Effects of secondary forest succession on the richness and composition of frog species in humid tropical forest

Our aim was to evaluate whether the richness and composition of anurans responded to the time of forest regeneration via secondary succession. We sampled the anuran community in a mosaic of areas at three different stages of secondary succession in the Atlantic Forest, southern Brazil. The anurans were collected from nine lentic ponds and from their margins up to a 50 m radius. The late secondary forest sheltered the higher species richness, followed by the primary forest. The spatial variation in species richness was related to the forest succession stage and predominance of arboreal vegetation on the pond edge. The species composition changed throughout the succession stages, regardless of the distance among areas. Along the gradient of forest succession, environmental changes have driven species distribution, limiting the occurrence of forest species and favoring the colonization of areas at the early succession stage by opportunist species. We could observe that the secondary forest succession was a determining factor in the anuran community structure, and with the advancement of the secondary succession, both richness and composition were partly restored. Thus, the conservation of secondary forests might be an efficient strategy to preserve the biodiversity in areas of the Atlantic Forest.