Abstract

DUARTE-MARIN, Sebastián; GONZALEZ-ACOSTA, Cristian  and  VARGAS-SALINAS, Fernando. Structure and composition of amphibian assemblages in three types of habitat in the National Natural Park Selva de Florencia, Colombian Central Cordillera. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2018, vol.42, n.163, pp.227-236. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.631.

The Colombian Andes, especially between 1000 and 3000 masl, exhibit the greatest diversity of anuran amphibians for the whole country. However, historically this region has high levels of deforestation and changes in land use. Given this scenario, the establishment of protected areas is an important strategy for biological conservation in the Andes of Colombia. The National Natural Park (NNP) Selva de Florencia located in the Colombian Central Cordillera is considered the NNP with the greatest diversity of endemic amphibians per area in the country; however, the structure and composition of amphibian assemblages has not been quantified in such a way that a solid baseline data could be established for their monitoring both in space and time. In this study, the structure and composition of amphibian assemblages were quantified in three types of habitat (forest, pine crops and pasturelands), through diurnal and nocturnal samplings conducted between June and September 2017. A total of 338 individuals belonging to 24 species were registered, 21 of them in forest, 11 in pine crops, and 3 in pasturelands with the diversity of amphibians being greater in forest than in pine crops and pasturelands. The forest species composition differed from that in pine crops and pasturelands; nevertheless, in some pine crops with no commercial exploitation during the last 20 years, species common to the forest were recorded. Our results contribute with useful quantitative data for the monitoring of the amphibian diversity in the Colombian Central Cordillera using the NNP Selva de Florencia as a reference model.

Keywords : Amphibian; Assemblages; Endemism; Selva de Florencia.

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