Abstract

ACUNA-VARGAS, Julio César; CAMARGO-GONZALES, Laidis Tatiana  and  BASTIDAS-MOLINA, Bienvenido. Identification and distribution of habitats used by Amphibians in five land covers associated with tropical dry forest, Dibulla, La Guajira. Bol. Cient. Mus. Hist. Nat. Univ. Caldas [online]. 2023, vol.27, n.2, pp.139-161.  Epub May 07, 2024. ISSN 0123-3068.  https://doi.org/10.17151/bccm.2023.27.2.9.

This study was developed to determine the composition and distribution of meeting habitats for 20 species of amphibians in five land covers with different degrees of disturbance, in a rural area of the municipality of Dibulla, La Guajira. A total of 40 samplings were carried out during eight months, using the standardized technique for the study of amphibians of visual encounter survey (VES) in the coverage of the study, over an approximate area of 20 km2. A total of 38 habitats were recorded distributed in the five coverages, being the coverage of Mosaic of grasses and transient floodable crops, not wooded with hedges of trees and shrubs (MPC), the coverage with the greatest offer of habitat (29), while the coverage with the greatest species richness (19 sp.) was discontinuous urban fabric (ZU) and the one with the highest abundance (3068 individuals) was the oil palm cover (CP). Differences were observed between land covers, encounter habitat and amphibian richness (H: 48.77; p-value < 0.05), as well as amphibian abundance (H: 49.74; p-value < 0.05). High spatial overlap (>0.75) is observed between pairs of species related to their habits and between species of the same family. Although the covers share a high proportion of meeting habitats, they present amphibian communities with different characteristics in their structure and composition. Likewise, even when the communities are composed of species considered as generalists, widely distributed and tolerant to disturbance, the species use the habitats due to conditions more complex than their supply. It stands out that some species register preference for some characteristics offered by some types of habitats, regardless of land cover or land use.

Keywords : habitat; Caribbean Region; ecological niche; niche overlap; amphibians; reptiles; land cover; land use.

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