Population dynamics in newts of the Carpathian Mountains

Rarity, range restriction, and narrow endemism tend to carry dire and urgent conservation implications for imperilled species. What is also clear is that human-associated extinction risk factors such as urbanization and deforestation pose overwhelming threats to range-restricted species. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Antunes et al. (2022) demonstrate that these threats can also impact widespread species. By comparing newts in the genus Lissotriton that co-occur in the same geographical region, they expose the distinctness of risks facing species with different habitat preferences. Their study emphasizes the importance of local-scale landscape genetics to reveal the nuances of population connectivity that might otherwise be missed by studying a broader spatial scale.