Michael Veith

Universität Trier · Department of Biogeography

Anuran amphibians have intensively been studied to understand Amazonian biodiversity. Improved methods and sampling has revealed that many widespread nominal species in fact are complexes of species with smaller allopatric ranges. Pan-Amazonian anuran species are rather an exception. In a case study using the three-striped poison frog (Anura: Dendr...

Zusammenfassung Der Ausbau der Windenergie findet zunehmend im Wald statt, da hier häufig windhöffige und damit ökonomisch attraktive Standorte zu finden sind. Allerdings ist hier der Konflikt mit dem Artenschutz im Allgemeinen und dem Fledermausschutz im Speziellen besonders hoch. In diesem Beitrag beleuchten wir vor dem Hintergrund des gesetzlich...

Skin fungi are among the most dangerous drivers of global amphibian declines, and few mitigation strategies are known. For Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Chytridiomycota), available treatments rely on temperature, partially combined with antifungal drugs. We report the clearance of B. salamandrivorans in 2 urodelan species using a solely drug-b...

A major limitation of current reports on insect declines is the lack of standardized, long-term, and taxonomically broad time series. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA from archived leaf material to characterize plant-associated arthropod communities. We base our work on several multi-decadal leaf time series from tree canopies...

Windenergieanlagen (WEA) werden in Deutschland häufig unter Ver- wendung eines sogenannten fledermausfreundlichen Abschaltalgorith- mus, welcher mit dem Programm ProBat erstellt wurde, betrieben. Ba- sierend auf akustischen Aktivitätsdaten und Windgeschwindigkeiten werden Cut-in-Windgeschwindigkeiten (Einschaltgeschwindigkeiten) berechnet, die die...

Abstract Molecular gut content analysis is a popular tool to study food web interactions and was recently suggested as an alternative source for DNA‐based biomonitoring. However, the overabundant consumer’s DNA often outcompetes that of its diet during PCR. Lineage‐specific primers are an efficient means to reduce consumer amplification while retai...

23 Islands often comprise unique faunal assemblages, particularly when they lie at the boundaries of 24 different bioregions or are located at a great distance from the mainland. Bats are among the few 25 mammals that can regularly be found on islands around the world, yet knowledge of insular bat 26 assemblages is often poor and anecdotal. Here we...

Bats are strictly protected throughout Europe. They are a highly diverse order of mammals in terms of body size, body weight, migratory behaviour, trophic niche specialisation and habitat use. The latter ranges from urban areas and arable land to forest. Due to their low reproductive rate, environmental stressors can have a major impact on bat popu...

A major limitation of current reports on insect declines is the lack of standardized, long-term, and taxonomically broad time series. Here, we demonstrate the utility of environmental DNA from archived leaf material to characterize plant-associated arthropod communities. We base our work on several multi-decadal leaf time series from tree canopies...

Ecology of the larvae of the European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)- an overview The salamander plague, a skin disease caused by the pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, has brought the European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) into the focus of current research. An area-wide monitoring of the larval populations is intended...

The larval stage of the European fire salamander ( Salamandra salamandra ) inhabits both lentic and lotic habitats. In the latter, they are constantly exposed to unidirectional water flow, which has been shown to cause downstream drift in a variety of taxa. In this study, a closed artificial creek, which allowed us to keep the water flow constant o...

Computer-aided individual recognition of animals based on their natural markings has become an indispensable tool in ecology research. However, this is problematic in species with faint patterns. Here we test whether individually reared larvae of the European Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra) can be reliably recognized from images of their la...

Islands host high numbers of endemic species, and the latter are especially exposed to human-driven habitat alteration because their population size is constrained by the limited space and resources found in insular systems. Extreme events linked with climate change and direct anthropogenic stressors may synergistically affect endemic species, and...

Background The morphology of anuran larvae is suggested to differ between species with tadpoles living in standing (lentic) and running (lotic) waters. To explore which character combinations within the general tadpole morphospace are associated with these habitats, we studied categorical and metric larval data of 123 (one third of which from lotic...

The larval stage of the European fire salamander ( Salamandra salamandra ) inhabits both lentic and lotic habitats. In the latter, they are constantly exposed to unidirectional water flow, which has been shown to cause downstream drift in a variety of taxa. In this study, an artificial stream was used to examine the individual movement patterns of...

