Habitat conservation research for amphibians: methodological improvements and thematic shifts

Amphibian conservation is a central theme of biodiversity research, as demonstrated by the growing number of studies on this theme. I combined a review of the literature with a quantitative analysis of papers published from 1992 to 2013, to evaluate whether methodological and thematic shifts occurred during the last two decades, and to identify major lines along which amphibian biodiversity research may be developed and improved. Spatial autocorrelation and imperfect detection are major issues of the analysis of data from amphibian populations. During the last decade, technical developments allowed to take into account these statistical issues in a growing number of studies. Nevertheless, the use of these approaches may be more widespread, particularly for the analysis of spatially-autocorrelated data. It is widely recognized that amphibian decline is often determined by the joint effect of multiple processes. However, the majority of recent studies focused on one potential threat only, and research rarely integrated analyses on terrestrial and aquatic environments. Finally, tropical areas remain insufficiently represented in amphibian conservation studies, despite they harbour most of biodiversity and threatened species. A better incorporation of technical advancements, and an expansion of themes and geographical scope can improve our understanding of processes determining the amphibian biodiversity crisis, and to improve the linkages between conservation research and practical actions.