Comunidades de anfíbios anuros insulares do litoral sudeste do Brasil: composição taxonômica e relações com a história de formação das ilhas

Abstract

Insular Anuran (Amphibia) Communities of the Southeast Coast of Brazil: Taxonomic Composition and Relationship to the History of the Islands. 2011. 72p. Dissertation (Master of Science in Animal Biology). Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica, RJ, 2011. A data set containing a list of the known species of frogs that occur near shore and on eight islands of the south coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro and north of the State of São Paulo was produced. For that, I compiled data from the literature and conducted inventories of a few of the islands. This list included 67 anuran species belonging to 11 families for eight islands and 117 species and 14 families for two localities on the mainland. The pattern of richness between islands was analyzed in respect to the island area and the composition of habitats used by the anurans for reproduction. Insular structural complexity was also evaluated in this regard. The results of correlation analyses of area vs. species richness and species richness vs. number of reproductive habitats were highly significant indicating that species richness prediction in fragmented environments depends on both factors. Nestedness analyses using the metric NODF was performed in an attempt to investigate whether shared species absences among the islands are the result of a random process or represents a pattern indicative of ordered loss of species. The predicted pattern was confirmed – that is, that species loss is nonrandom and that this was possibly caused by habitat loss. The role played by climatic events at the beginning of the Holocene and of the availability of reproductive habitats in the islands upon species loss is discussed. Furthermore, it is discussed how these results can help to guide conservation strategies of anuran species.