Influence of vegetation heterogeneity and landscape characteristics on anuran species composition in aquatic habitats along an urban-rural gradient in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Amphibians are exposed to a number of negative factors in urban areas and the influence of a specific variable can vary among different ecological systems. This study provides information on the anurofauna along an urban-rural gradient in Araçatuba, São Paulo State, Brazil. Anurans were sampled in 11 breeding habitats distributed throughout seven surveyed sites in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, during six field visits between May 2011 and January 2013. We recorded 23 species of anurans belonging to 12 genera and four families. For both urban and peri-urban regions, we recorded 11 species per area, the number of species in the rural area reaching 20. The greatest similarity in species composition found at urban and peri-urban sites showed the urbanization-induced impoverishment and homogenization of their anuran communities. In contrast, the anurofauna of the rural area was rich and diversified. Vegetation heterogeneity in breeding habitats and forest formations surrounding these water bodies was found to have a positive effect on species richness and composition and, therefore, to be an important factor affecting amphibian populations in water bodies in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.

Keywords:

• Amphibians
• conservation
• vegetation heterogeneity
• inventory
• anthropic disturbance

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Camila Aoki for her valuable suggestions on previous versions of the manuscript, Célio H. Oda and Diego H. Oda for providing field assistance, the Secretaria de Meio Ambiente e Sustentabilidade de Araçatuba, the Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (FMVA/UNESP), and rural property owners, who granted us access to their properties. The Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade/Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade – ICMBio/SISBIO (process nº 31859-1) kindly provided a collecting permit. TSV’s research is supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (grant number 2011/18510-0). FHO received postdoctoral fellowship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES. RMT and ALFB are a Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq grantee of a research productivity partnership. The satellite image of Araçatuba was extracted from Google Earth (© 2016 Google/Landsat/Copernicus), building images were designed by Ram_clotario/Freepix. Garden grass images were designed by Freepix, and tree images were designed by Pixeden.com.