Amphibians found in the Amazonian Savanna of the Rio Curiaú Environmental Protection Area in Amapá, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract:Amphibian research has grown steadily in recent years in the Amazon region, especially in the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, and Amapá, and neighboring areas of the Guiana Shield. Even so, few data are available for the Amazonian savannas of Brazil. To contribute to the understanding of the diversity of the amphibians of these savannas, we surveyed 15 temporary ponds, six located in open areas, seven on the edge of savanna forest, and two within the forest, in the savanna of the Rio Curiaú Environmental Protection Area (EPA) in Macapá, in the state of Amapá, northern Brazil. Sampling occurred from May 2013 to August 2014 during periods when the ponds contained water. Amphibians were sampled through visual and auditory surveys conducted during both the day-and the nighttime periods on seven days each month over a total of 84 days. A total of 1574 individuals belonging to four families, 12 genera, and 28 species were recorded during the surveys. The cumulative species curve reached the asymptote, indicating that sampling effort was adequate. The number of species was 25% higher than that reported in other studies in Amazonian savannas. Twelve species were recorded for the first time in the savanna of Amapá. Lysapsus boliviana was the most common species (n = 332 of the individuals recorded). The greatest amphibian species richness found in the Rio Curiaú EPA was associated with the savanna mosaic, forest patches, lowland swamp, and temporary ponds. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of the diversity of amphibian species in the Guianan area of endemism in northern Brazil, and also the Amazonian savannas.

Biodiversity, threats and conservation challenges in the Cerrado of Amapá, an Amazonian savanna

“…The species Philodendron carinatum E.G.Gonç., also found in the Cerrado of Amapá, is considered rare in Brazil (Temponi et al 2009). Amphibian species richness is high relative to other Amazonian savannas, likely maintained by the complex mosaic of savanna, forest patches, swamps and temporary ponds (Lima et al 2017). Two fish species have also been described from the Cerrado of Amapá -the Amapá tetra Hyphessobrycon amapaensis (Zarske and Géry 1998), and Melanorivulus schuncki (Costa and De Luca 2010).…”

Anuran species composition of Cancão Municipal Natural Park, Municipality of Serra do Navio, Amapá state, Brazil

“…The anuran fauna corresponded to 65.7 % of the recorded species for the Tumucumaque Mountains National Park (Lima 2008), 86.9 % of the species found in the River Cajari Extractive Reserve (Queiroz et al 2011), 60.9 % species recorded during the surveys conducted of the Rio Curiaú Environmental Protection Area (Lima et al 2017), and 90.6 % species of anurans recorded in the Amapá National Forest (Bemício and Lima 2017). This high anurans richness for the Amazonian biome is highly underestimated considering taxonomic problems, recent descriptions of species and taxonomic revisions (Peloso et al 2014; Vaz-Silva et al 2015).…”

“…Although be inserted in a region of great interest for conservation and presents gaps knowledge on anurans (Azevedo-Ramos and Galatti 2002), Amapá state is little studied in relation to its anurans fauna (Lima 2008, Queiroz et al 2011, Pereira-Júnior et al 2013, Araújo and Costa-Campos 2014, Costa-Campos 2015, Costa-Campos et al 2015, Lima et al 2017, Benício and Lima 2017). In this context, the present study aims to provide the list of species of anuran amphibians that occur in the area of the Cancão Municipal Natural Park, municipality of Serra do Navio, state of Amapá, eastern Amazon.…”

Prey availability influences the diet of Scinax fuscomarginatus in a Cerrado area, Central Brazil

“…The snouted tree frog Scinax fuscomarginatus (A. Lutz, 1925) is characterized by its elongated body, small size (average snout-vent length: 23 mm), and yellowish back with wide dark brown sidebands (Brusquetti et al, 2014). It occurs in southern, central, and eastern Brazil (as far north as Piauí and Ceará, west to southern Amazonas), eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and north-western Argentina (Leite Jr et al, 2008;Lima et al, 2017). Studies performed with the species have focused on taxonomy (Brusquetti et al, 2014), reproduction Haddad, 2005a, 2005b) and geographic distribution (Leite Jr et al, 2008;Lima et al, 2017), with no data about the diet of the species.…”

“…It occurs in southern, central, and eastern Brazil (as far north as Piauí and Ceará, west to southern Amazonas), eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and north-western Argentina (Leite Jr et al, 2008;Lima et al, 2017). Studies performed with the species have focused on taxonomy (Brusquetti et al, 2014), reproduction Haddad, 2005a, 2005b) and geographic distribution (Leite Jr et al, 2008;Lima et al, 2017), with no data about the diet of the species. Given the lack of information about this species' natural history, and the importance of prey availability for anuran diets, the aim of this study was to describe the diet of Scinax fuscomarginatus, to verify whether the species has a generalist diet, as suggested for other species in the genus (Blanco Torres et al, 2017), and to evaluate whether this generalist diet is related to prey availability in its environment.…”