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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Patch size matters for amphibians in tropical fragmented landscapes

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Author(s):
Almeida-Gomes, Mauricio [1] ; Vieira, Marcus Vinicius [1] ; Duarte Rocha, Carlos Frederico [2] ; Metzger, Jean Paul [3] ; De Coster, Greet [3, 4]
Total Authors: 5
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Dept Ecol, Lab Vertebrados, Ave Carlos Chagas Filho 373, BR-21941902 Rio De Janeiro, RJ - Brazil
[2] Univ Estado Rio de Janeiro, Dept Ecol, Rua Sao Francisco Xavier 524, BR-20550900 Rio De Janeiro, RJ - Brazil
[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biociencias, Dept Ecol, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil
[4] Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Dept Life Sci, Grand Challenges Ecosyst & Environm, Silwood Pk Campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, Berks - England
Total Affiliations: 4
Document type: Journal article
Source: Biological Conservation; v. 195, p. 89-96, MAR 2016.
Web of Science Citations: 9
Abstract

Several factors may affect the persistence of amphibian species in tropical fragmented landscapes, including the size of remaining patches. While fragment size is considered the main factor acting on species diversity for most taxa, it is less clear how it affects amphibian diversity. A possible reason is that the scale at which previous studies were conducted was too small (only few forest fragments and/or a small range of fragment sizes considered) and/or the sampling method was not the most optimal one. We investigate whether amphibian diversity is affected by patch size in the largest study (in terms of number of fragments and range of fragment sizes) ever conducted in tropical forests. We predicted that larger forest remnants hold higher amphibian diversity compared to smaller patches, and that continuously forest sites were more diverse than forest fragments. We used the visual encounter survey method to collect data from 24 sites (21 forest fragments between 1.9 and 619 ha and three sites within a large continuous forest remnant) located in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a highly threatened biodiversity hotspot. We recorded a total of 2839 individuals from 50 species. In line with our predictions, larger fragments had more species, more integer communities and a larger diversity of reproductive modes than smaller ones. In addition, we found higher values for all diversity measures in continuous forest sites compared to fragments. These results indicate that continuous forests are irreplaceable for amphibian conservation, but also show that large forest fragments outside these areas are important for sustaining amphibian diversity. Our study provides robust empirical evidence for the importance of fragment size for amphibian persistence in tropical fragmented landscapes and highlights the need for an adequate sampling design and method that enable the detection of a higher number of species. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 14/14746-7 - Avian ecosystem functions under a climate change scenario
Grantee:Greet De Coster
Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
FAPESP's process: 12/06866-7 - The recovery of avian ecosystem functions in secondary Atlantic Forest
Grantee:Greet De Coster
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral