Investigating fine scale breeding habitat use by amphibians in a continuous wetland using environmental DNA

We used eDNA metabarcoding to study the fine scale breeding habitat use of amphibians in a continuous wetland expanse in Switzerland. We characterized the fine scale breeding habitat of the seven amphibian species present there (Lissotriton vulgaris, L. helveticus, Bufo bufo, Rana temporaria, Hyla arborea and Pelophylax ridibundus, P. bergeri) by testing the influence of six abiotic environmental variables (average mud depth, percentage of emerged and submerged vegetation, percentage of emerged land, average water temperature and the distance to the wintering habitat) on community structure and individual species distribution. Finally, we investigated whether biotic interactions could influence amphibian distribution by examining co-occurrences of the different species in the studied area. We found significant positive and negative associations between several environmental variables and some of the detected taxa, highlighting the potential of this approach to understand the ecology of a species in these natural systems, and thus provide data for reliable long-term monitoring.