Climatic variables influence the temporal dynamics of an anuran metacommunity in a nonstationary way

Abstract

Understanding the temporal dynamics of communities is crucial to predict how communities respond to climate change. Several factors can promote variation in phenology among species, including tracking of seasonal resources, adaptive responses to other species, demographic stochasticity, and physiological constraints. The activities of ectothermic vertebrates are sensitive to climatic variations due to the effect of temperature and humidity on species physiology. However, most studies on temporal dynamics have analyzed multi‐year data and do not have resolution to discriminate within‐year patterns that can determine community assembly cycles. Here, we tested the temporal stability and synchrony of calling activity and also how climatic variables influence anuran species composition throughout the year in a metacommunity in the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. Using a multivariate method, we described how the relationship between species composition and climatic variables changes through time. The metacommunity showed a weak synchronous spatial pattern, meaning that species responded independently to environmental variation. Interestingly, species composition exhibited a nonstationary response to climate, suggesting that climate affects species composition differently depending on the season. The species‐climate relationship was stronger during the spring, summer, and winter, mainly influenced by temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Thus, temporal community dynamics seem to be mediated by species life‐history traits, in which independent fluctuations promote community stability in temporally varying environments.

Unravelling the environmental correlates influencing the seasonal biodiversity of aquatic Heteropteran assemblages in northern Africa

“…This is consistent with previous Mediterranean ecosystem assessment studies, and results that identified macroinvertebrate diversity as contributing disproportionately to ecological knowledge for the North African region (Beauchard et al, 2003;Ball et al, 2013;De Figueroa et al, 2013;Slimani et al, 2019). Benthic macroinvertebrates depend on a wide range of abiotic factors, including climate, water physiochemistry, anthropogenic pressures and riparian habitat availability (White et al, 2019;Ceron et al, 2020) and this study confirms that this is also true for aquatic insects such as Heteroptera. This study also supports the finding of research linking the distribution and abundance of some Aquatic Heteroptera to water physico-chemistry from other regions (Savage, 1994;Hufnagel et al, 1999).…”

Seasonal variation in patterns of anuran diversity along a subtropical elevational gradient

“…Therefore, as suggested by our models, the increase in anuran diversity from spring to summer, followed by a decrease through winter, is most likely related to seasonal changes in temperature. Similar cyclic patterns were also observed for other subtropical regions (Bolzan et al, 2019; Ceron et al, 2020). As temperature increases through the summer, higher elevations also become warmer and climatically suitable for larger numbers of species.…”

“…Some habitat specialist anuran species (e.g., ground‐dwelling and stream‐dwelling) may have been undersampled. However, previous studies in this region showed that most anuran species found belong to Hylidae, Leptodactylidae and Bufonidae families (~78%–80% of all species; Ceron et al, 2020; Carvalho‐Rocha et al, 2021), which mostly use lentic aquatic environments for reproduction (Haddad et al, 2013; Nunes‐de‐Almeida et al, 2021). Selected ponds spanned elevations between 312 and 1798 m, and were distributed irregularly within this range, but not biased for or against any single elevational band of the gradient (McCain & Grytnes, 2010).…”

Historia Natural De Los Anuros De Serra Dona Francisca, Un Remanente De La Mata Atlántica en El Sur De Brasil

“…Even without a dry season, the subtropical Atlantic Forest present lower temperatures during autumn and winter, with lower precipitation in autumn (Conte and Machado, 2005, Conte and Rossa-Feres, 2007, Santos and Conte, 2014. This evidence Vitreorana uranoscopa reinforces the temperature as the main abiotic factor structuring amphibian communities in subtropical environments (Ceron et al, 2020).…”