Forest Fragments Surrounded by Sugar Cane Are More Inhospitable to Terrestrial Amphibian Abundance Than Fragments Surrounded by Pasture

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in matrix-type influence on forest fragments. Terrestrial amphibians are good bioindicators for this kind of research because of low vagility and high philopatry. This study compared richness, abundance, and species composition of terrestrial amphibians through pitfall traps in two sets of semideciduous seasonal forest fragments in southeastern Brazil, according to the predominant surrounding matrix (sugar cane and pasture). There were no differences in richness, but fragments surrounded by sugar cane had the lowest abundance of amphibians, whereas fragments surrounded by pastures had greater abundance. The most abundant species,Rhinella ornata, showed no biometric differences between fragment groups but like many other amphibians sampled showed very low numbers of individuals in fragments dominated by sugar cane fields. Our data indicate that the sugar cane matrix negatively influences the community of amphibians present in fragments surrounded by this type of land use.

Agricultural matrices affect ground ant assemblage composition inside forest fragments

“…This selective pressure acts on the species, and only those with a wide niche can survive in this type of environment [ 11 , 72 ]. Similar results have been found for birds [ 73 ] and amphibians [ 74 ].…”

High Genetic Variability in a Small Toad From the Brazilian Atlantic Forest / Alta Variabilidade Genética Num Pequeno Sapo Da Mata Atlântica Brasileira

“…Although these findings are consistent with other studies (Arruda et al 2011;Dixo et al 2009), they apparently contradict a study (D'Anunciação et al 2013) with an amphibian community in the same area. This study points out the conditions of the pasture matrix as more conducive to amphibians, especially for R. ornata, in relation to the sugar cane matrix.…”

“…Moreover, this was the most abundant species on the effects of matrix type on amphibian diversity in some of the same forest remnants in this study (D'Anunciação et al 2013). An important tool in such studies is mitochondrial gene sequences, largely used in the reconstruction of pedigrees and genetic variability in the description of species (Moritz, Dowling, and Brown 1987).…”

“…Furthermore, one study has reported that these sequences are more sensitive to genetic drift and population bottlenecks (Moritz 1994). This region of the mtDNA was used as a molecular tool in this study to test a gap not explored by previous works (D'Anunciação et al 2013;Dixo et al 2009) to check if three predominant and different types of matrices influence the intra and interpopulational genetic variability of an extremely abundant amphibian in forest fragments of the Atlantic Forest.…”

Association between land use and composition of amphibian species in temperate Brazilian forest remnants

“…Breeding site configuration, such as pond descriptors, for example, would play a bigger role than land use over tadpole species diversity (Dalmolin et al 2020). Although we have no detailed data to support this hypothesis, several studies have shown that microhabitat characteristics affect amphibian richness (D’Anunciação et al 2013; Knauth et al 2018; Figueiredo et al 2019). Forest heterogeneity, leaf litter depth, canopy cover and presence of clearings are examples of local descriptors that are not detected at a landscape level but affect anuran species composition (Ferrante et al 2017; Howell et al 2019).…”