Background

In order to maintain high yields while saving water and preserving non-renewable resources and thus limiting the use of chemical fertilizer, it is crucial to select plants with more efficient root systems. This could be achieved through an optimization of both root architecture and root uptake ability and/or through the improvement of positive plant interactions with microorganisms in the rhizosphere. The development of devices suitable for high-throughput phenotyping of root structures remains a major bottleneck.

Results

Rhizotrons suitable for plant growth in controlled conditions and non-invasive image acquisition of plant shoot and root systems (RhizoTubes) are described. These RhizoTubes allow growing one to six plants simultaneously, having a maximum height of 1.1 m, up to 8 weeks, depending on plant species. Both shoot and root compartment can be imaged automatically and non-destructively throughout the experiment thanks to an imaging cabin (RhizoCab). RhizoCab contains robots and imaging equipment for obtaining high-resolution pictures of plant roots. Using this versatile experimental setup, we illustrate how some morphometric root traits can be determined for various species including model (Medicago truncatula), crops (Pisum sativum, Brassica napus, Vitis vinifera, Triticum aestivum) and weed (Vulpia myuros) species grown under non-limiting conditions or submitted to various abiotic and biotic constraints. The measurement of the root phenotypic traits using this system was compared to that obtained using “classic” growth conditions in pots.

Conclusions

This integrated system, to include 1200 Rhizotubes, will allow high-throughput phenotyping of plant shoots and roots under various abiotic and biotic environmental conditions. Our system allows an easy visualization or extraction of roots and measurement of root traits for high-throughput or kinetic analyses. The utility of this system for studying root system architecture will greatly facilitate the identification of genetic and environmental determinants of key root traits involved in crop responses to stresses, including interactions with soil microorganisms.

Context

Policy decisions form a major driver of land use change, with important implications for socially and environmentally susceptible regions. It is well known that there can be major unintended consequences, especially where policies are not tailored to regionally specific contexts.

Objectives

In this paper we assess the implications of 60 years of agricultural policies on soil erosion prevention (SEP) by vegetation, an essential regulating ecosystem service in Mediterranean Europe.

Methods

To assess these implications we produced and analysed a time series of land cover/use and environmental conditions datasets (from 1951 to 2012) in relation to changing agricultural policies for a specific region in the southern Portugal. A set of indicators related to SEP allowed us to identify that land use intensification as increased soil erosion in the last 60 years.

Results

Particularly in the last 35 years, as a consequence of headage payments for cattle, the agricultural policy had a significant effect in the density and renewal of the tree cover, resulting in drastic effects for the provision of the SEP service. These are more significant after 1986, coinciding with the implementation of several Common Agricultural Policy instruments focused on increasing the modernization and productivity capacity of farm systems.

Conclusions

The results show some unintended effects of agricultural policy mechanisms on ecosystem service provision and highlight the need for context-based policies, tailored to the environmental constrains and potentials of each region.

Background

To face climate change and subsequent rainfall instabilities, crop breeding strategies now include root traits phenotyping. Rapid estimation of root traits in controlled conditions can be achieved by using parallel electrical capacitance and its linear correlation with root dry mass. The aim of the present study was to improve robustness and efficiency of methods based on capacitance and other electrical variables, such as serial/parallel resistance, conductance, impedance or reactance. Using different electrode configurations and stem contact electrodes, we have measured the electrical impedance spectra of wheat plants grown in pots filled with three types of soil.

Results

For each configuration, parallel capacitance and other linearly independent electrical variables were computed and their quality as root dry mass estimator was evaluated by a ‘sensitivity score’ that we derived from Pearson’s correlation coefficient r and linear regression parameters. The highest sensitivity score was obtained by parallel capacitance at an alternating current frequency of 116 Hz in three-terminal configuration. Using a clamp, instead of a needle, as a stem electrode did not significantly affect the capacitance measurements. Finally, in handheld LCR meter equivalent conditions, capacitance had the highest sensitivity score and determination coefficient (r ² = 0.52) at 10 kHz frequency.

Conclusion

Our benchmarking of linear correlations between different electrical variables and root dry mass enables to determine more coherent practices for ensuring a sensitive and robust root dry mass estimation, including in handheld LCR meter conditions. This would enhance the value of electrical capacitance as a tool for screening crops in relation with root systems in breeding programs.

