Diversidad de herpetofauna en tres fragmentos de Bosque Seco Tropical (BST) entre los municipios Colosó - Chalán, Sucre, Colombia

Abstract

Amphibians and reptiles play an important role as indicators of ecosystem state and stress. In the present study, we estimated the herpetofauna diversity associated to three fragments of Tropical Dry Forest (BST) located between the municipalities of Coloso and Chalan, Department of Sucre. The importance of conducting studies in this type of ecosystem lies in the disastrous anthropogenic intervention it has been submitted to in recent years, causing a reduction of more than 92% of this ecosystem, and therefore the loss of its biodiversity. This research was carried out through field observations, using the Visual Encounters Survey (VES) method in three fragments of BST during the months of January to September, 2017, along dry and rainy seasons. We found 1.795 individuals, grouped within 23 families, 38 genera and 51 species. The most abundant species were Rhinella horribilis (275 individuals) for amphibians and Gonatodes albogularis (192 individuals) for reptiles. Employing the non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) and the ANOSIM analysis, we determined that there is homogeneity in the composition of species among fragments and, that the differences between the stages of higher precipitation and the dry season are minimal. Using the Canonical Correspondence Analysis, we found that species such as Pleurodema brachyops and Lithobates vaillanti are directly related to the increase of precipitation and relative humidity, whereas other as Tretioscincus bifasciatus and Cnenidophorus lemniscatus do so with temperature. This work contributes to the expansion of the distribution range of the species Lithobates vaillanti and Micrurus camilae (new record for the department of Sucre) and to the knowledge of the Colombian herpetofauna.