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Landscape context affects site occupancy of pond-breeding anurans across a disturbance gradient in the Brazilian Cerrado

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Abstract

Context

The Brazilian Cerrado, a global biodiversity hotspot, is being converted to agricultural production. Amphibians in particular are susceptible to agricultural practices that threaten both their wetland and upland habitats. Although local site variables are important for determining species occurrence, site occupancy is also mediated by the broader landscape and management context in which the site occurs.

Objectives

Investigate the relative effects of broad-, intermediate-, and local-scale factors on species occurrence for pond-breeding anurans within different landscapes across an agricultural-disturbance gradient in the Cerrado.

Methods

Ponds were surveyed for adult anurans over 3 years within 18 landscapes (each 625 km2) that varied in their degree of agricultural land use (landscape context). We analyzed species distribution models for eight pond-breeding anurans, using hierarchical binomial generalized linear models.

Results

The broader landscape context had a significant effect on the incidence of pond-breeding anurans, even after accounting for variation in other environmental factors at more local (pond) or intermediate (1-km2) scales. The top-ranked models for most species included some combination of broad-, intermediate- and local-scale factors, however. These covariates influenced species occurrence in different ways, with the response to agricultural disturbance varying among species. Although some species were negatively affected, others appeared to benefit from agricultural activities that increased breeding habitat (e.g., impoundments to provide water for cattle).

Conclusions

Landscape context, the degree to which landscapes have been transformed by agricultural land use, has a major influence on the distribution of pond-breeding anurans in the Brazilian Cerrado.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful for the Pan-American support for this study that was provided by the Animal Behavior and Herpetology Lab (Federal University of Goiás, Brazil); to the Theory, Metapopulation, and Landscape Ecology Lab (Federal University of Goiás, Brazil); and the Laboratory for Landscape and Conservation Ecology (Kansas State University, USA). We are also thankful to researchers from the Remote Sensing Research Laboratory (Kansas State University, USA) for their assistance with the analysis of remotely sensed imagery. Luciana Signorelli acknowledges scholarships provided by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES—PDSE 18618/12-0; SISBIOTA 563075/2010-4), and a postdoctoral fellowship provided by the “Ciências sem Fronteiras” program (PDE 249755/2013-0). Rogério P. Bastos was supported by a fellowship from CNPq. We are also grateful to Girinos do Brasil (SISBIOTA: Grants CNPq 563075/2010-4 and FAPESP 2010/52321-7) for financial support. Finally, we thank the field assistants for their efforts in conducting the frog surveys, and the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biobiversidade (ICMBio/RAN) for providing the necessary collecting permits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Luciana Signorelli & Kimberly A. With

  2. Ecology Department, Biological Sciences Institute, Federal University of Goiás, Campus II, Goiânia, GO, 74001-970, Brazil

    Luciana Signorelli, Rogério P. Bastos & Paulo De Marco Jr

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  1. Luciana Signorelli
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  2. Rogério P. Bastos
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Correspondence to Luciana Signorelli.

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Signorelli, L., Bastos, R.P., De Marco, P. et al. Landscape context affects site occupancy of pond-breeding anurans across a disturbance gradient in the Brazilian Cerrado. Landscape Ecol 31, 1997–2012 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0376-8

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