2025 : 5 : 2
Masoumeh Najibzadeh

Masoumeh Najibzadeh

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2139-4833
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 57038888600
HIndex:
Faculty: Science
Address: Arak University
Phone: 0863267226

Research

Title
First detection probability, comparative analysis of ecological disparities and population dynamics of the Iranian long‑legged wood frog in the Hyrcanian forests
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Female-biased SSD · Age structure · Life history · Rana pseudodalmatina · Hyrcanian forest
Year
2024
Journal Biodiversity and Conservation
DOI
Researchers Masoumeh Najibzadeh

Abstract

The Hyrcanian forests have a diverse fauna and fora with many endemic species of plants and animals. The Iranian long-legged wood frog, Rana pseudodalmatina, is one of the endemic species in this forest. The phylogenetic and morphologic analysis indicates the existence of the western and the eastern clades in R. pseudodalmatina. Diferences in the life history of the same species can attributed to diferent habitat quality or climate. The probability of encountering an Iranian long-legged wood frog, R. pseudodalmatina in the western half of the Hyrcanian forests of the southern shores of the Caspian Sea is much higher than in the forests of the eastern sea. This increase in the detection probability can be attributed to higher precipitation levels in the West of the Hyrcanian forests compared to the East. I observed that the Eastern populations tend to have larger sizes. In addition, the individuals of the western branch have a lower mean age (5.29 ± 0.74 years) than the eastern ones (8.36 ± 0.08 years). According to our results, females were larger (54.64 ± 0.53 mm) and older (7.68 ± 0.24 years) than males (48.13 ± 0.39 mm; 5.89 ± 0.39 years) in both eastern and western clades. So, the diference has been attributed to the variation in precipitation between the East and West of the sea, leading to diferent environmental conditions for R. pseudodalmatina. Hence, any conservation planning to protect this native species of the Hyrcanian forests must consider inter and intra-population diferences in the East and West of the Hyrcanian forests.