The advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans: Historical review, current knowledge and future directions

Abstract

Advertisement calls are often used as essential basic information in studies of animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, conservation, taxonomy or biodiversity inventories. Yet the description of this type of acoustic signals is far to be completed, especially in tropical regions, and is frequently non-standardized or limited in information, restricting the application of bioacoustics in science. Here we conducted a scientometric review of the described adverstisement calls of anuran species of Brazil, the world richest territory in anurans, to evaluate the amount, standard and trends of the knowledge on this key life-history trait and to identify gaps and directions for future research strategies. Based on our review, 607 studies have been published between 1960 to 2016 describing the calls of 719 Brazilian anuran species (68.8% of all species), a publication rate of 10.6 descriptions per year. From each of these studies, thirty-one variables were recorded and examined with descriptive and inferential statistics. In spite of an exponential rise over the last six decades in the number of studies, described calls, and quantity of published metadata, as revealed by regression models, clear shortfalls were identified with regard to anuran families, biomes, and categories of threat. More than 55% of these species belong to the two richest families, Hylidae or Leptodactylidae. The lowest percentage of species with described calls corresponds to the most diverse biomes, namely Atlantic Forest (65.1%) and Amazon (71.5%), and to the IUCN categories of threat (56.8%), relative to the less-than-threatened categories (74.3%). Moreover, only 52.3% of the species have some of its calls deposited in the main scientific sound collections. Our findings evidence remarkable knowledge gaps on advertisement calls of Brazilian anuran species, emphasizing the need of further efforts in standardizing and increasing the description of anuran calls for their application in studies of the behaviour, ecology, biogeography or taxonomy of the species.

Fig 1. Evolution in the descriptions of the advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans between 1960 and 2016.

Regression function and line fitting the annual number of new described calls over the last six decades.

Fig 2. Total number of species with described advertisement call from each of the Brazilian anuran families.

Fig 3. Evolution in the presence of metadata in the studies with descriptions of advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans between 1960 and 2016.

Regression function and line fitting the number of metadata variables provided in each study and the year in which was published.

Fig 4. Number of anuran species (overall and endemic) in each Brazilian biome with one or more published descriptions of their advertisement call.

Fig 5. Number of Brazilian anuran species in each of the categories of threat of the IUCN red list with one or more published descriptions of their advertisement call.

Fig 6. Scientific journals with publications about descriptions of advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans published between 1960 and 2016.

Fig 7. Evolution in the number of authors of studies with descriptions of advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans between 1960 and 2016.

Regression function and line fitting the number of authors of each study and the year of publication.

Fig 8. Number of studies with descriptions of advertisement calls of Brazilian anurans published per country (affiliated institution of the first author).