Abstract
Anurans have close associations with environmental conditions and therefore represent an interesting vertebrate group for examining how resource availability and environmental variables influence species diversity. Associations between habitat heterogeneity and anuran species diversity were tested in the Restinga landscapes of the Parnaíba River delta in northeastern Brazil. Twenty-one anuran species were sampled in the rainy season during monthly excursions (December 2015 to June 2016) into areas of Restinga on two islands in the Parnaíba River delta. The fourth highest anuran diversity was found in this type of environment in Brazil and is the third in northeastern Brazil. Microenvironments, characterized by a combination of vernal pools with different vegetational and physical structures, better explained anuran species composition in the Parnaíba River delta.
Highlights
Study area: The Parnaíba River Delta is contained within an Environmental Protection Area (EPA) created in August 1966, covering approximately 313,800 ha in the Brazilian states of Piauí, Maranhão, and Ceará (Fig. 1) (Brasil 2002)
The most abundant species belonged to the families Leptodactylidae and Hylidae (Fig. 2), and they showed the highest BERGER-PARKER dominance values (d): Pseudopaludicola mystacalis (d = 0.14), Leptodactylus macrosternum (d = 0.13), Pleurodema diplolister (d = 0.12), Leptodactylus fuscus (d = 0.11), and Dendropsophus nanus (d = 0.10)
The sample-based accumulation curve tended asymptote (Fig. 3), which suggest that the sampling effort was sufficient to adequately represent the species community in Parnaíba River Delta, northeastern Brazil
Summary
The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis has since been used to explain distribution patterns and species richness throughout the world (e.g., Atauri and Lucio 2001, Tews et al 2004, Bastazini et al 2007, González-Megias et al 2007, Vasconcelos et al 2009, Silva et al 2010, Jimenez-Alfaro et al 2016). The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis of MacArthur and MacArthur (1961) is well understood, the measurement of this heterogeneity is difficult due to the close connection with resources variety and availability Resources such as size of water pond may be important to amphibian richness, as predicted by species-area relationship in the Islands Biogeography theory of MacArthur and Wilson (1967). Duration and depth of water pond is important for amphibian reproductive success especially in regions with irregular rainfall (Becker et al 2007)
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