Biogeographic distribution patterns and their correlates in the diverse frog fauna of the Atlantic Forest hotspot.

ABSTRACT: Anurans are a highly diverse group in the Atlantic Forest hotspot (AF), yet distribution patterns and species richness gradients are not randomly distributed throughout the biome. Thus, we explore how anuran species are distributed in this complex and biodiverse hotspot, and hypothesize that this group can be distinguished by different cohesive regions. We used range maps of 497 species to obtain a presence/absence data grid, resolved to 50×50 km grain size, which was submitted to k-means clustering with v-fold cross-validation to determine the biogeographic regions. We also explored the extent to which current environmental variables, topography, and floristic structure of the AF are expected to identify the cluster patterns recognized by the k-means clustering. The biogeographic patterns

SUBMITTER: Vasconcelos TS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4139199 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature