Ficetola, G. F., & Lunghi, E. (2020). Switching from mesopredator to apex predator: How do responses vary in amphibians adapted to cave living? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 74, 126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02909-x
  24. Romagnoli, S., Ficetola, G. F., & Manenti, R. (2020). Invasive crayfish does not influence spawning microhabitat selection of brown frogs. PeerJ, e8985. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8985
  25. Thuiller, W., Gravel, D., Ficetola, G. F., Lavergne, S., Munkemuller, T., Pollock, L. J., Zimmermann, N. E., & Mazel, F. (2020). Productivity begets less phylogenetic diversity but higher uniqueness than expected. Journal of Biogeography, 47(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13630
  26. Vacher, J.-., Chave, J., Ficetola, G. F., Sommeria-Klein, G., Tao, S., Thebaud, C., Blanc, M., Camacho, A., Cassimiro, J., Colston, T. J., Dewynter, M., Ernst, R., Gaucher, P., Gomes, J. O., Jairam, R., Kok, P. J. R., Lima, J. D., Martinez, Q., Marty, C., … Fouquet, A. (2020). Large-scale DNA-based survey of frogs in Amazonia suggests a vast underestimation of species richness and endemism. Journal of Biogeography, 47(8), 1781–1791. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13847