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

ABSTRACT: Subtropical dry forests are among the most vulnerable biomes to land transformation at a global scale. Among them, the Dry Chaco suffers an accelerated change due to agriculture expansion and intensification. The Dry Chaco ecoregion is characterized by high levels of endemisms and species diversity, which are the result of a variety of climates and reliefs, allowing a wide variety of environments. The amphibian group exhibits a high richness in the Dry Chaco, which has been barely studied in relation to land cover changes. We used ecological niche models (ENMs) to assess the potential geographic distribution of 10 Leptodactylus species (Anura, Leptodactylidae), which are mainly distributed within the Dry Chaco. We characterized these distributions environmentally, analyzed their ove

SUBMITTER: Medina RG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5101610 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature