Richness and composition of anuran assemblages from an Amazonian savanna

Abstract

The Amazonian savannas occupy approximately 150,000 km2 of the Brazilian Amazon, occurring in scattered isolated patches over large areas of forest in the states of Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Roraima and Rondônia. Despite having considerable variation in the Anuran composition between locations and between the savanna’s physiognomies, a systematic and geographically wide sampling has not been performed for the savanna from Amapá yet, located in the north of Brazil, eastern Amazonia. In this perspective, a study was conducted on the richness, composition, diversity, and abundance of Anuran species in a ​​savanna area in Amapá State. For Anuran sampling, we performed 24 samples in four physiognomies (grassland savanna, scrub grassland savanna, parkland savanna, open woodland savanna) through an active and auditory search more than 20 sampling plots of 100 × 50 meters in each physiognomy. Twenty-one (21) species of frogs belonging to five families were registered: Bufonidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Microhylidae and Phyllomedusidae. Scrub grassland savanna registered a greater number of individuals regarding the species richness by physiognomy. The species rarefaction curve for the total area reached an asymptote, suggesting that the data collection effort was enough to adequately sample the species richness of the area. The Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis revealed significant differences in the species richness and diversity among the physiognomies. The Bray-Curtis similarity analysis grouped the physiognomies into three main groups: open woodland savanna, grassland savanna and scrub grassland savanna and parkland savanna. Through ordering by non-metric multidimensional scaling, the species composition from the savanna anuran assemblage resulted in a separation among three sampled physiognomies with significant differences, indicating differences in assemblage composition of the three sampled physiognomies. The local richness (21 species) corresponds to 14% of the 15 typical species that have strongly associated distribution with the Cerrado from Central Brazil, and 35.6% of 59 typical species of neighboring domains which only marginally occur in the Cerrado, representing a considerable part of frog species richness recorded in the savanna in the eastern portion of the Brazilian Amazon.