From satellites to frogs: Quantifying ecohydrological change, drought mitigation, and population demography in desert meadows

Abstract Increasing frequency and severity of droughts have motivated natural resource managers to mitigate harmful ecological hydrological effects drought, but drought mitigation is an emerging science evaluating its effectiveness difficult. We examined ecohydrological responses actions aimed at conserving populations the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) in a semi-arid valley Nevada, USA. Abundance this rare had declined precipitously after multiple droughts. Mitigation included excavating ponds increase available surface water installing earthen dams raise tables. assessed riparian vegetation using 30-year time series satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) gridded weather data. then analyzed 23-year mark-recapture dataset evaluate NDVI on probability survival rates recruitment. After accounting for interannual precipitation variability, we found that increased significantly from before mitigation, suggesting influenced hydrology meadows. Frog with NDVI, stronger effect than excavated were particularly important during drought. In contrast, recruitment was associated more only meadows where dependent precipitation. At groundwater, ponds. These findings suggest are critical juvenile frogs recruit into adult population, can also be by raising tables lacking groundwater sources. Lagged (i.e., larvae juveniles) negatively NDVI. This study illustrates complexity demonstrates novel ways assess readily satellite imagery organismal