Amphibian diversity across three adjacent ecosystems in Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Author:

Edwards Alex W.1,Harrison Xavier A.2ORCID,Smith M. Alex3,Chavarría Díaz Maria Marta4,Sasa Mahmood5,Janzen Daniel H.6,Hallwachs Winnie6,Chaves Gerardo5,Fernández Roberto7,Palmer Caroline1,Wilson Chloe1,North Alexandra1,Puschendorf Robert1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK

2. Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK

3. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

4. Department of Research, Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

5. School of Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica

6. Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America

7. Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Philadelphia, United States of America

Abstract

Amphibians are the most threatened species-rich vertebrate group, with species extinctions and population declines occurring globally, even in protected and seemingly pristine habitats. These ‘enigmatic declines’ are generated by climate change and infectious diseases. However, the consequences of these declines are undocumented as no baseline ecological data exists for most affected areas. Like other neotropical countries, Costa Rica, including Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in north-western Costa Rica, experienced rapid amphibian population declines and apparent extinctions during the past three decades. To delineate amphibian diversity patterns within ACG, a large-scale comparison of multiple sites and habitats was conducted. Distance and time constrained visual encounter surveys characterised species richness at five sites—Murciélago (dry forest), Santa Rosa (dry forest), Maritza (mid-elevation dry-rain forest intersect), San Gerardo (rainforest) and Cacao (cloud forest). Furthermore, species-richness patterns for Cacao were compared with historic data from 1987–8, before amphibians declined in the area. Rainforests had the highest species richness, with triple the species of their dry forest counterparts. A decline of 45% (20 to 11 species) in amphibian species richness was encountered when comparing historic and contemporary data for Cacao. Conservation efforts sometimes focus on increasing the resilience of protected areas, by increasing their range of ecosystems. In this sense ACG is unique containing many tropical ecosystems compressed in a small geographic space, all protected and recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site. It thus provides an extraordinary platform to understand changes, past and present, and the resilience of tropical ecosystems and assemblages, or lack thereof, to climate change.

Publisher

PeerJ

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience

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