Context

In the Rio Grande Plains of southern Texas, subtropical savanna vegetation is characterized by a two-phase pattern consisting of discrete woody patches embedded within a C₄ grassland matrix. Prior trench transect studies have suggested that, on upland portions of the landscape, large woody patches (groves) occur on non-argillic inclusions, while small woody patches (clusters) are dispersed among herbaceous vegetation where the argillic horizon is present.

Objective

To test whether spatial heterogeneity of subsurface soil texture drives the landscape-scale pattern of woody patches in this subtropical savanna.

Methods

Landscape-scale spatial patterns of soil texture were quantified by taking spatially-specific soil samples to a depth of 1.2 m in a 160 m × 100 m plot. Kriged maps of soil texture were developed, and the locations of non-argillic inclusions were mapped.

Results

Visual comparison of kriged maps of soil texture to a high resolution aerial photograph of the study area revealed that groves were present exclusively where the non-argillic inclusions were present. This clear visual relationship was further supported by positive correlations between soil sand concentration in the lower soil layers and total fine root biomass which mapped the locations of groves.

Conclusions

Subsurface non-argillic inclusions may favor the establishment and persistence of groves by enabling root penetration deeper into the profile, providing greater access to water and nutrients that are less accessible on those portions of the landscape where the argillic horizon is present, thereby regulating the distribution of grove vegetation and structuring the evolution of this landscape.

Context

Resilience, the ability to recover from disturbance, has risen to the forefront of scientific policy, but is difficult to quantify, particularly in large, forested landscapes subject to disturbances, management, and climate change.

Objectives

Our objective was to determine which spatial drivers will control landscape resilience over the next century, given a range of plausible climate projections across north-central Minnesota.

Methods

Using a simulation modelling approach, we simulated wind disturbance in a 4.3 million ha forested landscape in north-central Minnesota for 100 years under historic climate and five climate change scenarios, combined with four management scenarios: business as usual (BAU), maximizing economic returns (‘EcoGoods’), maximizing carbon storage (‘EcoServices’), and climate change adaption (‘CCAdapt’). To estimate resilience, we examined sites where simulated windstorms removed >70% of the biomass and measured the difference in biomass and species composition after 50 years.

Results

Climate change lowered resilience, though there was wide variation among climate change scenarios. Resilience was explained more by spatial variation in soils than climate. We found that BAU, EcoGoods and EcoServices harvest scenarios were very similar; CCAdapt was the only scenario that demonstrated consistently higher resilience under climate change. Although we expected spatial patterns of resilience to follow ownership patterns, it was contingent upon whether lands were actively managed.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that resilience may be lower under climate change and that the effects of climate change could overwhelm current management practices. Only a substantial shift in simulated forest practices was successful in promoting resilience.

Context

Despite decades of research, there is an intense debate about the consistency of the hump-shaped pattern describing the relationship between diversity and disturbance as predicted by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH). Previous meta-analyses have not explicitly considered interactive effects of disturbance frequency and intensity of disturbance on plant species diversity in terrestrial landscapes.

Objective

We conducted meta-analyses to test the applicability of IDH by simultaneously examining the relationship between species richness, disturbance frequency (quantified as time since last disturbance as originally proposed) and intensity of disturbance in forest landscapes.

Methods

The effects of disturbance frequency, intensity, and their interaction on species richness was evaluated using a mixed-effects model.

Results

We found that species richness peaks at intermediate frequency after both high and intermediate disturbance intensities, but the richness-frequency relationship differed between intensity classes.

Conclusions

Our study highlights the need to measure multiple disturbance components that could help reconcile conflicting empirical results on the effect of disturbance on plant species diversity.

Context

Anthropogenic activities readily result in the fragmentation of habitats such that species persistence increasingly depends on their ability to disperse. However, landscape features that enhance or limit individual dispersal are often poorly understood. Landscape genetics has recently provided innovative solutions to evaluate landscape resistance to dispersal.

Objectives

We studied the dispersal of the common meadow brown butterfly, Maniola jurtina, in agricultural landscapes, using a replicated study design and rigorous statistical analyses. Based on existing behavioral and life history research, we hypothesized that the meadow brown would preferentially disperse through its preferred grassy habitats (meadows and road verges) and avoid dispersing through woodlands and the agricultural matrix.

