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While the speed of publication in academic journals has decreased over time, delays in the review process can still cause frustration and damage the authors’ career. During the COVID-19 lockdown, scientists struggled to manage tasks and academic journals announced possible publication delays due to reduced editorial capacity. In this context, COVID-19 research has been somewhat paradoxical, due to societal and editorial pressures for fast publication. We hypothesised that given the urgency of disseminating pandemic-related information, articles on the topic would be published as a priority in 2020. We analysed the submission-to-publication time lag for 5790 articles published between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 in eight ecology and eight medical journals. We also analysed patterns in the gender of first and last authors. All 16 journals were international, with relatively high impact factor (between 2.34 and 36.13) and partially or fully open access. Even though articles in general took longer to get published, the speed of publication increased in 2020, as the faster review of 419 COVID-19 articles compensated for the longer submission-to-publication time lag of non-COVID-19 publications. Manuscripts in journals with a higher impact factor and only partial open access took longer to get published during the last three years. In 2020, the ratio of articles with male and female first and last authors remained similar to that in 2019, maintaining the gender bias in scientific productivity. Female scientists, especially when they are providing maternity and other primary care, need more support for their careers, such as relief from teaching duties and adjustments on assessment criteria to access research funding. We advocate that topics besides COVID-19, particularly those that could help to solve other urgent crises, should also benefit from faster publication.

Spectral properties of animal acoustic signals may help individuals to assess the characteristics of rivals and to adjust their competitive strategies in territorial disputes. Thus, we hypothesized that the distribution of energy across frequency bands in anuran calls determines behavioral responses in male–male competition. Using playback experiments, we investigated the relevance of the harmonic calls in the acoustic communication of the treefrog Dendropsophus minutus. We exposed territorial males to three synthetic acoustic stimuli composed of aggressive notes: 1) standard call (all harmonics and peak frequency corresponding to the second band); 2) inverted-energy call (all harmonics and peak frequency corresponding to the first band); and 3) concentrated-energy call (all energy contained in the second harmonic). Males responded aggressively to all stimuli, mainly by increasing the rate and duration of their aggressive notes. However, when exposed to stimuli with different harmonic configurations, males changed the harmonic structure of their own calls, emitting more A- and B-notes with peak power in the fundamental frequency, particularly when exposed to the concentrated-energy call. Our results suggest that male frogs may use the harmonic structure of calls to assess opponents and modulate territorial and aggressive behavior, triggering complex acoustic adjustments. This study contributes to our knowledge about the functions of acoustic traits in amphibian social interactions, and particularly of the presence of harmonics that has received less attention compared to other acoustic properties in the study of animal acoustic communication.

Weakening environmental laws supported by disinformation are currently of concern in Brazil. An example of disinformation is the case of the "firefighter cattle". Supporters of this idea believe that by consuming organic mass, cattle decrease the risk of fire in natural ecosystems. This statement was cited by a member of the Bolsonaro government in response to the unprecedented 2020 fires in the Pantanal, as well as in support of a new law that enables extensive livestock in protected areas of this biome. By suggesting that grazing benefits the ecosystem, the "firefighter cattle" argument supports the interests of agribusiness. However, it ignores the real costs of livestock production on biodiversity. We analysed the social repercussion of the "firefighter cattle" by analysing public reactions to YouTube, Facebook, and Google News posts. These videos and articles and the responses to them either agreed or disagreed with the "firefighter cattle". Supportive posts were shared more on social media and triggered more interactions than critical posts. Even though many netizens disagreed with the idea of "firefighter cattle", it has gone viral, and was used as a tool to strengthen anti-environmental policies. We advocate that government institutions should use resources and guidelines provided by the scientific community to raise awareness. These materials include international reports produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We need to curb pseudoscience and misinformation in political discourse, avoiding misconceptions that threaten natural resources and confuse global society.

Water avaibility and temperature are major constraints driving phenological patterns in frogs. Our evidences based on community science shows that climate affect the period and duration of the reproductive season, as well as daily patterns of vocalisation in frogs. These patterns are independent of phylogenetic linages. Here we make available the supplementary material of our article in the journal "Diversity and Distributions".

While the 2020 coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global economy and has been controlling the social behavior of the human population (Bavel et al. 2020), it is uncertain if it will mitigate the current biodiversity crisis and help nature to return to a ‘‘healthier’’ state. COVID-19 put billions of humans in isolation worldwide and reduced local and global traffic, indirectly affecting nature in many ways (Corlett et al. 2020; Bates et al. 2020). Given this ‘anthropause’ (Rutz et al. 2020), coronavirus became an ecologically powerful force that can also modify the extinction risks for various non-human species. In the Anthropocene, human activities are driving countless species to extinction (Ceballos et al. 2015). In our globalized world, amphibians in particular have been imperiled by anthropogenic trade, as the spread of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has endangered hundreds of frog species worldwide (Scheele et al. 2019). Curtailing the spread of a human virus by reducing trade, traffic and human movements, in our opinion, will also protect frogs from this pathogenic fungus (Fig. 1). In addition, it can minimize the chances of spillback of various infectious diseases (Liu 2020), some of them affecting wild and domestic animals worldwide (Roberton et al. 2006)., LRF is grateful to the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for his current post-doctoral fellowship

