Mario R Moura
My research interests includes biodiversity, macroecology, conservation biogeography, species distribution models, and community ecology. Most often, I use terrestrial animals as target-group for my research.
Supervisors: Walter Jetz, Paulo C. A. Garcia, and Renato N. Feio
Phone: +5583981828931
Address: Conj. Pres. Castelo Branco III
João Pessoa - PB
ZIPCODE 58050-585
Supervisors: Walter Jetz, Paulo C. A. Garcia, and Renato N. Feio
Phone: +5583981828931
Address: Conj. Pres. Castelo Branco III
João Pessoa - PB
ZIPCODE 58050-585
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Papers by Mario R Moura
Snake faunal dissimilarity within tropical forests is not well characterized, nor are the factors underlying these patterns. Our aim was to disentangle the ecological and historical factors driving biogeographical subregions (BSR) for snakes.
Location
Brazilian Atlantic Forest (BAF).
Methods
We compiled 274 snake inventories to build a species-by-site matrix and used unconstrained ordination and clustering techniques to identify the number of snake BSR. We applied an interpolation method to map axes of compositional variation over the whole extent of the BAF, and then classified the compositional dissimilarity according to the number of snake BSR identified a priori. We used multinomial logistic regression models and deviance partitioning techniques to investigate the influence of contemporary climatic stability, productivity, topographic complexity, and historical climate shifts in explaining the BSR.
Results
We identified 198 snake species organized into six BSR, three of them located along the BAF coast and the other three predominantly inland BSR. Climatic stability made the largest contribution to explaining the variability in snake BSR, followed by productivity and historical variation in climate. Topography was important only if historical variation in climate was excluded from the analysis.
Main conclusions
The highest rates of snake endemism within BAF were in the coastal BSR, as compared to the inland BSR that are mostly composed of open habitat specialists. Our findings suggest that the topographic complexity of the BAF acts on snake distributions not as a physical barrier, but rather as a climatic barrier, providing historical climate refuges for species living along altitudinal gradients. Overall, the predominance of climatic stability and historic variation in climate in explaining snake BSR reinforces the importance of thermoregulatory constraints in shaping the distribution of tropical ectotherm species.
459). Zachaenus carvalhoi and Z. parvulus are the only members of the genus. Zachaenus carvalhoi is categorized as Data Deficient in the IUCN Redlist, due to the lack of information on its occurrence and biology. On 18 Oct 2010, an adult female Z. carvalhoi (34.8 mm SVL) was captured in a pitfall trap inside a forested area in the Serra Brigadeiro State Park (20.7219°S, 42.4786°W, SAD 1969; 1380 m elev.), in the municipality of Araponga, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The specimen was sacrificed using 5% xylocain cream, and preserved in 10% formalin. After dissection, 37
eggs were found; average egg diameter was 3.5 ± 0.16 mm (3.14– 3.78 mm). The voucher was deposited in the herpetological collection of the Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil (MZUFV 10642). Both body size (34.8 mm SVL) and clutch size (37 eggs) reported herein are greater than those for Z. parvulus, where the mean body size was 21.1 ± 5.7 mm (12.7–10.9; N = 29) and clutch size was 12.6 ± 2.6 eggs (10–16; N = 9) (Van Sluys et al. 2001. J.
Herpetol. 35:322–325). However, the eggs size of Z carvalhoi (mean diameter 3.47 mm) is within the range (1.5–4.2 mm) reported for Z. parvulus (Van Sluys et al. 2001, op. cit.). There was no relationship between female body size (FBS) and number of eggs reported for Z. parvulus, although the authors suggested the small sample size influenced the analysis. Additional studies are necessary to clarify the relation between FBS and clutch size in Z. carvalhoi. We thank Universidade Federal de Viçosa for logistic support and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
(FAPEMIG, CRA-APQ-02370-09) for financial support. The collecting permits were provided by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA) #20857-2 and Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF) #071-09ii.
CAROLINA COELHO-AUGUSTO (e-mail: [email protected]) and MÁRIO RIBEIRO MOURA, RENATO NEVES FEIO, Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, CEP 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil.
Snake faunal dissimilarity within tropical forests is not well characterized, nor are the factors underlying these patterns. Our aim was to disentangle the ecological and historical factors driving biogeographical subregions (BSR) for snakes.
Location
Brazilian Atlantic Forest (BAF).
Methods
We compiled 274 snake inventories to build a species-by-site matrix and used unconstrained ordination and clustering techniques to identify the number of snake BSR. We applied an interpolation method to map axes of compositional variation over the whole extent of the BAF, and then classified the compositional dissimilarity according to the number of snake BSR identified a priori. We used multinomial logistic regression models and deviance partitioning techniques to investigate the influence of contemporary climatic stability, productivity, topographic complexity, and historical climate shifts in explaining the BSR.
Results
We identified 198 snake species organized into six BSR, three of them located along the BAF coast and the other three predominantly inland BSR. Climatic stability made the largest contribution to explaining the variability in snake BSR, followed by productivity and historical variation in climate. Topography was important only if historical variation in climate was excluded from the analysis.
Main conclusions
The highest rates of snake endemism within BAF were in the coastal BSR, as compared to the inland BSR that are mostly composed of open habitat specialists. Our findings suggest that the topographic complexity of the BAF acts on snake distributions not as a physical barrier, but rather as a climatic barrier, providing historical climate refuges for species living along altitudinal gradients. Overall, the predominance of climatic stability and historic variation in climate in explaining snake BSR reinforces the importance of thermoregulatory constraints in shaping the distribution of tropical ectotherm species.
459). Zachaenus carvalhoi and Z. parvulus are the only members of the genus. Zachaenus carvalhoi is categorized as Data Deficient in the IUCN Redlist, due to the lack of information on its occurrence and biology. On 18 Oct 2010, an adult female Z. carvalhoi (34.8 mm SVL) was captured in a pitfall trap inside a forested area in the Serra Brigadeiro State Park (20.7219°S, 42.4786°W, SAD 1969; 1380 m elev.), in the municipality of Araponga, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The specimen was sacrificed using 5% xylocain cream, and preserved in 10% formalin. After dissection, 37
eggs were found; average egg diameter was 3.5 ± 0.16 mm (3.14– 3.78 mm). The voucher was deposited in the herpetological collection of the Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil (MZUFV 10642). Both body size (34.8 mm SVL) and clutch size (37 eggs) reported herein are greater than those for Z. parvulus, where the mean body size was 21.1 ± 5.7 mm (12.7–10.9; N = 29) and clutch size was 12.6 ± 2.6 eggs (10–16; N = 9) (Van Sluys et al. 2001. J.
Herpetol. 35:322–325). However, the eggs size of Z carvalhoi (mean diameter 3.47 mm) is within the range (1.5–4.2 mm) reported for Z. parvulus (Van Sluys et al. 2001, op. cit.). There was no relationship between female body size (FBS) and number of eggs reported for Z. parvulus, although the authors suggested the small sample size influenced the analysis. Additional studies are necessary to clarify the relation between FBS and clutch size in Z. carvalhoi. We thank Universidade Federal de Viçosa for logistic support and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
(FAPEMIG, CRA-APQ-02370-09) for financial support. The collecting permits were provided by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA) #20857-2 and Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF) #071-09ii.
CAROLINA COELHO-AUGUSTO (e-mail: [email protected]) and MÁRIO RIBEIRO MOURA, RENATO NEVES FEIO, Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, CEP 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil.