Bioacoustics and calling site in anuran assemblages of open area in the northwest of São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

The calling site and the acoustic parameters of the advertisement call were determined for 18 anuran species in six ponds in the northwest region of São Paulo State. The dominant frequency of the advertisement call was positively correlated with the CRC of the species: small size species vocalized in a higher frequency, whereas larger species vocalized in a lower frequency. The similarity in the spectral and temporal parameters of the advertisement call was high among 94% of the recorded species. The similarity on calling site was low; only 22% of species presented high overlap, in spite of about a half of the species have been generalist in calling site use. Analysing simultaneously the similarity on calling site, habitat and advertisement call parameters, the proportion of species with high overlap decreased from 94 to 11%, corresponding to the overlap between a single pair of species: Dendropsophus elianeae and D. minutus. The species that overlap in calling site presented segregation in acoustic parameters, and those that overlap in acoustic parameters tended to partition the calling site. This result suggests the occurrence of niche complementarity, since species that occupied a similar position in one dimension tended to differ in another dimension. The structural homogeneity of ponds, the climatic severity of the region and the high degree of habitat loss restrict the abundance of population and the species richness of the anuran assemblages. The low overlap on the calling site is probably associated with the insaturation of the sampled communities.