Journal article
Cross-scale influences of habitat and urbanisation on terrestrial vertebrates in coastal wetlands
Landscape Ecology, Vol.41(10), pp.1-22
2026
Abstract
Context
Biodiversity in wetlands is impacted by expanding and intensifying urbanisation. While aquatic species spatial use of mangroves and saltmarshes is well established, little is known about how terrestrial vertebrates use these habitats in Australia and under what contexts.
Objectives
We surveyed terrestrial vertebrates in mangroves and saltmarshes in a diversity of estuarine seascapes, scaling from areas with extensive nearby urbanisation to more natural areas, and quantified the relative influence of habitat structure and composition, and landscape configuration on assemblage structure.
Methods
We surveyed terrestrial vertebrates using baited camera traps deployed for 48 h (i.e., four tidal cycles) across seven estuaries and 115 sites (57 mangrove and 58 saltmarsh) in southeast Queensland, Australia. We also quantified site-level habitat structure and landscape configuration metrics.
Results
We recorded 45 species within mangroves and 38 species within saltmarsh sites. Native species peaked at intermediate saltmarsh proximity and remnant land extent in mangroves, while saltmarsh native species increased with mangrove and remnant land area, and peaked with intermediate agriculture extents. Introduced species in mangroves increased with proximity to urban land, decreased with protected land extent, and peaked at intermediate saltmarsh and agriculture area, while saltmarsh introduced species increased with urban extent but decreased with remnant, protected land and mangrove extent. Minor habitat structure effects occurred in both habitats but were mediated by broader landscape effects or general structural components.
Conclusions
Landscape configuration, particularly connectivity to natural habitats versus urban matrices, fundamentally structures terrestrial vertebrate assemblages in mangrove–saltmarsh seascapes, overriding local habitat effects.
Details
- Title
- Cross-scale influences of habitat and urbanisation on terrestrial vertebrates in coastal wetlands
- Authors
- Erin K. Wills (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastCaitlin S. Willis - University of the Sunshine CoastLucy A. Goodridge Gaines - University of the Sunshine CoastBen L. Gilby - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Landscape Ecology, Vol.41(10), pp.1-22
- Publisher
- Springer Dordrecht
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10980-026-02469-x
- ISSN
- 1572-9761
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
- Grant note
- The authors acknowledge Healthy Land and Water and University of the Sunshine Coast for project funding.
- Organisation Unit
- Graduate Research School; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991266046002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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