Anuran diversity in ponds associated with soybean plantations

Abstract

Anurans are considered one of the most threatened animal groups in the world. Agricultural activities are related to water pollution and contamination, which affects biphasic organisms such as amphibians. Brazilian soybean cultivation covers about 36 million hectares and encompasses many remaining ponds used as breeding sites for amphibians. In this study, we evaluated richness, abundance and composition of the anuran communities in ponds with different levels of association with soybean cultivation. A total of 18 anuran species were recorded with an abundance of 421 collected tadpoles and 1230 adult males on average. Ponds presented in soybean plantations were distinct from those adjacent to plantations regarding water properties and tadpole richness and abundance, as well as composition of tadpoles and adults. Ponds inserted in plantations had communities with lower diversity and abundance. One explanation for these results is likely the detrimental effect of soybean management, which suggests that this decrease is a result of community changes. This serves as an alert about the importance of buffer areas around plantations and the use of adequate techniques for pesticide application.

Functional traits drive tadpole responses to land use in coastal areas

“…There is an ongoing debate about wetlands' conversion to grow crops, but rice fields are sometimes considered supplementary habitats for aquatic species (Maltchik et al, 2017). Although there are similar deleterious impacts in both crops (agrochemicals, land preparation, vegetation homogenisation), soy fields pose a harsher environment for tadpoles when compared to rice fields (Cunha et al, 2021;Moreira et al, 2014). Because rice fields retained water during most of the cultivation cycle (sometimes also in the off-season), differences in land management may favour the dominance of ground-dwelling species with benthonic tadpoles.…”

Decoupled responses of biodiversity facets driven from anuran vulnerability to climate and land‐use changes

“…Although the sampled ponds still host relatively diverse anuran assemblages, the surrounding landscape is highly altered with the wetlands being constantly drained and vegetation replaced by pastures and cropland, mainly soybean (Gallant et al, 2007;Souza et al, 2017). One of the few studies contrasting anuran assemblages in ponds within soybean plantations and adjacent ponds outside the plantation zone found that tadpole abundance and richness were considerably lower in ponds within plantations (Cunha et al, 2021). Thus, even though communities may still be diverse locally, at the regional scale the metacommunity formed by ponds may be highly threatened.…”