Shelters are microhabitats where animals rest and hide. These microhabitats can be used from short daily periods to long-term estivation or hibernation. Environmental conditions and the phenotypical characteristics of the animal drive habitat selection in relation to shelters. Based on this, climate regions and phylogeny are expected to affect the use of different shelter types. Although shelters are yet to be described for most anuran species, a variety of microhabitats have already been reported as shelter-sites, including dense vegetation, rock crevices, and holes in the ground. In this study, we evaluated photos of frogs for sheltering behaviour from 29 countries in the Americas deposited on the popular citizen-science platform, iNaturalist. We compared the frequency of use of different shelter types identified on the photos among different climate regions and anuran families, also testing possible phylogenetic signals. We identified 11,133 photographs of 378 frog species showing individuals hiding in shelters or in a resting position. We classified observations into 10 shelter types, with live vegetation (24.7 %) being the most commonly recorded natural shelter, followed by hole in the ground (11.4 %) and tree trunk (11.1 %). The use of different shelter types varied between arid and humid climates, and also among different anuran families. We found strong phylogenetic signal for three shelter types (hole in the ground, live vegetation, and water) and the differences in shelter use among taxa suggest a relation with body characteristics. Approximately 47 % of observations of threatened and near threatened species were in hole in the ground, while artificial habitat represented only 3.6 % of the observations in this group. The daily pattern of shelter use corroborated the nocturnal activity of most species. Our findings also expanded the description of shelter sites for 330 species that had no published information on this behaviour. This study contributes to our current knowledge about animal behaviour and highlights the use of citizen science as an effective approach to understand the natural history of amphibians at a large scale.

In this project, our goal is to evaluate which species of parasites have been recognized in amphibian hosts in Brazil, where and when were studies of parasites in amphibians conducted and the complexity of amphibian-parasite interactive networks among Brazilian biomes.

Animal acoustic communication can be challenging under intense noise. Amphibians that inhabit noisy environments offer a great opportunity to study potential mechanisms that maximise signal transmission. Based on the hypothesis that frogs can adjust their calls to circumvent communication problems, we tested the effect of the duration of biotic sounds (intermittent acoustic signals from two syntopic species) on calling properties of a torrent frog species. We recorded 54 focal males at four localities with varied levels of synchronous noise. Duration of noise for each recording was obtained by summing the duration of calls emitted by two closely related species. Using linear mixed-effect models with air temperature and body size as co-factors, we found that focal males emitted calls at a narrower frequency bandwidth when they were exposed to longer durations of heterospecific signals. We suggest that males reduce the frequency bandwidth of their calls to minimise the masking effect of the background noise and to amplify auditory induction for the receiver individuals. This is the first study reporting that biotic noise can trigger changes in frequency bandwidth in frogs, shedding light on the role of the environment in shaping animal behaviour.

In this project, our goal is to evaluate which species of parasites have been recognized in amphibian hosts in Brazil, where and when were studies of parasites in amphibians conducted and the complexity of amphibian-parasite interactive networks among Brazilian biomes.

Studying feeding habits is crucial to understand complex predator-prey interactions. Even though anurans play a fundamental role in the control of arthropods populations, the diet of several Neotropical species is poorly known. We describe the frequency and occurrence of prey items and their dry mass in stomach contents of the Robber Frog Pristimantis paulodutrai in the north east of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Based on the stomach contents of 30 individuals, Araneae, Isopoda, and Formicidae were found to be the most important food items. The generalist diet of this frog, which seems to be phylogenetically conserved among Pristimantis, is likely to be linked to its ecological dominance in the habitats surveyed. Our study corroborates the high trophic relevance of Robber Frogs in tropical forests as generalist predators. Resumo: Estudar hábitos alimentares é crucial para entender as complexas interações predador-presa. Embora os anuros tenham papel fundamental no controle das populações de artrópodes, a dieta de várias espécies neotropicais é pouco conhecida. Descrevemos a frequência e a ocorrência de presas e sua massa seca no conteúdo estomacal da rã Pristimantis paulodutrai, no nordeste do estado da Bahia, Brasil. Com base no conteúdo estomacal de 30 indivíduos, Araneae, Isopoda e Formicidae foram os itens alimentares mais importantes. A dieta generalista desta rã, a qual parece ser conservada filogeneticamente entre os Pristimantis, provavelmente está ligada à sua dominância ecológica nos habitats pesquisados. Nosso estudo corrobora a alta relevância trófica dos Robber Frogs em florestas tropicais como predadores generalistas.