Methods

Samples were collected in 18 study landscapes of 5 × 5 km in three contrasting agricultural French regions. Using circuit theory, least cost path and transect-based methods, we analyzed the effect of the landscape on gene flow separately for each sex.

Results

Analysis of 1681 samples with 6 microsatellites loci revealed that landscape features weakly influence meadow brown butterfly gene flow. Gene flow in both sexes appeared to be weakly limited by forests and arable lands, whereas grasslands and grassy linear elements (road verges) were more likely to enhance gene flow.

Conclusion

Our results are consistent with the hypothesis of greater dispersal through landscape elements that are most similar to suitable habitat. Our spatially replicated landscape genetics study allowed us to detect subtle landscape effects on butterfly gene flow, and these findings were reinforced by consistent results across analytical methods.

Background

Plant roots release a variety of organic compounds into the soil which alter the physical, chemical and biological properties of the rhizosphere. Root exudates are technically challenging to measure in soil because roots are difficult to access and exudates can be bound by minerals or consumed by microorganisms. Exudates are easier to measure with hydroponically-grown plants but, even here, simple compounds such as sugars and organic acids can be rapidly assimilated by microorganisms. Sterile hydroponic systems avoid this shortcoming but it is very difficult to maintain sterility for long periods especially for larger crop species. As a consequence, studies often use small model species such as Arabidopsis to measure exudates or use seedlings of crop plants which only have immature roots systems.

Results

We developed a simple hydroponic system for cultivating large crop plants in sterile conditions for more than 30 days. Using this system wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) plants were grown in sterile conditions for 30 days by which time they had reached the six-leaf stage and developed mature root systems with seminal, nodal and lateral roots. To demonstrate the utility of this system we characterized the aluminium-activated exudation of malate from the major types of wheat roots for the first time. We found that all root types measured released malate but the amounts were two-fold greater from the seminal and nodal axile roots compared with the lateral roots. Additionally, we showed that this sterile growth system could be used to collect exudates from intact whole root systems of barley.

Conclusions

We developed a simple hydroponic system that enables cereal plants to be grown in sterile conditions for longer periods than previously recorded. Using this system we measured, for the first time, the aluminium-activated efflux of malate from the major types of wheat roots. We showed the system can also be used for collecting exudates from intact root systems of 30-day-old barley plants. This hydroponic system can be modified for various purposes. Importantly it enables the study of exudates from crop species with mature root systems.

Context

Sustained timber harvesting conflicts with the long-term viability of boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations. The spatial arrangement of harvest blocks in the landscape could mitigate the impact of logging on caribou populations. For the forest industry, however, these measures represent constraints that reduce the annual allowable cut (AAC).

Objective

Estimate the long-term impacts of spatial constraints to harvesting, applied alone or in combination, on AAC and boreal caribou populations.

Methods

We divided a 30,000 km² region into 20 harvest block sizes varying from 50 to 1000 km², and modeled the implementation of spatially explicit harvest schedule plans in combination with wildfire and caribou population dynamics. We then evaluated the probability of persistence of boreal caribou populations.

Results

The probability of maintaining an AAC target declined with increasing target AAC, increasing size of operating area, and increasing adjacency constraints. In contrast, the probability of maintaining caribou populations declined with increasing AAC, decreasing size of operating areas, and decreasing adjacency constraints. An increase in operating area size from 50 to 300 km² produced a considerable gain in AAC for all adjacency constraints.

Conclusions

Because adjacency constraints led only to a small increase in the probability of maintaining caribou populations, we recommend adopting less constraining landscape management actions, such as a 70-year period between two consecutive harvests in the same ~300-km² operating area.

Context

An increase in the incidence of large wildfires worldwide has prompted concerns about the resilience of forest ecosystems, particularly in the western U.S., where recent changes are linked with climate warming and 20th-century land management practices.

Objectives

To study forest resilience to recent wildfires, we examined relationships among fire legacies, landscape features, ecological conditions, and patterns of post-fire conifer regeneration.

Methods

We quantified regeneration across 182 sites in 21 recent large fires in dry mixed-conifer forests of the U.S. northern Rockies. We used logistic and negative binomial regression to predict the probability of establishment and abundance of conifers 5–13 years post-fire.

