Alessandro Ribeiro Morais

The Brazilian Cerrado harbours a highly diverse and well‐represented anuran fauna, yet the effects of anthropogenic factors, such as roads, habitat loss and fragmentation, on these assemblages remain poorly understood. In the present study, we address this knowledge gap by testing the relationship between landscape metrics and anuran assembly (richness, composition and ecological traits) in the Brazilian Cerrado. Using passive acoustic monitoring, we recorded 32 species in 31 breeding habitats of anurans (water bodies) located in the southwestern region of Goiás State, Brazil. Higher species richness was present in the breeding habitats within the more connected landscapes (landscapes with lower edge density and fewer native vegetation patches) and located farther from roads. Conversely, species richness decreased in landscapes with more native habitats. While habitat isolation caused by roads or agricultural lands negatively affects anuran diversity by hindering gene flow and recolonization between the terrestrial and breeding habitats, a phenomenon known as habitat split, particularly in species with low dispersal capacity and high sensitivity to desiccation. Small artificial reservoirs created for cattle management are frequently used by anurans as breeding sites. These reservoirs may play a crucial role in maintaining species richness, particularly for open‐habitat species, despite the reduction of native vegetation in the landscape. We recommend that the effect of artificial reservoirs despite the surrounding native vegetation be addressed in future studies. Thus, our findings provide new insights and contribute to a better understanding of how the anuran fauna of the Cerrado respond to anthropogenic landscapes.

We investigated the climatic niche associated with the acoustic activity of the Neotropical tree frog Scinax fuscomarginatus (Lutz, 1925) to evaluate the long-term effects of climate change on this behavior, considering both its seasonal and spatial distribution. To do so, we employed passive acoustic monitoring and Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM), integrating frog occurrence records with climatic variables in a GIS framework. The current distribution of the species was modeled and projected under future climate scenarios using four presence-only modeling techniques. Acoustic activity was further modeled using a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM), relating calling behavior to ambient temperature based on field-collected data. Long-term projections of climate change effects on the calling activity of S. fuscomarginatus were made by comparing temperature conditions from the early (2000–2010) and late (2090–2100) 21st century. ENM results suggest that the species’ potential geographic distribution will contract due to climatic shifts, reducing areas with favorable conditions for acoustic activity. As a result, the seasonal and daily calling patterns of S. fuscomarginatus males are expected to be significantly altered, with likely consequences for the species’ reproductive success, demographic stability, and long-term population persistence.

The effects of global climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are unevenly distributed in the geographic space. Identifying sites more suitable to sustain biodiversity in a changing climate is essential to both species conservation and restoration strategies at different scales. Here, we map terrestrial climate‐resilient sites for biodiversity across Brazil to identify sites with greater chances of providing suitable conditions for species to persist under regional climate change. Our mapping combines spatial metrics based on landscape heterogeneity, a proxy for microclimatic variability, and local connectedness, a measure of connectivity between habitats, to determine landscape resilience, assuming that resilience to climate change will be greater the more heterogeneous the characteristics of local habitats are and the more connected they are in the landscape. Our results show that within each biome, medium to high resilient sites are mostly found in the Amazon (40% of the biome) and Pantanal (38%). Low resilience, conversely, is concentrated in the Atlantic Forest (41% of the biome), followed by Cerrado (37%), Pampa (36%), and Caatinga (34%). Landscape resilience information has the potential to be used to effectively guide decision‐making and public policy on strategies for conservation, restoration, and sustainable use practices. Priority for conservation should be on high resilience sites as they have the potential to sustain biodiversity in face of undergoing and future climate change. Other approaches could be used in situations of medium to low resilience also, such as: conservation of current corridors in sites with high local connectedness, but low landscape heterogeneity; restoration of natural vegetation on sites that show high landscape heterogeneity, but low local connectedness; and sustainable practices in areas of low resilience. Our study provides an updated method to pinpoint climate‐resilient sites for biodiversity which was applied to a megadiverse country but is applicable to any ecosystem around the globe.

We inventoried medium- and large-sized mammals in private properties in a long- term ecological program entitled Effect of Landscape Configuration and Composition on Biodiversity: Multilevel Analysis (PELD EBMN), in Southwest of Goiás state, Brazilian Midwest, Cerrado. We inventoried 60 sites in forest fragments inside private properties using camera trap, between March 2022 and April 2023, with 30 days of continuous sampled, after which the camera trap was removed and reinstalled after a period of approximately six months. We registered a total of 31 medium- and large-sized mammals species, with our sampled effort, the largest one employed in the region, the richness found here is the largest already recorded for this region, representing 60% of medium- and large-sized mammals listed from Cerrado. Beyond this, we found seven threatened and two “Data deficient” species, which highlights that despite deforestation in the last century, this region is still capable of harboring threatened species. However, we recorded three exotic, invasive, or domestic species, which is a worrying scenario, which could compromise the ecological balance of the region. Finally, we found that Tapirus terrestris, although threatened, was the most frequent species recorded in our study, showing the potential of this area for medium- and large-sized mammals conservation. Therefore, in the first sampled year of PELD EBMN we found a medium- and large-sized mammals richest in the study area, showing the potential of this project in the long term.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33256/33.3.5867 pp. 58-67 Authors: Geane Rodrigues de Souza, Tainã Lucas Andreani, Seixas Rezende Olivei...

Biodiversity in the Cerrado biome is threatened by deforestation and the conversion of native vegetation by agricultural and urban areas. Unfortunately, in some areas such as the state of Tocantins, there is a sampling gap of mammalian fauna, resulting in a lack of knowledge. The present study contributes to reducing this gap by providing information about medium and large-sized mammals from the Rio Formoso region, Tocantins. In January 2019, we carried out a field survey in 7 sampling points in the municipality of Dueré, southern Tocantins. We installed 4 camera traps which remained active for a period of 7 days. Additionally, diurnal and nocturnal active censuses were carried out. The relative completeness of the inventory was assessed through the species’ cumulative curves. We recorded 21 species of medium and large-sized mammals over 7 days of sampling in a region under the influence of agricultural activities, including endangered species such as jaguars, giant armadillos, giant otters and marsh deer. The presence of species of large and medium mammals that play important ecosystem roles highlights that Cerrado remnants still maintain good environmental conditions even with anthropic actions occupying the landscape. These results highlight the importance of field studies at the regional level and provide information about an underexplored region.