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T10:49:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-01-15 Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Aplectana longa n. sp. (Ascaridida: Cosmocercidae) from the small intestine of Gastrotheca microdiscus (Amphibia: Hemiphractidae) is described and illustrated. The new species is characterized by the combination of a unique set of morphological characters: 1) Large body size in both sexes; 2) Lateral alae absent; 3) Gubernaculum present, small, thin, weakly sclerotized, pointed at the distal end and curved proximally at the end, with a small and punctiform papilla-like dilation, and 4) Caudal papillae arrangement (9+1:0:6). The distribution pattern of caudal papillae is similar only to Aplectana chamaeleonsis. Nevertheless, Aplectana longa n. sp. is easily differentiated from this species by the arrangement of precloacal papillae. This is the 57th species of the Aplectana and the 16th species reported from Brazil. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus de Botucatu Instituto de Biociências Setor de Parasitologia, R. Prof. Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin, 250-Distrito de Rubião Junior Universidade Federal da Bahia Instituto de Biologia Campus de Ondina Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) Instituto de Ciências Agrárias, LMG-746, Km 1, Monte Carmelo Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Campus de Botucatu Instituto de Biociências Setor de Parasitologia, R. Prof. Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin, 250-Distrito de Rubião Junior CNPq: 140871/2017-9 CNPq: 141322/2018-7 CNPq: 150041/2017-9 CNPq: 309125/2017-0 CNPq: 313241/2018-0

Los nematodos cosmocercidos son parásitos comunes de anfibios y reptiles. Aunque es una familia bien conocida, falta conocimiento sobre la diversidad de sus hospederos. En este documento, ampliamos el conocimiento de la fauna parasitaria de anuros de la familia Hylodidae y la distribución geográfica de tres especies de nematodos cosmocercidos (Cosmocerca brasiliensis Travassos, 1925, Cosmocercoides sauria Ávila, Strüssmann & Silva, 2010 y cosmocercid) encontrados en dos ranas torrentes macho Hylodes heyeri Haddad Pombal & Bastos, 1996. Nuestro reporte incluye nuevos datos sobre la distribución geográfica y la morfología de los parásitos cosmocercidos y aclara aún más las interacciones parasitarias de los anfibios neotropicales.

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T01:30:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-06-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Deforestation can compromise ecological processes and biotic interactions, including the host–parasite relationship. While some parasites infect only one host, others require multiple hosts to complete their complex life cycles. In this context, different parasites may have different demands and traits and may have specific responses to habitat degradation. Here, we tested whether forest cover has different effects on different frogs' parasites, as chytrid (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; Bd) and helminths (Platyhelminthes and Nematoda). We collected data on two stream frog species (Crossodactylus caramaschii and Crossodactylus schmidti) from nine sites in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, with forest cover ranging from 20% to 99%. Bd presence and load increased with decreasing forest cover, but the opposite was observed for nematodes. Load of monoxenous and heteroxenous helminths increased with forest cover. We suggest that variations in potential host diversity, microclimate conditions, and host immune response may be responsible for the contrasting patterns found for micro-(Bd) and macroparasites (helminths, except Platyhelminthes). Our work brings evidence of how habitat reduction can affect host–parasite relationships, including infection with the pathogen responsible for hundreds of global species extinctions. Instituto de Biologia Universidade Federal da Bahia, Campus de Ondina Laboratório Multiusuário de Bioacústica (LMBio) e Laboratório de História Natural de Anfíbios Brasileiros (LaHNAB) Departamento de Biologia Animal Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de Campinas Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de Campinas Setor de Parasitologia Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de São Paulo/UNESP, Rua Professor Doutor Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin, s/n Instituto de Ciências Agrárias UFU – Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, LMG-746, Km 1 Setor de Parasitologia Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de São Paulo/UNESP, Rua Professor Doutor Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin, s/n FAPESP: 020/00099-0 CNPq: 150041/2017-9 FAPESP: 2013/21519-4 FAPESP: 2014/23388-7 FAPESP: 2016/25358-3 FAPESP: 2016/50377-1 CNPq: 300896/2016-6 CNPq: 302589/2013-9 CNPq: 309125/2017-0 CNPq: 313241/2018-0 CNPq: 405285/2013-2 CNPq: 438675/2016-9 CNPq: 440496/2015-2

Anurans emit distress calls when attacked by predators as a defensive mechanism. As distress calls may trigger antipredator behaviour even in individuals that are not under attack, we tested whether this defensive behaviour induced behavioural changes in neighbouring conspecifics. We compared the behavioural responses of two species of Neotropical hylid frogs (genus Boana) to conspecific distress calls and white noise. Individuals of both species interrupted their vocal activity and decreased call rate after hearing the distress call. Natural variation on signal intensity calibrated among the nearest neighbours did not influence the response and we did not observe negative phonotaxis after any acoustic stimulus. Despite the fact that many predators are acoustically oriented, we could not determine if such response (reduced call rate) was induced by risk assessment or by the masking effect on advertisement calls. Boana faber responded similarly to white noise and distress calls, while B. bischoffi responded more intensely to distress calls. Duration of silence after playbacks in B. faber was longer than B. bischoffi. We suggest that, if the signals are interpreted as a risk cue by neighbouring conspecifics, each species may be preyed upon by different predators, as they may have led to distinct defensive strategies and different responses to distress calls. If risk assessment information is included in distress calls, it triggers behavioural responses only in the nearest neighbours, as we did not observe responses on the vocal activity of the interspecific chorus. Our results add relevant data about acoustic communication and interpretations by anurans, highlighting the importance of considering cues within common and widespread signals., Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Grant/Award Number: CGL2011-16159-E; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Grant/Award Number: ACOURA CGL2008-04814; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

