Land-use and land-cover effects on regional biodiversity distribution in a subtropical dry forest: a hierarchical integrative multi-taxa study

Abstract

Land-use and land-cover effects on regional biodiversity distribution in a subtropical dry forest: a hierarchical integrative multitaxa study

Environmental, land cover and land use constraints on the distributional patterns of anurans:Leptodacylusspecies (Anura, Leptodactylidae) from Dry Chaco

“…This result matches that of Torres et al (2014), who found that the response of the probability of presence of all the analyzed amphibian species in Argentinean northwestern Dry Chaco to woody biomass was negative. The importance of open habitats for Leptodactylus species suggests that these species evolved in landscapes which were more similar to open habitats than to forests, a scenario proposed for the pre-European landscape of the Chaco (Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959a; Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959b; Adámoli et al, 1972; Adámoli et al, 1990; Bucher & Huszar, 1999), in which the substantial contemporary woodland advance has been a result of domestic livestock overgrazing (Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959a; Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959b; Adámoli et al, 1990).…”

“…The importance of open habitats for Leptodactylus species suggests that these species evolved in landscapes which were more similar to open habitats than to forests, a scenario proposed for the pre-European landscape of the Chaco (Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959a; Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959b; Adámoli et al, 1972; Adámoli et al, 1990; Bucher & Huszar, 1999), in which the substantial contemporary woodland advance has been a result of domestic livestock overgrazing (Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959a; Morello & Saravia Toledo, 1959b; Adámoli et al, 1990). Thus, savannas might have been an important cover type where part of the chacoan biota evolved (Torres et al, 2014). …”

“…Thus, analyses assessing the impacts of LULC on the geographic patterns of distribution of taxonomic groups are of major importance, since different taxa are affected in different ways by land use and by its changes (Schulze et al, 2004; Leroux et al, 2010; Dallimer et al, 2012). Amphibians exhibit high richness in the Dry Chaco, which has been scarcely studied in association to land cover changes (Torres et al, 2014). This fact is worrying since amphibians have become a high-priority group for conservation efforts (de Pous et al, 2010; Urbina-Cardona & Flores-Villela, 2010; Trindade-Filho et al, 2012; Nori et al, 2013; Nori et al, 2015) due to the concern about declines in their populations, and amphibian species extinctions around the world (Young et al, 2001).…”

Determinants of the spatial distribution of cultivated land in the North Argentine Dry Chaco in a multi-decadal study

“…We therefore prioritized information consistency by using only one information source for the whole study area, and we chose a dataset that has been used in others studies in order to facilitate integration with these studies (e.g. Torres et al, 2014).…”

Monitoring landscape changes in Caucasian black grouse (Tetrao mlokosiewiczi) habitat in Iran during the last two decades

“…Land use/cover change via altering habitat area and spatial distribution of habitat patches affect the structure and spatial heterogeneity of a landscape (Broadbent et al 2012). Landscape changes and habitat fragmentation in protected areas and ecologically sensitive regions can have negative impacts on wildlife populations (Lian et al 2011;Torres et al 2014).…”