Journal Article

Lowland extirpation of anuran populations on a tropical mountain

Campos-Cerqueira, Marconi, Aide, T. Mitchell

2017

Overview

Climate change and infectious diseases threaten animal and plant species, even in natural and protected areas. To cope with these changes, species may acclimate, adapt, move or decline. Here, we test for shifts in anuran distributions in the Luquillo Mountains (LM), a tropical montane forest in Puerto Rico by comparing species distributions from historical (1931-1989)and current data (2015/2016). Historical data, which included different methodologies, were gathered through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and published literature, and the current data were collected using acoustic recorders along three elevational transects. In the recordings, we detected the 12 native frog species known to occur in LM. Over a span of ∼25 years, two species have become extinct and four species suffered extirpation in lowland areas. As a consequence, low elevation areas in the LM (<300 m) have lost at least six anuran species. We hypothesize that these extirpations are due to the effects of climate change and infectious diseases, which are restricting many species to higher elevations and a much smaller area. Land use change is not responsible for these changes because LM has been a protected reserve for the past 80 years. However, previous studies indicate that (1) climate change has increased temperatures in Puerto Rico, and (2) was found in 10 native species and early detection of Bd coincides with anurans declines in the LM. Our study confirms the general impressions of amphibian population extirpations at low elevations, and corroborates the levels of threat assigned by IUCN.

• Publisher: PeerJ. Ltd,PeerJ, Inc,PeerJ Inc
• Subject: Acoustic monitoring / Analysis / Animal diseases / Animal species / Batrachochytrium / Biodiversity / Climate change / Climate Change Biology / Climate effects / Conservation Biology / Distribution / Ecology / Ecosystem biology / Ecosystems / Eleutherodactylus coqui / Elevation / Endangered species / Environmental aspects / Extinct species / Extinction / Forests / Frogs / Indigenous species / Infectious disease / Infectious diseases / Land use / Local extinction / Local extinctions / Montane environments / Mountain forests / Mountains / Occupancy / Plant protection / Plant species / Population / Protected areas / Trends / Tropical forests / Wildlife conservation