The use of acoustic signals is a common characteristic of most anuran species to mediate intraspecific communication. Besides many social purposes, one of the main functions of these signals is species recognition. For this reason, this phenotypic trait is normally applied to taxonomy or to construct evolutionary relationship hypotheses. Here the acoustic repertoire of five populations of the genus Allobates from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are presented for the first time, on a vulnerable to extinction Neotropical taxon. The description of males’ advertisement and aggressive calls and a female call emitted in a courtship context are presented. In addition, the advertisement calls of individuals from distinct geographical regions were compared. Differences in frequency range and note duration may imply in taxonomic rearrangements of these populations, once considered distinct species, and more recently, proposed as a single species, Allobates olfersioides. Calls of the male from the state of Rio de Janeiro do not overlap spectrally with calls of males from northern populations, while the shorter notes emitted by males from Alagoas also distinguishes this population from the remaining southern populations. Therefore, it is likely that at least two of the junior synonyms should be revalidated. Similarities among male advertisement and female calls are generally reported in other anuran species; these calls may have evolved from a preexisting vocalization common to both sexes. Male aggressive calls were different from both the male advertisement and female calls, since it was composed by a longer and multi-pulsed note. Aggressive and advertisement calls generally have similar dominant frequencies, but they have temporal distinctions. Such patterns were corroborated with the Atlantic Forest Rocket Frogs. These findings may support future research addressing the taxonomy of the group, behavioral evolution, and amphibian conservation.

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-10T19:35:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-09-13 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Minas Gerais Research Foundation Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Grupo O Boticario de Protecao a Natureza Instituto Mater Natura de Estudos Ambientais Instituto Neotropical de Pesquisa e Conservacao Bioacoustics is a powerful tool used for anuran species diagnoses, given that advertisement calls are signals related to specific recognition and mate attraction. Thus, call descriptions can support species taxonomy. In spite of that, call descriptions are lacking for many species, delaying advances in biodiversity research. Here, we describe the advertisement calls of 20 anuran species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We accessed 50 digital recordings deposited in the Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Vielliard. Acoustic analyses were carried out in the software Raven pro 1.5. We provide a general comparison of call structure among species inside taxonomic groups and genera. The vocalizations described here belong to poorly known species, which are representatives of six families: Brachycephalidae, Bufonidae, Ceratophryidae, Cycloramphidae, Hylidae, and Phyllomedusidae. Despite this, still there are 163 species of anurans from Atlantic Forest with calls not formally described. Our work represents an important step in providing data for a taxonomic perspective and improving the knowledge of the Atlantic Forest anuran diversity. Univ Fed Bahia, Inst Biol, Salvador, BA, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Zool, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Ctr Aquicultura CAUNESP, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Univ Fed Vicosa, Inst Ciencias Biol & Saude, Florestal, MG, Brazil Univ Estadual Norte Fluminense, Ctr Biociencias & Biotecnol, Campos Dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil Univ Fed Vicosa, Programa Posgrad Biol Anim, Vicosa, MG, Brazil Univ Fed Parana, Dept Zool, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil Univ Fed Parana, Programa Posgrad Zool, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil Univ Fed Minas Gerais, Dept Zool, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil Univ Estadual Campinas, Dept Biol Anim, Campinas, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Zool, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Ctr Aquicultura CAUNESP, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil FAPESP: 2013/21519-4 FAPESP: 2016/25358-3 FAPESP: 2013/50741-7 FAPESP: 2014/50342-8 CNPq: 300896/2016-6 CNPq: 438675/2016-9 CNPq: 307091/2015-5 CNPq: 302518/2013-4 Minas Gerais Research Foundation: FAPEMIG-APQ-01796-15 FAPEMIG: RDP-00004-17 Grupo O Boticario de Protecao a Natureza: 085420101/A0001_2012

The acoustic repertoire of most anurans, even common species, is still insufficiently known. Here, we present a thorough quantitative description of acoustic parameters in release and distress calls in the three European spadefoot toad species, genus Pelobates. We also explored the intra- and interspecific variation and effects of body size on acoustic traits. We analysed a total of 749 release calls of 34 individuals of Pelobates fuscus and P. syriacus, and 312 distress calls of 36 individuals of P. fuscus, P. syriacus and P. cultripes. Release calls consisted of a note with one to three initial pulses of lower energy and a group of consecutive pulses characterized by higher energy in both species analysed. The structure of the distress calls was similar in all three species: loud, explosive, cat meow-like, single multi-pulsed notes rich in harmonics. Some of the variation among species in acoustic parameters in the release and distress calls is related to body size. Acoustic properties for both release and distress calls showed high levels of variability in all species. This pattern of variation is different from what is regularly found in the more conservative advertisement calls, and we advocate that such high variability is possible because release and distress call are not signals with divergent evolutionary history among related species., This work received support from the SYNTHESYS Project http://www.synthesys.info/ which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 ‘Capacities’ Programme, at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) [grant numbers SYNTHESYS ES-TAF-2814, SYNTHESYS ES-TAF-6704]; the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS –UEFISCDI [grant number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0173] and CCCDI-UEFISCDI – project No. 105 BM/2017; Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) by a doctoral grant [grant number #2009/13987-2] and a fellowship [grant number #2013/21519-4]; The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) provided a fellowship [grant number #150041/2017-9]. Partial funding for acoustical analyses was provided by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, projects TATANKA CGL2011-25062, CGL2010-09700; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain project CGL2011-16159-E.

