Patterns of species richness and turnover in endemic amphibians of the Guineo‐Congolian rain forest

Abstract

Aim:The African Guineo-Congolian (GC) region is a global biodiversity hotspot with high species endemism, bioclimatic heterogeneity, complex landscape features, and multiple biogeographic barriers. Bioclimatic and geographic variables influence global patterns of species richness and endemism, but their relative importance varies across taxa and regions and is poorly understood for many faunas. Here, we test the hypothesis that turnover in endemic amphibians of the GC biodiversity hotspot is influenced mainly by the geographic distance between grid cells and secondarily by rainfall-and temperature-related variables.Location: West and Central Africa.Major Taxa Studied: Amphibians. Methods:We compiled species-occurrence records via field sampling, online databases, and taxonomic literature. Our study used 1205 unique georeferenced records of 222 amphibian species endemic to the GC region. Patterns of species richness were mapped onto a grid with a spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°. We estimated weighted endemism and tested whether endemism was higher than the expected species richness (randomization test). We quantified species turnover using generalized dissimilarity modelling to evaluate the processes underlying observed patterns of species richness in GC endemic amphibians. We explored bioregionalization using agglomerative hierarchical clustering based on the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages. Results: We identified seven areas within the lower GC region -forests in Cameroon, Gabon, Southern Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cote d'Ivoire -as having high species richness of endemic amphibians. The randomization test returned four major areas of significant weighted endemism: Nigeria-Cameroon mountains, forest regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Ghana. Our analysis revealed five bioregions for amphibian

A Comprehensive Review of Patented Antimicrobial Peptides from Amphibian Anurans

“…Despite the high diversity of amphibians found in South America, Central America, and Africa, − we found that the percentage of patents related to AMPs granted in these regions is low (South America, 3.7%) or nonexistent. The fact that South America has 15.0% of the natural AMPs described in the literature (Figure A,B and Supporting Information 1.1–1.3) makes these numbers even more surprising.…”

“…The factors contributing to this research gap in Africa and Central and South America include challenging access to remote areas but mainly a lack of funding for conducting basic and applied research. Thus, as exemplified with Brazil, it is clear that the need for policies incentivizing such studies, including funds and resources, is crucial to unlocking the full potential of these highly biodiverse regions for novel drug discovery and conservation efforts. − ,, …”

Shifts in bioclimatic zones mirror climate change signals in a tropical agriculture‐dominated Bharathapuzha River basin of southern Western Ghats (India)

“…Being predominantly used for ecological modelling (Molloy et al, 2014), they represent generalized climate characteristics over a period of time. Bioclimatic variables are widely used in ecological sciences to understand species distributions (Ahmed et al, 2020;Amiri et al, 2020;Yoon & Lee, 2021), assess biodiversity patterns (Hurtado et al, 2020;Nneji et al, 2023) and model ecosystem responses to climate change (Pramanik et al, 2018). Hossell et al (2003) developed a bioclimatic classification for Britain and Ireland, with the objective of identifying areas of significant conservation value by analysing climate variables and bioclimatic indices and demonstrated the significance of bioclimatic variables for highlighting the diversity of habitats, especially in regions characterized by remarkable ecological variability.…”