Results

Seedling densities varied widely across all sites (0–127,500 seedlings ha^?1) and were best explained by variability in distance to live seed sources (β = ?0.014, p = 0.002) and pre-fire tree basal area (β = 0.072, p = 0.008). Beyond 95 m from the nearest live seed source, the probability of seedling establishment was low. Across all the fires we studied, 75 % of the burned area with high tree mortality was within this 95-m threshold, suggesting the presence of live seed trees to facilitate natural regeneration.  

Conclusions

Combined with the mix of species present within the burn mosaic, dry mixed-conifer forests will be resilient to large fires across our study region, provided that seedlings survive, fire do not become more frequent, high-severity patches do not get significantly larger, and post-fire climate conditions remain suitable for seedling establishment and survival.

Background

Phenotyping of genotype-by-environment interactions in the root-zone is of major importance for crop improvement as the spatial distribution of a plant’s root system is crucial for a plant to access water and nutrient resources of the soil. However, so far it is unclear to what extent genetic variations in root system responses to spatially varying soil resources can be utilized for breeding applications. Among others, one limiting factor is the absence of phenotyping platforms allowing the analysis of such interactions.

Results

We developed a system that is able to (a) monitor root and shoot growth synchronously, (b) investigate their dynamic responses and (c) analyse the effect of heterogeneous N distribution to parts of the root system in a split-nutrient setup with a throughput (200 individual maize plants at once) sufficient for mapping of quantitative trait loci or for screens of multiple environmental factors. In a test trial, 24 maize genotypes were grown under split nitrogen conditions and the response of shoot and root growth was investigated. An almost double elongation rate of crown and lateral roots was observed under high N for all genotypes. The intensity of genotype-specific responses varied strongly. For example, elongation of crown roots differed almost two times between the fastest and slowest growing genotype. A stronger selective root placement in the high-N compartment was related to an increased shoot development indicating that early vigour might be related to a more intense foraging behaviour.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, RADIX is the only system currently existing which allows studying the differential response of crown roots to split-nutrient application to quantify foraging behaviour in genome mapping or selection experiments. In doing so, changes in root and shoot development and the connection to plant performance can be investigated.

Context

No single model can capture the complex species range dynamics under changing climates—hence the need for a combination approach that addresses management concerns.

Objective

A multistage approach is illustrated to manage forested landscapes under climate change. We combine a tree species habitat model—DISTRIB II, a species colonization model—SHIFT, and knowledge-based scoring system—MODFACs, to illustrate a decision support framework.

Methods

Using shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) as examples, we project suitable habitats under two future climate change scenarios (harsh, Hadley RCP8.5 and mild CCSM RCP4.5 at ~2100) at a resolution of 10 km and assess the colonization likelihood of the projected suitable habitats at a 1 km resolution; and score biological and disturbance factors for interpreting modeled outcomes.

Results

Shortleaf pine shows increased habitat northward by 2100, especially under the harsh scenario of climate change, and with higher possibility of natural migration confined to a narrow region close to the current species range boundary. Sugar maple shows decreased habitat and has negligible possibility of migration within the US due to a large portion of its range being north of the US border. Combination of suitable habitats with colonization likelihoods also allows for identification of potential locations appropriate for assisted migration, should that be deemed feasible.

Conclusion

The combination of these multiple components using diverse approaches leads to tools and products that may help managers make management decisions in the face of a changing climate.

Context

Interactions between landscape-scale processes and fine-grained habitat heterogeneity are usually invoked to explain species occupancy in fragmented landscapes. In variegated landscapes, however, organisms face continuous variation in micro-habitat features, which makes necessary to consider ecologically meaningful estimates of habitat quality at different spatial scales.

Objectives

We evaluated the spatial scales at which forest cover and tree quality make the greatest contribution to the occupancy of the long-horned beetle Microplophorus magellanicus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in a variegated forest landscape.

Methods

We used averaged data of tree quality (as derived from remote sensing estimates of the decay stage of single trees) and spatially independent pheromone-baited traps to model the occurrence probability as a function of multiple cross-scale combinations between forest cover and tree quality (with scales ranging between 50 and 400 m).