© 2015, Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia. All Rights Reserved. In anurans, acoustic communication is a major mechanism of pre-zygotic isolation, since it carries information about species recognition. Detailed descriptions of the acoustic properties of anuran advertisement calls provide important data to taxonomist and to the understanding of the evolution of the group. Herein we re-describe the advertisement call of the hylid frog Dendropsophus microps (Peters, 1872) after analyzing a larger sample than that of previous descriptions. We also compare the acoustic properties of the call in two populations and discuss the effect of the presence of the sister species, Dendropsophus giesleri (Mertens, 1950), a potential competitor, in one of the populations. Additionally, we provide information on calling sites and size of males. Males of D. microps emit two types of calls, which differ mainly in pulse repetition rate. Type “A” call has a mean frequency band varying from 4574 to 5452 Hz, (mean dominant frequency = 4972 Hz). Type “B” call has a mean frequency band varying from 4488 to 5417 Hz (mean dominant frequency = 4913 Hz). The calls of D. microps and D. giesleri are the only in the D. parviceps species group that have harmonic structure. The spectral properties of the call showed low intra-individual variation, being considered static, while the temporal properties were highly variable. Compared with males from the Boracéia population, males from the Ribeirão Grande population called from lower perches, and their calls had slightly lower frequency bands and significantly higher pulse rates in their type “B” calls. Inter-populational differences in acoustic properties, body size and use of calling sites could be related to selective forces associated with the presence of the sister species, a potential competitor for the population from Ribeirão Grande., Partial funding for acoustical analyses was provided by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, project TATANKA CGL2011-25062 (P.I.R. Márquez).

Amphibians are among the most threatened vertebrates in the world and this is also true for those inhabiting the Atlantic Forest hotspot, living in ecosystems that are highly degraded and threatened by anthropogenic activities. We present a data set containing information about amphibian communities sampled throughout the Atlantic Forest Biome in South America. The data were extracted from 389 bibliographic references (articles, books, theses, and dissertations) representing inventories of amphibian communities from 1940 to 2017. The data set includes 17,619 records of 528 species with taxonomic certainty, from 1,163 study sites. Of all the records, 14,450 (82%) were classified using the criterion of endemism; of those, 7,787 (44%) were considered endemic and 6,663 (38%) were not. Historically, multiple sampling methods were used to survey amphibians, the most representative methods being active surveys (82.1%), surveys at breeding sites (20%), pitfall traps (15.3%), and occasional encounters (14.5%). Species richness averaged 15.2 ± 11.3 (mean ± SD), ranging from 1 to 80 species per site. We found a low dominance in the communities, with 10 species occurring in about 26% of communities: Physalaemus cuvieri (4.1%), Dendropsophus minutus (3.8%), Boana faber (3.1%), Scinax fuscovarius (2.8%), Leptodactylus latrans (2.7%), Leptodactylus fuscus (2.6%), Boana albopunctata (2.3%), Dendropsophus nanus (1.6%), Rhinella ornata (1.6%), and Leptodactylus mystacinus (1.6%). This data set represents a major effort to compile inventories of amphibian communities for the Neotropical region, filling a large gap in the data on the Atlantic Forest hotspot. We hope this data set can be used as a credible tool in the proposal of new studies on amphibian sampling and even in the development of conservation planning for these taxa. This information also has great relevance for macroecological studies, being foundational for both conservation and restoration strategies in this biodiversity hotspot. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications or teaching events.

© Forti et al. (2018), Background. Anuran vocalizations, such as advertisement and release calls, are informative for taxonomy because species recognition can be based on those signals. Thus, a proper acoustic description of the calls may support taxonomic decisions and may contribute to knowledge about amphibian phylogeny. Methods. Here we present a perspective on advertisement call descriptions of the frog subfamily Lophyohylinae, through a literature review and a spatial analysis presenting bioacoustic coldspots (sites with high diversity of species lacking advertisement call descriptions) for this taxonomic group. Additionally, we describe the advertisement and release calls of the still poorly known treefrog, Itapotihyla langsdorffii. We analyzed recordings of six males using the software Raven Pro 1.4 and calculated the coefficient of variation for classifying static and dynamic acoustic properties. Results and Discussion. We found that more than half of the species within the subfamily do not have their vocalizations described yet. Most of these species are distributed in the western and northern Amazon, where recording sampling effort should be strengthened in order to fill these gaps. The advertisement call of I. langsdorffii is composed of 3-18 short unpulsed notes (mean of 13 ms long), presents harmonic structure, and has a peak dominant frequency of about 1.4 kHz. This call usually presents amplitude modulation, with decreasing intensity along the sequence of notes. The release call is a simple unpulsed note with an average duration of 9 ms, and peak dominant frequency around 1.8 kHz. Temporal properties presented higher variations than spectral properties at both intra- and inter-individual levels. However, only peak dominant frequency was static at intra-individual level. High variability in temporal properties and lower variations related to spectral ones is usual for anurans; The first set of variables is determined by social environment or temperature, while the second is usually related to species-recognition process. Here we review and expand the acoustic knowledge of the subfamily Lophyohylinae, highlighting areas and species for future research.

