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The Sepik River (Papua New Guinea) is not a dispersal barrier for lowland rain-forest frogs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2013

Chris Dahl ,
Stephen J. Richards  and
Vojtech Novotny
Chris Dahl*
Affiliation:
University of South Bohemia and Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska 31 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Stephen J. Richards
Affiliation:
Herpetology Department, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide and Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Atherton, Australia
Vojtech Novotny
Affiliation:
University of South Bohemia and Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska 31 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
*
1Corresponding author. Email: cd.rokrok@gmail.com
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Abstract:

Major tropical rivers have been suggested to be important dispersal barriers that increase the beta diversity of animal communities in lowland rain forests. We tested this hypothesis using assemblages of frogs in the floodplains of the Sepik River, a major river system in Papua New Guinea. We surveyed frogs at five sites within a continuous 150 × 500-km area of lowland rain forest bisected by the Sepik, using standardized visual and auditory survey techniques. We documented 769 frogs from 44 species. The similarity in species composition decreased with logarithm of geographical distance between the sites, which ranged from 82 to 465 km. The similarity decay did not depend on whether or not the compared sites were separated by the Sepik River or whether the species were aquatic or terrestrial breeders. Likewise, a DCA ordination of frog assemblages did not show separation of sites by the river as a significant factor explaining their composition. Our results suggest that even major rivers, such as the Sepik, may not act as dispersal barriers. Rivers may not limit the distribution of frogs and therefore have a limited effect on determining frog species abundance and assemblage structure in rain forests.

Keywords

amphibiansbeta diversityfrogsriverine barrier hypothesisspecies diversity
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 477 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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