| Wetlands provide wildlife habitat; however, circumjacent anthropogenic land uses influence abiotic and biotic aspects of wildlife habitat and in turn possibly which species will persist in a landscape. The main objective of this study was to record the amphibian and avian species composition of depressional forested wetlands embedded in landscapes of varying human land use intensity and relate compositional differences to wetland and landscape characteristics. Presence/absence surveys for amphibian and avian species were conducted at 111 small (<2.5 ha) forested depressional wetlands throughout Florida within four common land use types, natural or reference, silviculture, agriculture, and urban/residential.; Despite a modest relationship between land use and species richness, the results of nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordinations and multi-response permutation procedures indicated a strong association with amphibian and avian species composition and land use. Indicator species, species sensitive and tolerant of human land uses, were identified. The relevance of these results may broaden with the finding that not only were there species-specific responses, but also predominate life history traits of the avian and amphibian community varied with land use context. For example, amphibians that were obligatory ephemeral pond breeders decreased with increasing land use intensity. Within the avian community, insectivores, bark gleaners, canopy gleaners, territorial species, ground nesters, and cavity nesters decreased, while omnivores, herbivores, ground gleaners, canopy nesters, and exotic species increased, with increasing land use intensity.; The Landscape Development Intensity index was a remotely measured predictor of amphibian and avian species assemblages. Amphibian species composition was also significantly associated with the Florida Wetland Condition Index (FWCI), distance to the nearest wetland, maximum wetland water depth, wetland water pH, wetland water specific conductivity, and geographical location of the study sites. Avian species composition was also significantly associated with the proportion of agricultural land within 200 meters, FWCI, proportion of retention ponds/canals within 200 meters, and geographical location of the study sites.; The results of this study suggest that merely preserving wetland habitat in developed landscapes will not be enough to support a wildlife community indicative of natural settings. However, wetlands embedded in even the most intensive land uses provide valuable wildlife habitat. |