We performed the first cytogenetic analysis on five out of the seven species of the genus Lyciasalamandra, including seven subspecies, and representatives of its sister genus Salamandra. All the studied species have a similar karyotype of 2n = 24, mostly composed of biarmed elements. C-bands were observed on all chromosomes, at centromeric, telomer...

The pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) was introduced from Asia to Europe, most likely via the pet trade. It is currently causing a severe local decline in populations of the European fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). Laboratory tests confirmed that all infected individuals succumbed to the disease within two...

Molecular gut content analysis is a popular tool to study food web interactions and was recently also suggested as an alternative source for DNA based biomonitoring. However, the overabundant consumer's DNA often outcompetes that of its diet during PCR. Blocking approaches are an efficient means to reduce consumer amplification while retaining broa...

Extract from the complete list of species and the Red List of amphibians in Germany with appendices for understanding (legend, complete list, literature). The fire salamander is bound to forest areas and is largely absent in the lowlands north of the low mountain range. In the south there is a large gap between the Danube and the Isar. The low moun...

Aim Climate change is expected to cause mountain species to shift their ranges to higher elevations. Due to the decreasing amounts of habitats with increasing elevation, such shifts are likely to increase their extinction risk. Heterogeneous mountain topography, however, may reduce this risk by providing microclimatic conditions that can buffer mac...

Hybridization can leave genealogical signatures in an organism's genome, originating from the parental lineages and persisting over time. This potentially confounds phylogenetic inference methods that aim to represent evolution as a strictly bifurcating tree. We apply a phylotranscriptomic approach to study the evolutionary history of, and test for...

Infectious diseases are major drivers of biodiversity loss. The risk of fungal diseases to the survival of threatened animals in nature is determined by a complex interplay between host, pathogen and environment. We here predict the risk of invasion of populations of threatened Mediterranean salamanders of the genus Lyciasalamandra by the pathogeni...

The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), recently introduced from Asia to Europe, causes mortality in numerous species of salamanders and newts and has led to catastrophic declines and local extinctions of the European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Due to the continuous spread...

The salamander plague, caused by the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), is one of the most devastating amphibian diseases, currently threatening the entire Western Palearctic caudate diversity with extinction. Apparently of Asian origin and recently introduced into Europe, Bsal is known from currently ca. 80 sites in...

The presence of the parasitic amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) in the Eifel Mountains, Germany, was confirmed in 2015. Since then, monitoring of selected populations of the European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) has been established. This species is highly sensitive to the pathogen and infection is commonl...

The European fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is a widespread species that occurs in a variety of habitats throughout its range. We studied if different environmental parameters influence presence as well as abundance of lar-vae within different local landscape units across a more than 5,000 km² large Central European study area. This knowle...

The European urodelan diversity is threatened by the recent range expansion of the chytrid fungus Batracho chytrium salamandrivorans. The fire salamander can be classified as especially sensitive as infection of individuals with this parasitic fungus usually leads to chytridiomycosis and rapid mortality. Hence, to observe effects at the population...

Emerging infectious diseases are one of the main suggested reasons for global amphibian decline. Fungal agents play a key role. Since its introduction, the Asian pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans has driven the Europe-an fire salamander, Salamandra salamandra, to the edge of extinction in the Netherlands and caused severe population declin...

Clay model studies are a popular tool to identify predator‐prey interactions that are challenging to observe directly in the field. But despite its wide use, the method’s applicability is limited by its low taxonomic resolution. Attack marks on clay models are usually identified visually, which only allows classification into higher taxonomic level...

We report on two new populations of Lyciasalamandra flavimembris from Bodrum/Muğla, based on fieldwork in March 2018. We studied the new populations morphologically and genetically (16SrDNA). According to these records, the known distribution range of the genus is extended about 40 km to the West. Morphologically and genetically, specimens from the...

Individual diet specialization occurs when individuals consume only a subset of prey composing the whole population trophic niche. In our study, we assessed tro-phic specialization in five species of European cave salamanders (genus Hydroman-tes) from Sardinia (Italy), hypothesizing two potential (but not exclusive) causes. Our results showed that...

