Uso de ambientes por anfíbios anuros em seis parques urbanos de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The group of amphibians is quite diverse with 6.771 species, with Brazil being the country that hosts the greatest diversity with 877 species. The group is experiencing a global crisis of decline which emphasizes the need for studies to understand the group, mainly because the speed in which the populations are being threatened exceeds the speed that new knowledge is generated. Deforestation is considered the major threat, leading to the isolation of populations and modifying characteristics of the fragment what influences the composition of the remaining communities as well as inter and intraspecific relationships of species themselves and with their environments. Studies on ecology in urban environments are scarce, especially in Brazil. These often address the diversity and species richness in fragments, further research being necessary to quantity and quality terrestrial environments available, use and selection of these habitats, specific responses to urbanization, dispersal and movement of amphibians in urban areas, and the factors that better explain the occurrence of species in fragments. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between richness and abundance of amphibians with different landscape components (total area, vegetated area, constructed area and water body surface areas), analyzing the similarity among species composition. The study also aimed to understand the population structure, species distribution and resource use of potential competitor sympatric species through the analysis of overlap in the three dimensions of niche (food, habitat and period of activity) in six urban parks in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.