Original article Integrating life-history traits and amphibian upland habitat use in a Neotropical hotspot Mario R. Moura a, c, * , Marianna Dixo b , Renato N. Feio c a Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ci^ encias Biol ogicas, Departamento de Zoologia, Laborat orio de Herpetologia, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil b Probiota Consultoria Ambiental Ltda, CEP 05578-070, S~ ao Paulo, SP, Brazil c Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Museu de Zoologia Jo~ ao Moojen, CEP 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil article info Article history: Received 4 September 2015 Received in revised form 22 September 2015 Accepted 23 September 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Atlantic forest Brazil Frog Wetland Reproductive strategy Sex ratio abstract Effective management of semi-aquatic animals requires detailed information on upland habitat use around aquatic habitats. Quantifying the amount of habitats needed to sustain local animals’ populations is a crucial criterion when setting protective buffers to water bodies, especially for amphibians, which depend on these upland habitats for breeding and development. Differences in upland habitat use can emerge among amphibian species with distinct life-history traits, including reproductive-strategy (pond- breeding vs. non-pond breeding anurans), life-stage (adults vs. juveniles), and sex (males vs. females). To date there has been no quantitative study of upland habitat use in the Neotropics, which can provide a baseline for quantifying the amount of upland forested habitats needed to sustain local amphibian populations. We monitored three ponds for over two sampling year using drift fences with pitfall traps to investigate how reproductive-strategy, life-stage, and sex affect anuran upland habitat use in a forest remnant in the Atlantic Forest hotspot. We found no differences in upland habitat use between adult and juvenile anurans. However, we found that although the species richness of pond-breeding and non-pond breeding anurans was similar near wetlands, there was greater abundance of pond-breeding compared to non-pond breeding anurans. We also found a strong difference between the sexes in pond-breeding anurans, with males remaining closer to wetlands than females. Thus, the sex ratio of amphibian pop- ulations can be strongly skewed toward males if only small protective terrestrial buffers (50-m) are enforced during land development. Our findings also point to the inadequacy of current Brazilian policies to protect small wetlands and the fauna that depend on them. We recommend that policymakers adjust regulatory criteria to set hierarchical protective buffers around wetlands allowing different levels of land- use intervention. © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Effective management and conservation of semi-aquatic animal populations requires detailed information on their use of the up- land forest habitat surrounding aquatic environments (Semlitsch, 2002). Despite their biological importance in maintaining biodi- versity, upland habitats have ambiguous or non-existent criteria in their regulatory policies, also varying from one country to another (Semlitsch and Jensen, 2001). Consequently, a serious gap exits in biodiversity protection when regulations or ordinances, especially those of local or state governments, are established based on criteria to protect water resources only, without considering critical habitats to wildlife species (Semlitsch and Bodie, 2003). It is especially worrying for amphibians with biphasic life cycles, which depend on these environments for breeding and development. Upland habitats also play an essential role in population dynamics by ensuring the survivorship of amphibians in earlier stages of development (Trenham and Shaffer, 2005). Considering that 82% of amphibian species in the world are forest-dependent (Stuart et al., 2004), improved understanding of amphibian upland habitat use along forested sites is critical to conservation planning. While nearly half of the world's amphibian species are found in * Corresponding author. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Ci^ encias Biol ogicas, Departamento de Zoologia, Laborat orio de Herpetologia, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. E-mail addresses: mariormoura@gmail.com (M.R. Moura), marianna@probiota. com.br (M. Dixo), rfeio@ufv.br (R.N. Feio). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Oecologica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actoec http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2015.09.009 1146-609X/© 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. Acta Oecologica 69 (2015) 87e95