HISTORIC AND CONTEMPORARY EFFECTS ON PHYLOGENETIC DISTRIBUTION OF ANURAN IN THE ATLANTIC FOREST

Abstract

One of the challenges in ecological research is to integrate data from different spatial scales to assess ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that influence the current species distribution. It is recognized that Quaternary climatic oscillations influenced the current composition of amphibians. However, little is known about the phylogenetic relatedness of species is organized at the community level (e.g., clustered or dispersed) or how different spatial scales (e.g., local and regional) influence the community structure of this group. In this project, I will examine the effects of ecological and evolutionary structure of 14 anuran communities considering different spatial scales. Therefore, I will address three main issues: (i) How the phylogenetic composition of frogs are distributed in regions that have suffered instability or stability climate during the Quaternary; (ii) How different spatial scales and species pool influence phylogenetic patterns of anuran communities; and (iii) Verify whether there is an environmental gradient (e.g., precipitation, temperature and topography) that determines the phylogenetic structure of anuran communities. At the end of this project I hope to contribute with new findings about contemporary and evolutionary processes (e.g., convergence or conservation niche), biogeographic (e.g., areas of speciation or extinction of species) and climate (e.g., precipitation and temperature) influence the structure of anuran communities at different spatial and temporal scales. Thus, I consider this an innovative approach because I am using different types of data (phylogenetic, molecular, spatial and environmental) to understand the structure of anuran communities. This study is linked to the Project "Influence of ecological and evolutionary processes in structuring amphibian communities at different spatial and temporal scales (FAPESP, Proc. no. 2013 / 50714-0)"