Results

Model support and performance increased monotonically with the increasing scale at which tree quality was measured. Forest cover was not significant, and did not exhibit scale-specific effects on the occurrence probability of M. magellanicus. The interactive effect between tree quality and forest cover was stronger than the independent (additive) effects of tree quality and particularly forest cover. Significant interactions included tree quality measured at spatial scales ≥200 m, but cross-scale interactions occurred only in four of the seven best-supported models.

Conclusions

M. magellanicus respond to the high-quality trees available in the landscape rather than to the amount of forest per se. Conservation of viable metapopulations of M. magellanicus should consider the quality of trees at spatial scales >200 m.

Context

Traditionally soils have not received much attention in urban planning. For this, tools are needed that can both be understood both by soil scientists and urban planners.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the role of soil knowledge in urban planning practice, through the following objectives: (1) identifying the role soil plays in recent urban plans; (2) analysing the ecosystem services and indicators used in soil science in an urban context; and (3) inferring the main challenges and opportunities to integrate soil into urban planning.

Methods

Seven urban plans and reports of world cities that include sustainability goals were analysed using text-mining and qualitative analysis, with a critical view on the inclusion of soil-related concepts. Secondly, the contribution of soil science to urban planning was assessed with an overview of case studies in the past decade that focus on soil-related ecosystem services in urban context.

Results

The results show an overall weak attention to soil and soil-related ecosystem services in the implementation and monitoring phases of urban plans. The majority of soil science case studies uses a haphazard approach to measure ecosystem service indicators which may not capture the ecosystem services appropriately and hence lack relevance for urban planning.

Conclusions

Even though the most urban plans assessed recognize soil as a key resource, most of them fail to integrate indicators to measure or monitor soil-related functions. There is a need to develop soil-related ecosystem services that can be easily integrated and understood by other fields.

Context

Recent research suggests that novel geodiversity data on landforms, hydrology and surface materials can improve biodiversity models at the landscape scale by quantifying abiotic variability more effectively than commonly used measures of spatial heterogeneity. However, few studies consider whether these variables can account for, and improve our understanding of, species’ distributions.

Objectives

Assess the role of geodiversity components as macro-scale controls of plant species’ distributions in a montane landscape.

Methods

We used an innovative approach to quantifying a landscape, creating an ecologically meaningful geodiversity dataset that accounted for hydrology, morphometry (landforms derived from geomorphometric techniques), and soil parent material (data from expert sources). We compared models with geodiversity to those just using topographic metrics (e.g. slope and elevation) and climate data. Species distribution models (SDMs) were produced for ‘rare’ (N?=?76) and ‘common’ (N?=?505) plant species at 1 km² resolution for the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.

Results

The addition of automatically produced landform geodiversity data and hydrological features to a basic SDM (climate, elevation, and slope) resulted in a significant improvement in model fit across all common species’ distribution models. Adding further geodiversity data on surface materials resulted in a less consistent statistical improvement, but added considerable conceptual value to many individual rare and common SDMs.

Conclusions

The geodiversity data used here helped us capture the abiotic environment’s heterogeneity and allowed for explicit links between the geophysical landscape and species’ ecology. It is encouraging that relatively simple and easily produced geodiversity data have the potential to improve SDMs. Our findings have important implications for applied conservation and support the need to consider geodiversity in management.

Context

Playa wetlands are the primary habitat for numerous wetland-dependent species in the Southern Great Plains of North America. Plant and wildlife populations that inhabit these wetlands are reciprocally linked through the dispersal of individuals, propagules and ultimately genes among local populations.

Objective

To develop and implement a framework using network models for conceptualizing, representing and analyzing potential biological flows among 48,981 spatially discrete playa wetlands in the Southern Great Plains.

Methods

We examined changes in connectivity patterns and assessed the relative importance of wetlands to maintaining these patterns by targeting wetlands for removal based on network centrality metrics weighted by estimates of habitat quality and probability of inundation.

Results

We identified several distinct, broad-scale sub networks and phase transitions among playa wetlands in the Southern Plains. In particular, for organisms that can disperse >2 km a dense and expansive wetland sub network emerges in the Southern High Plains. This network was characterized by localized, densely connected wetland clusters at link distances (h) >2 km but <5 km and was most sensitive to changes in wetland availability (p) and configuration when h = 4 km, and p = 0.2–0.4. It transitioned to a single, large connected wetland system at broader spatial scales even when the proportion of inundated wetland was relatively low (p = 0.2).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that redundancy in the potential for broad and fine-scale movements insulates this system from damage and facilitates system-wide connectivity among populations with different dispersal capacities.

