ASSOCIATION BETWEEN LAND USE AND COMPOSITION OF AMPHIBIAN SPECIES IN TEMPERATE BRAZILIAN FOREST HABITATS

We evaluated the influence of landscape composition on the diversity of anurans in an Atlantic Forest habitat in southern Brazil. As natural habitat provides better conditions for the survival of amphibians, we expected to find more diverse communities in areas with greater forest cover. We sampled tadpoles in 25 waterbodies distributed in seven forest areas. We recorded 22 anuran species and richness varied from six to 12 species per area. Most of the recorded species were not forest specialists, except for Forest Treefrog (Boana curupi) and Schmidt's Spinythumb Frog (Crossodactylus schmidti). There was a significant overlap in the species composition among all waterbodies, and the Generalized Linear Mixed Model indicated that landscape configuration did not strongly affect species richness; however, land use drives the dissimilarity in the composition of the communities among waterbodies. Our main results show that forests and livestock farming influence changes in species assemblages among habitats. We reinforce the need for future studies incorporating temporal scale and a variety of spatial scales to assess landscape effects on species composition.