A Preliminary Study on the Amphibian Community Structure in South Sudan (East Africa)

Abstract

The structure of amphibian communities in South Sudan (East Africa) has never been studied so far. In this paper, the community composition and the diversity patterns of amphibians in nine study sites and in four different habitat types in Jubek area of South Sudan, are analyzed. In addition, the effects of habitat types on the abundance patterns of each species are also explored by Generalized Linear Models. Both pitfall traps with drift fences and Active Search Visual encounter survey were used for the sampling of the amphibians. A total of 551 individuals from 14 species, and belonging to 9 different families, were recorded during the present study, with two ranid and one Ptychadenidae species dominating the sample (i.e., Phrynobatrachus natalensis , Hoplobatrachus occipitalis , Ptychadena nilotica ). The arthroleptid Leptopelis bocagii was reported for the first time in South Sudan. Despite an identical field effort among habitats, there was a statistically uneven number of individuals by habitat, with significantly higher-than-expected individuals found in wetlands/swamps and in farmlands. Farmlands had higher values for Shannon – Wiener and Evenness was much higher in stream and in farmlands than in any other habitats. Our study revealed a relatively low diversity of amphibian species across sites and habitats. For instance, whereas in our study we found a range of 2 – 13 species per locality and 4 – 11 species per habitat type, whereas there were up to 24 – 29 species per site in Uganda.