Why are farm ponds important for frogs?

You might be wondering why farm ponds important for frogs. It's a good question. Farm ponds aren't the native habitat for frogs and humans didn't build them for frogs! Well, the reason farm ponds are important is because throughout the United States natural wetlands have been destroyed at alarming rates. In the Midwest for example, as much as 90% of wetlands have been lost since Euro-American settlers first colonized the region in the 1800s. This is where farm ponds come in. People have built thousands of them throughout the US. And they might be the key to frog conservation! In Iowa, for example, more than 200,000 farm ponds have been built since the 1930s (see the figure below). Even as frog populations have declined in northern Iowa (where historic wetlands used to be), they have remained relatively stable in southern Iowa (where there are lots of new farm ponds). This suggests that farm ponds could be really important for conserving frog populations. My goal is to test whether frogs live in these ponds and investigate what makes a farm pond good for frogs.

 

Historically, northern Iowa had thousands of wetlands in what is called the "Prairie Pothole Region". Nearly all of these have been destroyed in the last two centuries. Fortunately, southern Iowa has thousands of farm ponds built since the 1930s. Ringgold County, where my study sites are, originally lacked natural wetlands, but has an abundance of artificial wetlands today. Could these farm ponds be the best way to save Iowa's frog populations?