Drought and Metapopulation Dynamics of a Desert‐Dwelling Amphibian

Demographic rates and dispersal patterns of many species reflect variation in biotic and abiotic factors, yet few applications of metapopulation theory have explored temporal variation in colonization and extinction rates. We extended a dynamic occupancy model to allow variation in these rates, which we applied to 22 years of survey data for lowland leopard frogs (Lithobates yavapaiensis), a native amphibian that inhabits arid mountain canyons near the U.S.–Mexico border. Both extinction and colonization rates varied with hydrologic conditions, and frogs in one metapopulation were extirpated during a period of extreme drought. These photographs illustrate the article “Drought‐mediated extinction of an arid‐land amphibian: insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model” by E. R. Zylstra, D. E. Swann, B. R. Hossack, E. Muths, and R. J. Steidl, published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.185