MECHANISTIC ASSESSMENT OF HABITAT SUITABILITY OF NEOTROPICAL TREEFROGS INHABITING THE BRAZILIAN ATLANTIC RAINFOREST

• Grant number: 24/03250-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Denis Otavio Vieira de Andrade
• Grantee: Luis Miguel Senzano Castro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10910-0 - Physiological capacities and resilience facing climate change: exploring the functional dimension in ectothermic vertebrates, AP.TEM

Abstract

Amphibians must frequently balance their thermal and water needs as a function of physiological state and/or the physical environmental drivers. Mechanistic assessments are able to connect animal functional attributes with the immediate physical environment (microclimate) to infer environmental constraints on species habitat occupation. For ground-dwelling species, this process has been facilitated by the fact that multiple mechanistic tools and workflows routines emerged lately. However, the implementing of this same approach is considerably more complicate for species that live above ground, particularly those from vertically structured habitats such as the Atlantic Forest biome. In fact, because habitat complexity mediates key functional traits of anurans through its impacts on microclimate in a vertical manner, there are important variables that need to be considered when dealing with arboreal animals, such as tree frogs. The present post-doctoral proposal aims to broaden the applicability of a mechanistic assessment (developed originally for ground-dwelling species) to anurans with arboreal behaviors (Hylid frogs from the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest) by incorporating additional mechanistic features that account for more complex stratified microclimatic conditions and above-ground shelter use.