Individual diet specialization (IS) has important community‐ and population‐level implications and its ecological drivers are actively investigated. Here, to test the hypothesis that local environmental conditions may influence IS in wild populations, we analyzed the stomach contents of 395 individuals from eight populations of five allopatric spec...

Systematic data collection on species and their exploited environments is of key importance for conservation studies. Within the less-known environments, the subterranean ones are neither easy to be studied, nor to be explored. Subterranean environments house a wide number of specialised organisms, many of which show high sensitivity to habitat alt...

Die Umweltprobenbank des Bundes sammelt standardisiert Human- und Umweltproben und lagert diese veränderungsfrei für zukünftige Untersuchungen. Die große Auswahl an unterschiedlichen Matrizes aus verschiedenen Probenahmegebieten ermöglicht einen Überblick über die Belastungssituation des Menschen und seiner Umwelt. Die Schadstoffanalytik erfolgt so...

Lycian salamanders (genus Lyciasalamandra) constitute an exceptional case of micro-endemism of an amphibian species on the Asian Minor mainland. These viviparous salamanders are confined to karstic limestone formations along the southern Anatolian coast and some islands. We here study the genetic differentiation within and among 118 populations of...

In the Mediterranean region, cryptic diversity of bats is common. As distinct genetic lineages should be managed independently for conservation, insight into bat phylogeography is important. The Maltese islands are located in the centre of the Mediterranean between North Africa and Sicily and are densely populated. At present, it is thought that at...

see the conference paper of the same name

Seit 2008 wurde in den südöstlichen Niederlanden ein dramatischer Einbruch der Feuersalamanderpopulation beobachtet. 2013 wurde mit der Beschreibung des Krankheitserregers die Ursache erkannt. Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, kurz Bsal, ist ein Amphibien-Hautpilz, der vor allem für Feuersalamander, aber auch für Molche, eine große Gefahr darstell...

Amphibians, the most severely declining vertebrate class, are especially threatened by pathogenic chytrid fungi. Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) was most likely introduced from Asia to Europe. Here, it causes mortal skin diseases (chytridiomycosis) and Bsal-caused mass mortalities in fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). Individuals of...

Der Erreger der als Salamanderpest bezeichneten Amphibienhauterkrankung - der Chytridpilz Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans - ist inzwischen an mehreren Standorten in Mitteleuropa (in den Niederlanden, Belgien und Deutschland) nachgewiesen, mit besonders schweren Folgen für die anscheinend sensibelste Wirtsart, den Feuersalamander (Salamandra salam...

Photographic identification is an emerging method for recognising wild animals. This harmless methodology allows researchers to identify “naturally marked” individuals and therefore study their specific ecology and behaviour. However, before incurring potential data loss, it is recommended to test the methodology on the target species and evaluate...

Predator-prey interactions are a vast field in ecological research and many mechanisms thereof are crucial to understand natural selection, trait functions, cognition of traits and hence their evolution. However, for many taxa predator-prey interactions are difficult to study because field observations of predation events are rare. Predation is bas...

The infectious chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans ( Bsal ) has been responsible for severe population declines of salamander populations in Europe. Serious population declines and loss of urodelan diversity may occur if appropriate action is not taken to mitigate against the further spread and impact of Bsal . We provide an overview o...

Species distribution models (SDM) are an important tool to predict the invasion risk of alien species and emerging infectious diseases. However, building reliable models in early stages of invasions is a challenging task. Katz and Zellmer (Biol Invasions 20:2107-2119, 2018) addressed this problem and presented a framework for model selection for da...

Theory predicts that sexually dimorphic traits under strong sexual selection, particularly those involved with intersexual signaling, can accelerate speciation and produce bursts of diversification. Sexual dichromatism (sexual dimorphism in color) is widely used as a proxy for sexual selection and is associated with rapid diversification in several...

Survey of strictly protected amphibian species in the administrative district Trier-Saarburg and the city of Trier We checked the recent occurrences of three strictly protected amphibian species (Epi-dalea calamita, Bombina variegata, Alytes obstetricans) within and in direct proximity to one (Trier-Saarburg) out of 24 districts of Rhineland-Palati...