Past interactions between predators and prey have resulted in the emergence of numerous defensive mechanisms in the animal kingdom. Commonly reported in anurans (frogs and toads) are distress calls, which are vocalizations emitted while under attack that theoretically reduce predation risk by surprising or frightening the predator. Therefore, we would expect that the distress call is effective against a wide range of predators. In order to be effective against different predators, distress calls from different species must share common acoustic properties, and differ from advertisement calls, which are influenced by divergent selective pressures, safeguarding species recognition. Our hypothesis is that distress calls are more similar among related species than advertisement calls. In addition, distress calls are lacking in several unrelated phylogenetic groups or species. Therefore, it is unclear whether this attribute has been lost or evolved several times in the phylogeny of Anura. In order to test our hypothesis and to evaluate the evolution of distress calls, we used a combination of literature review, personal communications, and audio database assessment. Based on ancestral character estimation, we found that distress calls are an ancestral behavior in anurans, which carry phylogenetic signal. We also found more similarity comparing distress calls among species when we compared advertisement calls of the same group of species, suggesting that distress calls did not face divergent selective pressures. On the contrary, this attribute seems to have experienced convergent selection or neutral evolution. Finally, we found that body size determines the occurrence of distress calls in anurans, with smaller species lacking this behavior. We hypothesize that this may be because small body size may not allow for the production of long or loud enough calls to be effective against predators., São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) provided a fellowship (#2013/21519-4) and grants (#2014/23388-7; #2016/25358-3), and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) provided fellowships (#300896/2016-6, #150041/2017-9). Partial funding for acoustical analyses, sound editing, and storage was provided by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain (projects TATANKA CGL2011-25062), and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (project CGL2011-16159-E).

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:40:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2017-09-22 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Introduced species have the potential to become invasive and jeopardize entire ecosystems. The success of species establishing viable populations outside their original extent depends primarily on favorable climatic conditions in the invasive ranges. Species distribution modeling (SDM) can thus be used to estimate potential habitat suitability for populations of invasive species. Here we review the status of six amphibian species with invasive populations in Brazil (four domestic species and two imported species). We (i) modeled the current habitat suitability and future potential distribution of these six focal species, (ii) reported on the disease status of Eleutherodactylus johnstonei and Phyllodytes luteolus, and (iii) quantified the acoustic overlap of P. luteolus and Leptodactylus labyrinthicus with three cooccurring native species. Our models indicated that all six invasive species could potentially expand their ranges in Brazil within the next few decades. In addition, our SDMs predicted important expansions in available habitat for 2 out of 6 invasive species under future (2100) climatic conditions. We detected high acoustic niche overlap between invasive and native amphibian species, underscoring that acoustic interference might reduce mating success in local frogs. Despite the American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus being recognized as a potential reservoir for the frog-killing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in Brazil, we did not detect Bd in the recently introduced population of E. johnstonei and P. luteolus in the State of Sao Paulo. We emphasize that the number of invasive amphibian species in Brazil is increasing exponentially, highlighting the urgent need to monitor and control these populations and decrease potential impacts on the locally biodiverse wildlife. Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Biol Anim, Lab Multiusuario Bioacust LMBio, Campinas, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Biol Anim, Lab Hist Nat Anfibios Brasileiros LaHNAB, Campinas, SP, Brazil Univ Alabama, Dept Biol Sci, Tuscaloosa, AL USA Univ Estadual Campinas, Ctr Pesquisas Meteorol & Climat Aplicadas Agr CEP, Cidade Univ Zeferino Vaz, Campinas, SP, Brazil Pontificia Univ Catolica Sao Paulo, Praca Dr Ermirio Morais, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias, Dept Zool, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias, Dept Zool, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil FAPESP: 2011/51694-7 FAPESP: 2011/52070-7 FAPESP: 2014/23388-7 FAPESP: 2013/21519-4 FAPESP: 2013/02219-0 FAPESP: 2013/50741-7 FAPESP: 2014/50342-8 CNPq: 302589/2013-9 CNPq: 405285/2013-2 CNPq: 312895/2014-3 CNPq: 161812/2011-2 CNPq: 438675/2016-9 CNPq: 302518/2013-4 CAPES: 3855/13-9

Reproductive aspects of Ameerega braccata, a Cerrado endemic species of Dendrobatidae, were studied in the surroundings of the type locality of the species, Chapada dos Guimaraes, mid-southern Mato Grosso State, Brazil. We found that males call mainly early in the morning and in the late afternoon. During courtship, the female approaches a calling male and tactile and visual communication occurs. Males call continuously while guiding females to the oviposition site, which may be situated as far as 24 m (in a straight line) from the initial encounter site. Spawn are deposited over fallen leaves on the soil surface or in burrows. Female snout–vent length and body mass did not explain the variation in ovary mass, or the variation in the number and size of post-vitellogenic oocytes. The results reported here for A. braccata might help to understand trends in the evolution of dendrobatids in open Cerrado environments.

