Padrões de coocorrência de girinos em uma floresta de terra firme na Amazônia Central

Abstract

The main focus of the ecological studies is to determine the processes that influence the distribution, abundance and species co-occurrence making it possible to understand the spatial ante temporal distribution of species in biological communities, their predictors of richness, and the processes that determine the structure of communities. This study aimed to determine how environmental and phylogenetic factors influence tadpoles’ co-occurrence patterns in riparian pools in an area in the Central Amazonia. The study was developed with database obtained in the Reserva Biológica do Uatumã. An analysis newly proposed by Ulrich et al. was conducted to separate the effect of environmental variables and phylogeny in the pattern of co-occurrence of species. The results showed that the characteristics of the ponds influenced the structure of the tadpole community. The clumping pattern was influenced by canopy cover and the by correlation between phylogeny and dissolved oxygen and pond depth. Togetherness pattern was determined by the canopy cover and by the correlation between phylogeny and canopy cover. Checkerboard pattern was influenced only by environment, especially the canopy cover and pond area. The influence of historical and ecological processes differs between species of the same community, depending on their degree of relationships and pattern of co-occurrence. The species with clumping and togetherness pattern suffered significant influence of historical and ecological processes and mutually exclusive species had significant influence of ecological processes by environmental filtering.