Climatic variables and altitude as predictors for number of reproductive modes and anuran species richness in the Atlantic Forest and cerrado Brazilian biomes

• Grant number: 09/17195-3
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2010
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal researcher: Tiago da Silveira Vasconcelos
• Grantee: Tiago da Silveira Vasconcelos
• Host: Bradford Alan Hawkins
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine), United States

Abstract

Although water is probably the most important physical factor affecting the ecology of terrestrial organisms, animal groups can respond differently to a given environmental variable. Amphibians are particularly influenced by abiotic variables, due to their permeable skin (where cutaneous gas exchange occurs), as well as their dependence on aquatic and terrestrial habitats during their life cycles. However, there are few studies with statistical approach that analyzed how climatic factors and altitude influence on patterns of spatial distribution of anuran species richness in Brazil. Among them, little is known mainly because of the lack of precise faunal knowledge. Thus, the present study aim to perform a compilation of anuran species list in well surveyed localities from the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado Brazilian biomes. Because anuran species are highly dependent on environmental variables, we hypothesized that anuran species richness and number of reproductive modes of anurans from different Brazilian localities would vary according to climatic and altitudinal variables. In addition to the compilation of anuran species list from localities inserted in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes, climatic and altitudinal data of each locality will be extracted from an online database. After, multivariate and regression analyses will be performed in order to verify if patterns of distribution of anuran species richness and number of reproductive modes are related to the selected environmental variables, and also verify which of this variable is most important for the anuran fauna from the different selected localities. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

VASCONCELOS, TIAGO S.; RODRIGUEZ, MIGUEL A.; HAWKINS, BRADFORD A. Species distribution modelling as a macroecological tool: a case study using New World amphibians. ECOGRAPHY, v. 35, n. 6, p. 539-548, JUN 2012. Web of Science Citations: 23.

VASCONCELOS, TIAGO DA SILVEIRA; ANGEL RODRIGUEZ, MIGUEL; HAWKINS, BRADFORD ALAN. Biogeographic Distribution Patterns of South American Amphibians: A Regionalization Based on Cluster Analysis. NATUREZA & CONSERVAÇÃO, v. 9, n. 1, p. 67-72, JUL 2011. Web of Science Citations: 7.

VASCONCELOS, TIAGO DA SILVEIRA; DOS SANTOS, TIAGO GOMES; BAPTISTA HADDAD, CELIO FERNANDO; ROSSA-FEREST, DENISE DE CERQUEIRA. Climatic variables and altitude as predictors of anuran species richness and number of reproductive modes in Brazil. JOURNAL OF TROPICAL ECOLOGY, v. 26, n. 4, p. 423-432, JUL 2010. Web of Science Citations: 26.