Organismic drift in lotic waters can have major impact on population dynamics. It is influenced by a variety of interacting abiotic and biotic factors, and species often have evolved specific strategies for drift avoidance and compensation. We studied downstream and upstream movements of larval fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) within three...

Reconstructing reliable timescales for species evolution is an important and indispensable goal of modern biogeography. However, many factors influence the estimation of divergence times, and uncertainty in the inferred time trees remains a major issue that is often insufficiently acknowledged. We here focus on a fundamental problem of time tree an...

A new population of Lyciasalamandra atifi is presented from Ürünlü village, Ibradı district, based on fieldwork conducted in March 2015. After morphological and statistical investigation we conclude that the Ürünlü population has a morphology similar to that of Lyciasalamandra atifi veithi from Dikmen village, Akseki district. We also uncover the M...

Sogenannte „fledermausfreundliche Abschaltalgorithmen“ sind inzwischen die häufigste Minimierungsmaßnahme, um in Deutschland betriebsbedingte Fledermaus-Tötungen an Wind- energieanlagen (WEA) zu reduzieren. Während die minimierende Wirkung als solche nicht in Frage zu stellen ist, fehlt bis- lang jedoch eine fachliche Diskussion über die Einschränk...

The trophic niche is a life trait that identifies the consumer's position in a local food web. Several factors, such as ontogeny, competitive ability and resource availability contribute in shaping species trophic niches. To date, information on the diet of European Hydromantes salamanders are only available for a limited number of species, no diet...

Box whisker plot showing heterogeneity of multivariate dispersion among studied species. (TIF)

European cave salamanders [genus Hydromantes (Speleomantes)] are a group of eight species endemic (or sub-endemic) to Italy. Information on these amphibians are far to be complete, they usually exploit environments hardly suitable for human exploration. One of the poorly known life traits is their trophic niche. Diet of European Hydromantes has bee...

Species can show a strong variation of local abundance across their ranges. Recent analyses suggested that variation in abundance can be related to environmental suitability, as the highest abundances are often observed in populations living in the most suitable areas. However, there is limited information on the mechanisms through which variation...

One of the most important factors driving amphibian declines worldwide is the infectious disease, chytridiomycosis. Two fungi have been associated with this disease, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal). The latter has recently driven Salamandra salamandra populations to extirpation in parts of the Netherlands, and Belgium,...

Many threatened species are bred in captivity for conservation purposes and some of these programmes aim at future reintroduction. The Northern Bald Ibis, Geronticus eremita, is a Critically Endangered bird species, with recently only one population remaining in the wild (Morocco, Souss Massa region). During the last two decades, two breeding progr...

The phylogenetic relationships among members of the family Salamandridae have been repeatedly investigated over the last 90 years, with changing character and taxon sampling. We review the changing composition and the phylogenetic position of salamandrid genera and species groups and add a new phylogeny based exclusively on sequences of nuclear gen...

Cladogramms of Salamandridae phylogenies. (PDF)

Phylogenetic inference of the four nuclear genes. (PDF)

Characters used to reconstruct the phylogeny of Salamandridae. (PDF)

Introductions of non-native lineages increase opportunities for hybridization. Non-native lineages of the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, are frequently introduced in cities where they hybridize with native populations. We aimed at unravelling the invasion history and admixture of native and non-native wall lizards in four German cities using...

Theory predicts that sexually dimorphic traits under strong sexual selection, particularly those involved with intersexual signaling, can accelerate speciation and produce bursts of diversification. Sexual dichromatism (sexual dimorphism in color) is widely used as a proxy for sexual selection and is associated with rapid diversification in several...

The availability of data on the feeding habits of species of conservation value may be of great importance to develop analyses for both scientific and management purposes. Stomach flushing is a harmless technique that allowed us to collect extensive data on the feeding habits of six Hydromantes species. Here, we present two datasets originating fro...

Species can show strong variation of local abundance across their ranges. Recent analyses suggested that variation in abundance can be related to environmental suitability, as the highest abundances are often observed in populations living in the most suitable areas. However, there is limited information on the mechanisms through which variation in...