The effect of ungulates and anthropogenic factors on habitat of amphibians in the high karst dinaric forests

Aktivnosti človeka in prostoživečih parkljarjev lahko za dvoživke predstavljajo nevarnost in motnjo, obenem pa lahko zanje ustvarjajo nove vodne habitate. Cilj raziskave je bil izdelati popis združb dvoživk v kalužah, ki so jih ustvarili oziroma jih vzdržujejo prostoživeči parkljarji, in v lužah, ki so nastale zaradi delovanja človeka ob in na gozdnih prometnicah v visokokraških dinarskih gozdovih v Sloveniji. S primerjavo združb v teh vodnih telesih smo neposredno primerjali pomen človeških aktivnosti in parkljarjev za varstvo dvoživk na obravnavanih območjih. Popisali smo 65 umetno nastalih luž in 23 kaluž. Obravnavali smo šest vrst dvoživk in ugotovili, da dvoživke za svoj življenjski prostor uporabljajo tako luže kot kaluže. To kaže na pomen tako parkljarjev kot človeških aktivnosti za to skupino živali, še posebej v kraškem okolju. Število vrst dvoživk je bilo višje v lužah kot v kalužah, enako velja za vrstno številčnost z izjemo navadnega močerada. Ugotovili smo tudi, da vrstna pestrost in številčnost večine vrst narašča z večjim volumnom vodnih telesActivities of humans and wild ungulates can present danger and disturbance for amphibians, while they are creating new aquatic habitats for them. The aim of the research was to create an inventory of amphibian groups in wallows, which were created or maintained by wild ungulates, and in the puddles caused by human activities along and on forest roads in the highland of Dinaric forests in Slovenia. By comparison of communities in these water bodies, we directly compared the importance of human activities and wild ungulates to the conservation of amphibians in the research areas. We surveyed 65 artificially formed puddles and 23 wallows. We examined six species of amphibians, and found that amphibians use puddles as well as wallows for their living environment. This shows the importance of both, wild ungulates and human activities for this group of animals, especially in the karst environment. The number of amphibian species was higher in the puddles than in the wallows, the same applies to the species abundance apart of fire salamander. We have also noticed/observed that species diversity and abundance of most species are growing with a larger volume of water bodies