Diversity of leaf-litter anurans in a fragmented landscape of the Atlantic Plateau of São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a tropical country and has the greatest anuran species richness in the world: the Atlantic Forest has roughly half of these species. We contribute to the knowledge of the anurans of the Brazilian Atlantic Plateau, determining the composition of anuran fauna associated with leaf litter in six landscapes, patterns of spatial distribution and levels of similarity among these landscapes and other communities. The sampling by pitfall traps was conducted in São Paulo state, at a total of 68 sites distributed among continuous and fragmented landscapes. The anuran fauna of these sites is typical of dense ombrophilous forest, and the composition resembled those of other localities of the Atlantic Forest. A cluster analysis comparing the six landscapes resulted in three main groups (Caucaia + Reserva do Morro Grande; Tapiraí + Ribeirão Grande; Fazenda Paraíso + Parque Estadual Jurupará). In the cluster analysis comparing these faunas to those of other localities, we could not find an effect of geographic distance on the differences in composition among areas.

Keywords:

• frog
• conservation
• fragmentation
• Atlantic Forest
• South America

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Célio F. B. Haddad for identifying some anurans, to the team who helped in the fieldwork and to several landowners who authorized access to their properties. This work was carried out under permits for the capture and collection of amphibians and reptiles from the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA). Funding was provided by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP; process number 06/58584-4) and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). RTB and THC had grants from FAPESP (process numbers 2006/58584-4 and 01/07916-3, respectively).