MSc Student
Advisors: Günter Gollmann

Unit for Theoretical Biology, Department of Evolutionary Biology
University of Vienna

Abstract

In the past, most of the riverine floodplains have been altered by human activities, hydraulic measures and water regulations. A typical example of a floodplain, whose dynamic character has been changed dramatically, is the Lobau in Vienna. Due to river regulations, the Lobau was almost completely separated from the Danube and redistribution processes came to a standstill.
To prevent the drying out, the first dotation of Upper Lobau took place in 1992 and now the water levels are changing during the year due to a controlled water exchange.

This constantly changing floodplain landscape is also home to a population of fire bellied- toads, which has been the subject of population biology studies for several years now.
However, these studies never documented movement patterns and local relationships of fire-bellied toads, which are extremely important for conservation measures.

Due to the fact that there is almost no research on this topic yet, I want to find out in my master thesis where the fire- bellied toads are and in which water bodies they move during their activity season, based on capture- recapture data. Furthermore, reasons for their spatial movements will be shown, especially the impact of the changing water levels from spring to summer.