Anurans of the Parque Estadual do Mirador, a remnant of Cerrado in the state of Maranhão, Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The Cerrado is one of the most threatened biomes in Brazil. It is estimated that much of its original vegetation has been replaced by some type of human use. This is quite worrying, mainly in the northern part where the number of wildlife inventories is insufficient and creates the false impression of low diversity in the region. The Parque Estadual do Mirador-PEM, located in the south-central region of the state of Maranhão, presents vegetation typical of the Cerrado biome and corresponds to one of 46 priority areas for conservation in the state. Herein, we describe the species richness and composition of the anurofauna from the PEM and analyze the influence of different types of vegetation in its formation. Our inventory was conducted from December 2013 to February 2015, using the active search and auditory census methods on breeding sites in different water bodies of the park. We recorded 31 anuran species belonging to five families (species number in parentheses): Leptodactylidae (14), Hylidae (12), Bufonidae (3), Microhylidae (1) and Phyllomedusidae (1). The rarefaction curve and species richness estimators indicated that the sampling effort was enough to record most of the species in the region. The richness of anurans in the PEM was higher than reported by other authors for several areas of Cerrado. Most species have a wide distribution in Brazil or are strongly associated with the Caatinga or Amazon biomes. Only about 19% are endemic to the Cerrado biome. This study is the first to inventory the anurans species of the south-central region of state of Maranhão and provides important data on amphibian communities from the northern part of the Brazilian Cerrado.Keywords: inventory, Amphibia, Anura, conservation unit, species richness. Anfíbios anuros do Parque Estadual do Mirador, um remanescente de Cerrado no estado do Maranhão, nordeste do BrasilResumo: O Cerrado é um dos biomas mais ameaçados do Brasil. Estima-se que grande parte da cobertura vegetal original deste bioma tenha sido substituída por alguma forma de utilização humana. Este fato é bastante preocupante, principalmente na porção norte, onde o número de inventários faunísticos é insuficiente e gera a falsa impressão de baixa diversidade na região. O Parque Estadual do Mirador-PEM, localizado na região centro-meridional do Maranhão, apresenta vegetação típica do Cerrado e corresponde a uma das 46 áreas prioritárias para conservação no estado. Aqui, nós descrevemos a riqueza e a composição da anurofauna no PEM, analisando a influência dos diferentes tipos vegetacionais na sua formação. Inventariamos a anurofauna de dezembro de 2013 a fevereiro de 2015, utilizando métodos de procura ativa e censo auditivo em sítios reprodutivos de diferentes corpos d'água do parque. Registramos 31 espécies de anuros, pertencentes a cinco famílias (números de espécies entre parênteses): Leptodactylidae (14), Hylidae (12), Bufonidae (3), Microhylidae (1)

First records of Symphyllophyton campos-portoi Gilg-Ben. (Gentianaceae) in Maranhão and Tocantins states, Brazil

“…The PEM area was expanded by the Law n o 8.958 of May 8, 2009, now having a total area of 766,781 ha (Maranhão 2009). According to the Köppen climate classification, the climate is of Aw type (dry sub-humid tropical), with annual rainfall of 1,200-1,400 mm, and average temperatures ranging from 19.5 °C to 33 °C (Alcân tara 2004; Andrade et al 2017).…”

Anurans of Sete Cidades National Park, Piauí state, northeastern Brazil

“…It is important to point out in both campaigns we used auditory census and active visual searches (Crump & Scott Jr. 1994) in different environments used by anurans within SCNP (Table 1; Figure 2), searching species on soil, water, and terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. These methods are indicated for inventory studies because are inexpensive and efficient to record the largest species number in the shortest time (Valdujo et al 2009, Andrade et al 2017. In both campaigns four researchers carried out field activities, starting around 18:00 h and ending at 00:00 h, resulting in the total sampling effort of 108 h/person.…”

“…We obtained anuran richness data from the following checklists conducted in 28 protected areas ( Figure 3): Caatinga (12 protected areas) -Catimbau National Park -CatNP, state of Pernambuco (Pedrosa et al 2014), Seridó Ecological Station -SerES, state of Rio Grande do Norte (Caldas et al 2016), Delta do Parnaíba Environmental Protection Area -DPEPA, states of Maranhão and Piauí (Loebmann & Mai 2008, Andrade et al 2016, Araújo et al 2018, Serra das Confusões National Park -SCoNP and Uruçuí-Una Ecological Station -UUES, both in state of Piauí (Dal Vechio et al 2013, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park -LMNP, state of Maranhão (Miranda 2007), Chapada do Araripe Environmental Protection Area -ChpEPA, Ubajara National Park -UbaNP and Aiuaba Ecological Station -AuES, state of Ceará (Ribeiro et al 2012, Costa et al 2018, Castro et al 2019, Chapada Diamantina National Park -CDNP and Raso da Catarina Ecological Station -RcatES, state of Bahia (Garda et al 2013, Magalhães et al 2015 Bertoluci 2007, Bertoluci et al 2009), Serra da Bodoquena National Park -SrBNP, state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Uetanabaro et al 2007), Assis Ecological Station -AsES, Jataí Ecological Station -JatES, Furnas de Bom Jesus State Park -FurSP, and Itirapina Ecological Station -ItiES, state of São Paulo (Brasileiro et al 2005, Araujo et al 2009, Prado et al 2009 We evaluate anuran species distribution and association with Brazilian biomes (IBGE 2019) from literature records (i.e. Roberto et al 2013, Andrade et al 2017, Araújo et al 2018, Frost 2020) and the amphibian conservation status is according to IUCN (2020). All diversity metrics and similarity analysis were performed using the packages adespatial (Dray et al 2019), BiodiversityR (Kindt and Coe 2005), and Vegan (Oksanen et al 2016) for R 5.6.1 (R Core Team 2019).…”

“…In addition, we filled the distribution gap between the Ibiapaba Plateau, state of Ceará (Loebmann & Haddad 2010), about 100 km northeast of the Sete Cidades National Park, and the populations recorded in Mirador State Park, state of Maranhão (Andrade et al 2017), about 539 km southwest of SCNP.…”

Anurans of a remnant of Mixed Rainforest in southern Brazil

“…The anuran amphibian community has been the focus of many studies in Brazil (e.g. Martins et al 2014, Leivas & Hiert 2016, Santos-Pereira et al 2016, Andrade et al 2017, Ceron et al 2017, Foerster & Conte 2018, Fiorillo et al 2018. Surveys typically provide important insights into the characteristics of an anuran community and its populations (Rocha et al 2003).…”