Evaluating the risk of pesticide exposure for amphibian species listed in Annex II of the European Union Habitats Directive

Environmental contaminants like pesticides concern amphibian conservationists. For many European amphibian species, special areas of conservation were created as they are listed in Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive. Agriculture is not prohibited within these conservation areas. In the present study, a risk evaluation at the European level was conducted to identify proportions of land use with regular pesticide applications within the conservation areas and the specific risk of pesticide exposure depending on the species’ biology and ecology. The proportion of agricultural land use and the risk of habitat and individual contamination differ among species but also at national scale. Nearly all species with high risk of habitat pesticide exposure are not threatened within their entire territories and Europe. Conversely, most globally threatened and European priority species are at a lower exposure risk in their habitats – with the exceptions Rana latastei, Pelobates fuscus insubricus, Triturus dobrogicus and Discoglossus jeanneae. In the conservation areas for these species, Habitat Directive management plans need to consider monitoring of habitat contamination with pesticides. Such a monitoring should also be conducted in conservation areas for amphibians that seem to be not threatened yet but are at high exposure risk, e.g. Bombina bombina. Monitoring and conservation action should also take place site-specifically to avoid national or regional loss of amphibian biodiversity. Overall, intensive use of agrochemicals and recent land use changes have the potential to be a serious threat for amphibian species, which can be found within cultivated areas – regardless of their current IUCN status.