Structure of the leaf litter frog community in an area of Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil

Different spatial and temporal factors can influence the species richness and abundance of leaf anurans that are fundamental for the ecosystem functioning, as they act as predators and integrate the trophic chain as prey of other animals. There are relatively few studies that aimed to understand the spatio-temporal variation and the influence of environmental factors on leaf litter communities. We studied parameters of the anuran community living in the forest leaf litter in the Duas Bocas Biological Reserve (DBBR), Espírito Santo, Brazil. We sought to understand the extent to which richness, abundance, biomass and density varied between two locations with different stages of preservation (primary and secondary forest). In addition, we tested the effect of temperature and local humidity on abundance. We conducted the samplings monthly from October 2017 to September 2018, establishing 98 4 x 4 m plots (16 m2 each) demarcated on the DBBR forest leaf litter. We measured temperature (°C) and relative air humidity (%), and each plot was carefully surveyed by four observers. We tested for differences in anuran density between the two sampled locations and estimated the effects of environmental variables in the community. We recorded 102 individuals of anurans from 11 species belonging to eight families. The DBBR anuran community parameters significantly differed between the two studied locations, with the highest values of anuran richness and abundance occurring in the area covered by primary forest, probably due to differences in the preservation of each area. However, temperature and humidity did not affect the abundance of anurans in the sampled areas. Our results provide the first information about spatial variation and influence of environmental factors, directed to the community of leaf litter anurans in DBBR, and represents the second study on this group of anurans in the state of Espírito Santo

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data