Reptiles and frogs in this study appeared to use the entire grazing landscape as habitat. It is possible that the species assemblage is depauperate and the more specialised species that could not use the entire fragmented human-modified landscape as habitat have disappeared from the ecosystem (Brown 2001; Brown et al. 2008; Michael et al. 2016). The study landscape is currently somewhat fine-grained with the land cover type changing over short distances (i.e. transects in this study could not be longer than 160m as land cover frequently changed). A fine-grained landscape may facilitate reptile and frog persistence due to high heterogeneity in vegetation cover over short distances. Similarly, Debinski et al. (2001) found that the scale of the landscape mosaic can influence diversity and abundance of butterflies. Another investigation in a more course grained landscape subject to the north west of our study region found no reptiles in the paddocks apart from two individual blind snakes (Driscoll 2004). Intensification of agriculture have been repeatedly shown to have negative impacts on biodiversity while more structurally complex agricultural systems can have positive impacts on biodiversity (Donald et al. 2001; Tscharntke et al.). Therefore, changes to land management practices that alter heterogeneity by either increasing the size of paddocks (the human-modified land cover) or altering land use so that cropping becomes predominant may therefore have negative impacts on the ability of the reptiles and frogs to use the entire landscape as habitat.
Acknowledgements
We thank Konstanze Gebauer for field assistance. We also thank the large number of volunteers who helped with field work and the generous landholders where the study was conducted. Thanks to Nicole Hansen and Lesley Hodges for helpful comments on early versions of this manuscript. We thank the Environmental Trust (NSW) and the Lesslie Endowment for funding this research. Animal ethics protocol for this project was approved by the Australian National University Animal Care and Ethics Committee (protocol A2013/31). S. Pulsford was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.
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5.7 List of Supporting Information
Appendix S1:Species Nomenclature and captures Appendix S2: Recaptures across multiple survey roundsAppendix S3: Distance to nearest water body by transect paddock type
5.8 Appendix S1:Species Nomenclature and captures
Table S1. Species nomenclature and capture rates
Species Naming authority Common name Family Captures
Reptiles
Acritoscincus duperreyi (J.E. Gray, 1838) Eastern three lined skink Scincidae 65
Amphibolurus muricatus (White, 1790) Jacky lizard Agamidae 40
Carlia tetradactyla (O’Shaughnessy, 1879) Southern rainbow skink Scincidae 159
Ctenotus orientalis Storr, 1971 Spotted back skink Scincidae 35
Ctenotus robustus Storr, 1971 Eastern striped skink Scincidae 63
Ctenotus taeniolatus (White, 1790) Copper tailed skink Scincidae 101
Hemiergis decresiensis talbingoensis Copland, 1946 Eastern three toed skink Scincidae 48
Lampropholis delicata (De Vis, 1888) Dark flecked garden sunskink Scincidae 81
Lampropholis guichenoti (Duméril & Bibron, 1839) Pale flecked garden sunskink Scincidae 193
Morethia boulengeri (Ogilby, 1890) Boulenger's skink Scincidae 306
Pseudemoia pagenstecheri (Lindholm, 1901) Tussock skink Scincidae 19
Frogs
Crinia parinsignifera Main, 1957 Plains froglet Myobatrachidae 60
Crinia signifera Girard, 1853 Common eastern froglet Myobatrachidae 102
Limnodynastes dumerilii Peters, 1863 Eastern bango frog/ Pobblebonk Limnodynastidae 102 Limnodynastes tasmaniensis Günther, 1858 Spotted marsh frog Limnodynastidae 1003
Litoria dentata (Keferstein, 1868) Bleating tree frog Hylidae 11
Litoria peronii (Tschudi, 1838) Peron's tree frog Hylidae 26
Litoria verreauxii (Duméril, 1853) Verreaux's tree frog Hylidae 69
5.9 Appendix S2: Recaptures across multiple survey rounds
Table S2. Summary of movements within and out of land use types for recaptures that occurred across multiple surveys
Moved within (remnant vs paddock) Moved out of (remnant vs paddock) Moved within (paddock types) Moved out of (paddock types)
P-value Trend P-value Trend P-value Trend P-value Trend
Reptiles 0.925 Model did not
converge
Not enough data 0.979 No trend No individuals moved out
Morethia boulengeri
0.535 No trend Not enough data 0.661 No trend No individuals moved out
Frogs 0.066 More moved within
remnant
0.380 No trend 0.999 No trend 0.4783 No trend (moved out = 3
fence, 1 pasture, 1 CWD - total of 21 Uperoleia laevigata 0.189 Slightly more moved in remnant
0.276 No trend Insufficient data 0.5474 No trend
Limnodynastes tasmaniensis
0.3766 No trend 0.139 Slightly more
moved out of remnant
Insufficient data 1 All 3 that moved out,
moved out of the fence (out of 12 recaptures
5.10
Appendix S3: Distance to nearest water body
by transect paddock type
Figure S1. The distance to the nearest water body for each paddock type. Estimates are plotted onto the