The choice of foraging strategies implies an attempt at gaining energy by predators. Supposedly, the difference in employing the "sit and wait" or "active foraging" behavior lays in hunter skills, experience and the kind of prey consumed. With the hypothesis that "active foraging" demands no learning, in this study we compared the prey capture efficiency among Wattled Jacana juveniles and adults, and also present descriptive information about feeding habitat and the abundance variation of foragers throughout the day in the northern Pantanal. Prey capture efficiency did not differ significantly among juveniles and adults, corroborating our initial hypothesis that "active foraging" is an instinctive behavior and demands no experience to be effective. However, future work is necessary to compare the energetic quality of consumed items by juveniles and adults, searching for differences explained by adults' experience. Foraging individuals were found at an average distance of 14 m ranging from 2 to 42 m) from the margin of the sampled swamps, however 64% of the foragers were found closer to the margins. The average depth of foraging sites was 17 cm, ranging from 5 to 40 cm, although no preference for specific classes of depth was found (p > 0,05). Despite the accepted general pattern of birds being more active in the early morning, the largest number of individuals foraging was observed between 11:00 and 12:00 AM, but no significant difference was found in the abundance of foraging individuals among different periods of the day. Factors, which were not analyzed, such as food availability and presence of competitors and predators need to be studied to reveal the main factors of the spatial and temporal distribution of the Wattled Jacana.

Background:Many amphibian species are negatively affected by habitat change due to anthropogenic activities. Populations distributed over modified landscapes may be subject to local extinction or may be relegated to the remaining—likely isolated and possibly degraded—patches of available habitat. Isolation without gene flow could lead to variability in phenotypic traits owing to differences in local selective pressures such as environmental structure, microclimate, or site-specific species assemblages.Methods:Here, we tested the microevolution hypothesis by evaluating the acoustic parameters of 349 advertisement calls from 15 males from six populations of the endangered amphibian speciesProceratophrys moratoi. In addition, we analyzed the genetic distances among populations and the genetic diversity with a haplotype network analysis. We performed cluster analysis on acoustic data based on the Bray-Curtis index of similarity, using the UPGMA method. We correlated acoustic dissimilarities (calculated by Euclidean distance) with geographical and genetic distances among populations.Results:Spectral traits of the advertisement call ofP. moratoipresented lower coefficients of variation than did temporal traits, both within and among males. Cluster analyses placed individuals without congruence in population or geographical distance, but recovered the species topology in relation to sister species. The genetic distance among populations was low; it did not exceed 0.4% for the most distant populations, and was not correlated with acoustic distance.Discussion:Both acoustic features and genetic sequences are highly conserved, suggesting that populations could be connected by recent migrations, and that they are subject to stabilizing selective forces. Although further studies are required, these findings add to a growing body of literature suggesting that this species would be a good candidate for a reintroduction program without negative effects on communication or genetic impact.

Phenotypic traits, such as the frog advertisement call, are generally correlated with interspecific genetic variation, and, as a consequence of strong sexual selection, these behaviors may carry a phylogenetic signal. However, variation in acoustic traits is not always correlated with genetic differences between populations (intraspecific variation); phenotypic plasticity and environmental variables may explain part of such variation. For example, local processes can affect acoustic properties in different lineages due to differences in physical structure, climatic conditions, and biotic interactions, particularly when populations are isolated. However, acoustic traits can be used to test phylogenetic hypotheses. We analyzed the advertisement calls of Dendropsophus elegans males from 18 sites and compared them with those of four closely related congeneric species, in order to test for differences between inter and intraspecific variation. We analyzed 451 calls of 45 males of these five species. Because males from distant sites were grouped together without population congruence, differences found in advertisement calls among individuals were not correlated with phylogeographical clades. Phylogenetic and cluster analyses of the D. elegans clades and those of closely related species grouped all five species into the same topology, as reported by previous molecular and morphological phylogenies. However, the topology of the D. elegans phylogeographical clades did not match the topology previously reported. Acoustic communication in D. elegans seems to be conserved among populations, and the phylogeographical history of the species does not explain the variation among lineages in call properties, despite some congruent phylogenetic signals evident at the species level. Based on molecular clocks retrieved from the literature, it seems that more than 6.5 million years of divergence (late Miocene) are necessary to allow significant changes to occur in the acoustic properties of these treefrog calls, making it possible to recover their phylogenetic history only based on acoustic evidence.

