Pantanal Biodiversity

Assessing bird and frog diversity in the Pantanal to inform long-term conservation strategies, focusing on migratory bird patterns and frog behavior in response to environmental changes.

Located in central South America, the Pantanal shelters a diversity of life forms over the largest contiguous wetland on the planet. The threats to this iconic biome have ramped up with no precedent in recent years due to large-scale fires, habitat conversion for cattle ranching, and climate change. Recently, public managers and society in general have recognized the urgency of mitigation and conservation actions with a focus on sustainable development in the region. Central to conservation plans is the need for evidence-based guidance, where biodiversity data is often scarce. Together with collaborators from the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, we have been using acoustic monitoring since 2021 to assess species diversity and our goal is to maintain this network for the long term. We have been focusing on:

• Bird diversity: who, where and when? These questions are particularly important to describe the routes of migratory species and support activities related with nature observation in the region.
• Frog climatic niche and acoustic behavior: assessing the temporal variability of frog vocal activity and their relationship with temperature and humidity variation enables to assess the role of regional and high-temporal climatic shifts on central aspects of the physiology and behavior of this threatened vertebrate group.
• Frog metacommunity dynamics: understanding what drives the spatial and temporal variability of assemblages sheds light on how diversity is maintained and helps to predict impacts on community-wide distributions.