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Nightly patterns of calling activity in anuran assemblages of the Cerrado, Brazil

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Abstract

Anurans living in species-rich assemblages may experience acoustic niche overlap. To deal with potential masking interference during reproductive activity, species can present acoustic partitioning based on differences in calling period. Studies addressing this question in tropical assemblages have mainly focused on the seasonal scale, and little is known about nightly variation in calling. Here, we reported on phenology and abundance of five tropical anuran assemblages at both seasonal and daily scale and tested the effects of temperature and relative humidity on calling activity patterns of 19 species. Based on 420 hourly acoustic surveys, an overall peak of calling activity in between the first and fourth hour after sunset was identified by Rayleigh’s circular test, with a gradual decrease until sunrise. This nightly pattern was followed by most of the species in the assemblages and similarly observed for species presence and abundance of calling males. The acoustic niche overlap was greater than expected by chance within the assemblages, while no pattern of coincidence or segregation was found for the syntopic congeneric species (Dendropsophus, Boana and Leptodactylus). Moreover, the calling activity of the assemblages, measured as richness and diversity of calling species, was negatively influenced by air and water temperature and positively by relative humidity. Thus, climatic variables act as driver factors to determine calling activity and reproduction of anurans at daily scale. The absence of a segregation pattern at the assembly or genus levels in the calling activity over time indicates that the use of the acoustic temporal niche is not a limiting resource for Cerrado anurans.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Diego José Santana, Dr. Luiz dos Anjos, Dr. Rodrigo Lingnau and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on the manuscript. We would also like to thank everyone who helped us with fieldwork, and we also thank to the farmers for allowing us to conduct studies in their properties.

Funding

We thank the Postgraduate Program of Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais (PROEX/PEA) for the logistical support. VG would like to thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brazil (CAPES) for doctoral fellowship, and RPB thanks the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 308204/2013-1) for research productivity fellowship. VG was supported by CAPES/PROCAD-AM 1701/2018 (Grant No. 88887.374100/2019-00). DL was supported by a Global Marie S. Curie Fellowship (EAVESTROP-661408) granted by the European Commission (Program H2020) and a post-doctoral grant (2016-T2/AMB-1722, Atracción de Talento Investigador, Spain) provided by the Comunidad de Madrid and acknowledges a research project (CGL2017-88764-R, MINECO/AEI/FEDER, Spain) by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad. This paper is developed in the context of National Institutes for Science and Technology (INCT) in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, supported by MCTIC/CNPq (Proc. 465610/2014-5) and FAPEG (Proc. 201810267000023).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Manejo de Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Acre, CEP 69920-900, Brazil

    Vinicius Guerra

  2. Instituto Boitatá de Etnobiologia e Conservação da Fauna, Goiânia, Brazil

    Vinicius Guerra

  3. Laboratório de Herpetologia e Comportamento Animal, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus Samambaia, Goiânia, Goiás, CEP 74001-970, Brazil

    Nathane de Queiroz Costa, Diego Llusia & Rogério P. Bastos

  4. Terrestrial Ecology Group, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin, 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Edificio de Biología, C-211, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Diego Llusia

  5. Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Diego Llusia

  6. Fonoteca Zoológica, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Rafael Márquez

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  1. Vinicius Guerra
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  2. Nathane de Queiroz Costa
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  3. Diego Llusia
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Correspondence to Vinicius Guerra.

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The collection permission was granted by the Brazilian environmental agency, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), under License Number 46393. This study complies with the ASAB/ABS Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research and was conducted in accordance with all applicable international, national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals.

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Guerra, V., de Queiroz Costa, N., Llusia, D. et al. Nightly patterns of calling activity in anuran assemblages of the Cerrado, Brazil. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 21, 33–42 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-020-00013-8

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