Padrões de diversidade de Leptodactilídeos (Anura, Leptodactylidae) no cerrado brasileiro

Abstract

Species richness is the number of species in a region and is still one of the key biodiversity measures. Anurans are some of the most threatened groups and they are highly influenced by climate variation. The Cerrado is one of the largest Brazilian biomes, being on the list of threatened biomes due human activities, specially agriculture. The knowledgement about patterns of anuran richness on Cerrado is fundamental to guide conservation strategies for this group. The family Leptodactylidae presents differences from other families of anurans, mainly related evolutive tendency to terrestriality in reproduction. Thus, the study of less inclusive taxonomic levels (e. g. Family) can provide different answers from that observed in more inclusive taxa (e. g. Order). Our goals were to evaluate the influence of environmental variables on leptodactylid richness in the Brazilian Cerrado. We used geographic distribution maps and climate data in 1º grids to test which variables better explain leptodactylid richness, using a model selection and model average approaches. We found high leptodactylid richness in the central and eastern portions of the Cerrado. The richness of leptodactylides had a low positive relation with temperature and moderate negative relation with isothermality. The negative relationship between isothermality and richness probably reflects an adaptation to the environmental seasonality and shows how this family can respond to possible environmental cues that indicate the reproductive period.