Beyond occurrence: Body condition and stress hormone as integrative indicators of habitat availability and fragmentation in the common toad

Availability and fragmentation of habitat are today identified as key determinants of population maintenance. Disentangling their relative effects is of crucial importance to adequately manage landscapes. However, the classical use of occurrence or abundance data as proxy to assess the responses of populations could be insufficient to detect less drastic impacts than short-term population extinction. We evaluated the effects of both habitat availability and fragmentation at three spatial scales on both the occurrence and two “physiological state” indicators (body condition and level of stress hormone) reflecting the physical state of common toads (Bufo bufo). Our study showed that occurrence was negatively affected only by habitat availability at the largest spatial scale whereas the both physiological state indicators studied at the population scale are significantly altered by both habitat availability and fragmentation at the finest spatial scale. Results obtained with occurrence and physiological state approaches substantially diverge, which highlights the need to also investigate proximal processes to deeply understand how populations are threatened by landscape modifications. The use of physiological state indicators, particularly of body condition, powerful and easy to obtain, could be particularly relevant to detect early warnings of population decline allowing a management before extinction. Only a complete investigation of the potential impacts of landscape on the different population processes could offer a realistic picture of the requirements of populations to avoid drastic alterations.