Abstract
During the 20th century, yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) populations suffered from a strong decline in western Europe, especially in France. The causes of this decline are potentially multiple, including habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change. To date, production forests host the largest yellow-bellied toad populations in France. Conservation of this species is thus tightly linked to forest management practices. During the last decade, intensification of forest harvesting led to the increasing systematic removal of ruts, the preferential breeding habitat of yellow-bellied toad in production forests. Enstonement of forest paths and timber storage areas, and the rapid filling of ruts after forest harvesting, are potential causes of decline for this species. Here, we synthetize the results of papers focusing on the impact of forest management practices on yellow-bellied toad population dynamics. We started our review paper with a comparative demographic analysis between populations from riverine habitat and production forest. After highlighting the demographic characteristics of forest populations, we documented the influence of path enstonement and road pavement on yellow-bellied toad dispersal. We also reported the effect of rut patch destruction on adult survival and long-term population viability. In the light of scientific evidences gathered in our synthesis, we concluded that these forest management practices pose a major threat for forest populations viability and persistence. We proposed a set of management practices aimed at better alignment of forestry activities and yellow-bellied toad conservation in French production forests.