A competição interespecífica pode representar uma força importante na determinação da distribuição e da abundância de organismos na natureza. Comunidades naturais compostas por espécies que utilizam o mesmo recurso de forma semelhante supostamente são estruturadas pela competição interespecífica. Tal força interativa no decorrer da evolução pode ter levado à diferenciação de nicho entre os competidores no passado, sendo esse fator relevante para explicar a coexistência de espécies ecologicamente similares. As comunidades reprodutivas de anuros tropicais são caracterizadas por alta diversidade e grande sobreposição espacial de espécies, por isso representam um ótimo modelo de estudo para avaliar o papel da competição em escala local. Nessas comunidades reprodutivas a alta densidade de machos de diferentes espécies em atividade de vocalização poderia causar problemas de comunicação intraespecífica por interferência acústica. Por essa razão, considerando a hipótese de que o ambiente acústico pudesse ser partilhado, os pesquisadores vêm avaliando, na grande maioria das vezes de forma empírica, estratégias que as espécies de anuros podem empregar para reduzir a competição por canais acústicos no interior da comunidade, como a separação espectral (uso de diferentes faixas de frequência) e a diferenciação de uso espacial e/ou temporal. Nesse contexto, no presente trabalho estudei agregações de anuros formadas em 16 ambientes reprodutivos de seis localidades de Mata Atlântica do estado de São Paulo, com o principal objetivo de testar, por meio de modelos nulos, se ocorre partilha de nicho acústico e espacial entre as espécies. Foram gravados os cantos de anúncio dos machos de cada espécie presente nos ambientes reprodutivos, e seus sítios de vocalização foram caracterizados quanto à natureza e altura do substrato. Os testes por modelos nulos não evidenciaram qualquer padrão, tanto na ocupação do ambiente acústico como na distribuição no gradiente vertical. A propriedade acústica temporal \"duração de canto\" não reduziu a sobreposição espectral das espécies no ambiente reprodutivo, e é possível que as fêmeas, da grande maioria das espécies, localizem seus parceiros em agregações heteroespecíficas com base na frequência dominante e não sofram prejuízo com a interferência acústica. Contudo, essa é uma hipótese que ainda deve ser testada dentro das agregações reprodutivas de anuros da Mata Atlântica. Os resultados, de maneira geral, corroboraram a ideia de que fatores abióticos, heterogeneidade ambiental e diversidade filogenética podem ser mais importantes para explicar a ocorrência de espécies nas ricas agregações de anuros na Mata Atlântica. Interspecific competition may represent a relevant force determining the distribution and abundance of organisms in nature. Natural communities composed by species that use the same resource in a similar fashion are, supposedly, structured by interspecific competition. This interactive force in the course of evolution may have led to niche differentiation among competitors in the past, and this is a relevant factor to explain the coexistence of ecologically similar species in the same habitat. Reproductive aggregations of tropical frogs are characterized by high diversity and large spatial species overlap, therefore they represent an excellent model to evaluate the importance of competition on local scale. In these communities the high density of breeding males of different species in calling activity could cause a masking effect on intraspecific acoustic communication. Therefore, considering the hypothesis that the acoustic environment could be shared, researchers have been evaluating, in most cases empirically, strategies employed by frogs to reduce competition for acoustic channels within the community, as the spectral separation (using different frequency bands) and spatial and/or temporal segregation. In this context, this paper studied the formation of anuran reproductive aggregations in 16 aquatic breeding sites belonging to six localities in the Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo, with the main objective of testing, using null models, whether niche partitioning occurs between species, considering spectral and spatial occupancy. It were recorded the advertisement calls of males from each species present in breeding sites, and their calling sites were characterized by their nature and height of the calling substrate. Tests for null models showed absence of significant patterns both on acoustic domain and the distribution on vertical gradient. Call duration did not reduce the species spectral overlap in the breeding sites and it is possible that reproductive females locate their specific males in heterospecific aggregations based on dominant frequency and not suffer with masking effect on acoustic communication. However, this is a hypothesis that should be tested within the anuran breeding aggregations in the Atlantic forest. All results support the idea that other factors, such as abiotic conditions, environmental heterogeneity and phylogenetic diversity, may be more decisive to explain the occurrence of species in the rich aggregations of breeding frogs in the Atlantic forest.

Ameerega braccata is an aposematic, small dendrobatid anuran known from its type-locality, Chapada dos Guimarães, in the State of Mato Grosso, and from a few additional localities in Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás States, Brazil. The advertisement call of A. braccata is composed of a single unpulsed note, with a frequency range from 3.5 to 4.2 KHz (N = 110), and average duration of 65.8 ms (N = 110, SD = 11.6). The territorial call is composed of five or six repeated notes, structurally similar to advertisement call notes. The courtship call is emitted in close-range interactions between male-female during the courtship event and may reach frequencies of 2.2 to 5.3 KHz (N = 10), with shorter notes (average duration 43 ms; N = 10; SD = 4.9). Call duration, note duration and call rate of the advertisement call showed high variation (>15% of coefficient of variation), and dominant frequency showed low variation (15% de coeficiente de variação), ao passo que a frequência dominante apresenta baixa variação (

Acoustic signals are the main mode of communication in anurans (Duellman & Trueb 1994). Calls produced by anurans play an essential role during their reproduction (Wells 1977) and advertisement calls emitted by males are, in many cases, species-specific, representing an important character for species recognition (Abrunhosa et al. 2001; Forti et al. 2010). Thus, the formal description of advertisement calls is relevant for anuran taxonomy (Pombal Jr. et al. 1995).