Demographic response to patch destruction in a spatially structured amphibian population

1. Economic activities such as logging and mineral extraction can result in the creation of new anthropogenic habitats that host specific biodiversity, including protected species. However, the legislation in many Western European countries requires the rehabilitation of ‘damaged’ areas following logging and mining operations, which can eliminate these early successional habitats. Conservation managers face a dilemma in these situations, but often lack knowledge about the impacts of environmental rehabilitation on the population dynamics of pioneer species and so are unable to take this into account in their actions. 2. We investigated the demography of a spatially structured population of an endangered amphibian (Bombina variegata) that uses waterbodies created by logging activities as breeding sites. Using capture–recapture (CR) data collected during a 9-year study period, we examined how the destruction of breeding patches due to environmental rehabilitation affected adult survival ...