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Wetland Reserve Program Enhances Site Occupancy And Species Richness In Assemblages Of Anuran Amphibians In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Usa, Susan C. Walls, J. Hardin Waddle, Stephen P. Faulkner

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We measured amphibian habitat use to quantify the effectiveness of conservation practices implemented under the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. From February to June 2007, we quantified calling male anurans in cultivated cropland, former cultivated cropland restored through the WRP, and mature bottomland hardwood forest. Sites were located in two watersheds within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Arkansas and Louisiana, USA. We estimated detection probability and site occupancy within each land use category using a Bayesian hierarchical model of community species occurrence, and derived an estimate of species richness …