Context

The variation in spatial distribution between ecosystem services can be high. Hence, there is a need to spatially identify important sites for conservation planning. The term ‘ecosystem service hotspot’ has often been used for this purpose, but definitions of this term are ambiguous.

Objectives

We review and classify methods to spatially delineate hotspots. We test how spatial configuration of hotspots for a set of ecosystem services differs depending on the applied method. We compare the outcomes to a heuristic site prioritisation approach (Marxan).

Methods

The four tested hotspot methods are top richest cells, spatial clustering, intensity, and richness. In a conservation scenario we set a target of conserving 10 % of the quantity of five regulating and cultural services for the forest area of Telemark county, Norway.

Results

Spatial configuration of selected areas as retrieved by the four hotspots and Marxan differed considerably. Pairwise comparisons were at the lower end of the scale of the Kappa statistic (0.11–0.27). The outcomes also differed considerably in mean target achievement, cost-effectiveness in terms of land-area needed per unit target achievement and compactness in terms of edge-to-area ratio.

Conclusions

An ecosystem service hotspot can refer to either areas containing high values of one service or areas with multiple services. Differences in spatial configuration among hotspot methods can lead to uncertainties for decision-making. This also has consequences for analysing the spatial co-occurrence of hotspots of multiple services and of services and biodiversity.

Context

In the interior Northwest, debate over restoring mixed-conifer forests after a century of fire exclusion is hampered by poor understanding of the pattern and causes of spatial variation in historical fire regimes.

Objectives

To identify the roles of topography, landscape structure, and forest type in driving spatial variation in historical fire regimes in mixed-conifer forests of central Oregon.

Methods

We used tree rings to reconstruct multicentury fire and forest histories at 105 plots over 10,393 ha. We classified fire regimes into four types and assessed whether they varied with topography, the location of fuel-limited pumice basins that inhibit fire spread, and an updated classification of forest type.

Results

We identified four fire-regime types and six forest types. Although surface fires were frequent and often extensive, severe fires were rare in all four types. Fire regimes varied with some aspects of topography (elevation), but not others (slope or aspect) and with the distribution of pumice basins. Fire regimes did not strictly co-vary with mixed-conifer forest types.

Conclusions

Our work reveals the persistent influence of landscape structure on spatial variation in historical fire regimes and can help inform discussions about appropriate restoration of fire-excluded forests in the interior Northwest. Where the goal is to restore historical fire regimes at landscape scales, managers may want to consider the influence of topoedaphic and vegetation patch types that could affect fire spread and ignition frequency.

Context

The Brazilian Cerrado, a global biodiversity hotspot, is being converted to agricultural production. Amphibians in particular are susceptible to agricultural practices that threaten both their wetland and upland habitats. Although local site variables are important for determining species occurrence, site occupancy is also mediated by the broader landscape and management context in which the site occurs.

Objectives

Investigate the relative effects of broad-, intermediate-, and local-scale factors on species occurrence for pond-breeding anurans within different landscapes across an agricultural-disturbance gradient in the Cerrado.

Methods

Ponds were surveyed for adult anurans over 3 years within 18 landscapes (each 625 km²) that varied in their degree of agricultural land use (landscape context). We analyzed species distribution models for eight pond-breeding anurans, using hierarchical binomial generalized linear models.

Results

The broader landscape context had a significant effect on the incidence of pond-breeding anurans, even after accounting for variation in other environmental factors at more local (pond) or intermediate (1-km²) scales. The top-ranked models for most species included some combination of broad-, intermediate- and local-scale factors, however. These covariates influenced species occurrence in different ways, with the response to agricultural disturbance varying among species. Although some species were negatively affected, others appeared to benefit from agricultural activities that increased breeding habitat (e.g., impoundments to provide water for cattle).

Conclusions

Landscape context, the degree to which landscapes have been transformed by agricultural land use, has a major influence on the distribution of pond-breeding anurans in the Brazilian Cerrado.