Amphibian recording in the ÖBG and in the southern Bayreuth urban area

Great crested newt, alpine newt & Co.

Two students of geoecology – Niklas Meisenzahl and Philipp Jakobsen – have documented the amphibian populations in a total of 31 water bodies of the Ecological Botanical Garden and neighbouring areas of the southern urban area of Bayreuth (“Lindenhof” and “Studentenwald”) in their bachelor theses. The bachelor theses were supervised by the Ecological Botanical Garden (ÖBG), which belongs to the University of Bayreuth, and the Berlin Museum of Natural Science.

In their bachelor theses, Niklas Meisenzahl and Philipp Jakobsen investigated the question of how amphibian populations have developed in recent years – especially after two very hot and dry summers. They compared their findings with previous data from 1994.

Encouraging

It is gratifying to note a persistently healthy population of the highly endangered great crested newt (Red List Bavaria 2) in the wetland of the ÖBG and, sporadically, in other water bodies of the study area. In addition, two other newt species, the alpine newt and the common newt, were found. The yellow-bellied toad was also able to establish a small population thanks to numerous, small, fish-free waters newly created in the ÖBG in recent years. In contrast, fewer amphibian species and individuals were found in the large, fish-rich waters of the ÖBG and “Studentenwald” than in previous surveys. Only the green frog, the common toad, and (more rarely) the grass frog, still reproduce viably there today.

Worrying

Somewhat worrying are the overall lower findings of the grass frog, a brown frog species still communal in Germany, in the study area. The highly endangered spadefoot toad (Red List Bavaria 2), represented in the ÖBG in 2015 and 2018, was also not found there in 2020, but it was detected in two water bodies at “Lindenhof”.

Conclusion

Both in the ÖBG and on the grounds of the LBV (State Association for the Protection of Birds) environmental station at “Lindenhof” – areas originally used for agriculture – numerous water bodies have been newly created in recent years and decades, which still harbor a rich amphibian fauna and can at least partially compensate for losses due to drought in recent summers. The occurrence of eight amphibian species with predominantly stable to increasing populations in the extensively maintained areas of the environmental education centre of the LBV at “Lindenhof” as well as the ÖBG, testify to the potential of artificially created habitats for amphibian protection. By converting intensively used agricultural areas to extensive use, including the creation of additional aquatic habitats, amphibian populations can be effectively preserved.