What is it about?
Functional diversity is a component of biodiversity that generally concerns the range of things that organisms do in communities and ecosystems. We have shown that ponds with intermediate depth harboured higher functional tadpole trait diversity than ponds with extreme depths (e.g. shallow or deep depth).
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Why is it important?
Although, it is recognised that small reproductive habitats are important to maintain the biodiversity of aquatic and semiaquatic organisms, they still are ignored. Because we are witnessing increasing human pressure on land use, simple acts (e.g. maintaining a depth gradient in reproductive habitats) can be the first step in guiding us to protect the diversity of a Neotropical frog tadpole’s traits in agricultural landscapes.
Perspectives
Because regulations to protect small reproductive habitats are absent and overlooked in Brazilian legislation, we hope that our results can be used as a guide for protect the diversity of frog tadpoles in Brazil.
Dr Fernando Rodrigues da Silva
Federal University of São Carlos
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The relationship between pond habitat depth and functional tadpole diversity in an agricultural landscape, Royal Society Open Science, July 2015, Royal Society Publishing,
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150165.
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