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Vol. 51 No. 7, 2012
What
is the Role of Heterogeneity and Spatial Autocorrelation of Ponds in
the Organization of Frog Communities in Southern Brazil?
Samanta
Iop1,*, Vinícius Matheus Caldart1, Tiago Gomes
dos Santos2, and Sonia Zanini Cechin1
1Programa
de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, Universidade Federal de
Santa Maria (UFSM), Av. Roraima, 1000, CEP 97105-900, Santa Maria, RS,
Brazil
2Universidade Federal do Pampa (Unipampa), Campus São
Gabriel. Av. Antônio Trilha, 1847, CEP 97300-000, São Gabriel, RS,
Brazil
Samanta Iop, Vinícius Matheus Caldart,
Tiago Gomes dos Santos, and Sonia Zanini Cechin (2012) The
composition of anuran communities is influenced by deterministic and/or
stochastic factors. In this study, we tested whether the
occurrence of anuran species in ponds differed from a null model of
random placement, hypothesizing that environmental heterogeneity and
spatial distribution of ponds have an influence on the structure of
anuran communities in southern Brazil. Data were collected for 7
months from 14 ponds located in Turvo State Park, Rio Grande do
Sul. To test whether distributions of species in the sampled
ponds varied from random, the null model, SIM 2, was applied, while the
roles of pond heterogeneity and proximity were evaluated by a
redundancy analysis using environmental and spatial descriptors.
Distributions of the 15 anuran species recorded in the studied ponds
were clearly not random, corroborating our hypothesis that the species
composition is influenced by environmental heterogeneity.
Geographical proximity did not affect pond species compositions.
However, the environmental descriptors had varying effects on anuran
communities at different locations, indicating the need for studies to
be carried out at local and/or regional levels in order to determine
which environmental characteristics are most important for the
conservation of anuran species.
Key words: Amphibia, Habitat use, Null model,
Hydroperiod, Spatial autocorrelation.
*Correspondence: E-mail:samantaiop@yahoo.com.br
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