Amphibian hotspots in Iran: Effectiveness of current protected area and priorities for conservation planning

Abstract

The identification of conservation priority areas for amphibians in Iran remains unexplored. Although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, 40 percent of amphibians are at risk of extinction. The present study aimed to identify the priority areas for amphibian conservation and assess the effectiveness of the current protected conservation areas. 2192 species occurrence points for 23 amphibians, including 16 species of Anura and 7 species of Caudata, were curated. These occurrence points in addition to bioclimatic, anthropogenic, and geographical variables were used to model the species distribution. Then, the richness and rarity maps of amphibians were determined and hotspots identified based on the top 10 % area of the country with the highest richness and rarity values. Finally, Iran's protected areas were overlaid to evaluate the current coverage of hotspots and identify future conservation priorities. Although approximately 12 % of Iran is currently protected, the present study findings indicate that the current network of protected areas is ineffective for amphibian conservation; over 90 % of hotspots for amphibians lie outside the current national protected area network. The most important hotspots are located in the Caspian Hyrcanian Mixed Forest, the western margin of the North Zagros, and the Central Zagros Mountains Forest-Steppe ecoregions of the country. Among different types of protected areas that overlap with amphibian hotspots, protected areas and wildlife refuges respectively ranked the highest in quantity and size, while national parks ranked the lowest. In the current study, a baseline of top candidate areas for expanding protected areas where habitats can be managed to protect amphibians in Iran was provided. To further improve protected areas' coverage, priority conservation areas in the Zagros Mountains Forest-Steppe hotspots were recommended.