Effects Of Traffic System And Countermeasures On Road-killed Amphibians And Reptiles In The Suburbs Of Guangzhou City

Roads constitute a direct and often permanent loss of wildlife habitat. Effects of habitat fragmentation on amphibians and reptiles were discussed in the paper by studying the relationship between traffic system and mortality of amphibians and reptiles species in the suburbs of Guangzhou city. Survey work was conducted in the suburb of Guangzhou city in south China from 20 to 25 April,2] to 25 May,13 to 16 June,11 to 13 July and 7 to11 August in 2007. Road-killed amphibians and reptiles were investigated by using linear transect method in Liuxihe Forest Park, Wangzishan Forest Park, Dishuiyan Forest Park, Dafengmen Forest Park, Dongxing village, Zhushan village, Shiliuyong villige and Xidong village. A total number of 30 linear transects were set in Guangzhou city. Habitat types around the roads were divided into forests, shrubs, farmlands and waterbodies. Pavement materials were divided into concrete, asphalt and gravel paved roads. Conclusions of this paper are as following:1. Total of 137 dead animals which belongs to 25 species,8 families and 3 orders were recorded. Among them, there were 6 species of amphibians and 19 species of reptiles. A total number of 1,509 vehicles in 1h were recorded in the survey including 446 large-sized, 279 middling-size and 784 compact vehicles.2. Mortality of amphibians and reptiles in 4 habitat types:the roads near water body had the highest level of mortality (55 individuals), farmland (38 individuals), forest (24 individuals) and shrub (20 individuals). Mortality of amphibians and reptiles in 3 different pavement materials:119 died bodies on concrete paved roads,12 on gravel paved roads and 6 on asphalt paved roads.3. Absolute density D=7.611×102 individuals/km2. The relation between traffic volumes and individual mortalities was fitted with the equation:y=x/(0.003787 x+ 12.215), where ymax=265. There was a strong positive correlation between traffic volumes and species specific mortalities, there was a weak correlation between the dead species and traffic volumes. The volume of middling-sized vehicles caused more individual mortalities than the other two vehicle types. There was remarkable significant difference between different pavement materials. There was significant difference between some parts of the habitats and individual mortalities.4. Roads near forests had the highest level of diversity. Shannon-Weiner evenness index showed that roads near shrubs were similar to each other. Shannon-Weiner diversity index showed that Concrete paved roads had the highest level of diversity. Evenness index was almost 1 in asphalt paved roads. Cluster analysis showed that water was closer to forest, and farmland was closer to shrubbery from Species composition.5. Conclusion:traffic-limitated asphalt roads with no water and forest around do not have much effect on road-killed amphibians and reptiles than other materials paved roads without traffic limitation.