Species richness patterns and conservation priority areas based on reptile data from Chubut province, Patagônia, Argentina.

JANISH ALVAREZ, D.; MINOLI, I.; BORGES-MARTINS, M.; MORANDO, M.; BECKER, F.G.; AVILA, L.J.

Curitiba

Congreso; IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Herpetologia; 2011

Sociedade Brasileira de Herpetologia

Argentina has 390 reptile species, representing 4.20% of worldwide richness. Chubut province is located in the Patagonian region and has 38 reptiles’ species with confirmed data, distributed in three different ecoregions, one of which, the Patagonian Steppe, is considered as vulnerable and a conservation priority. Within the last 15 years, more than 50 species alone were described within the genus Liolaemus for Argentina and Chile, showing a great potential for still unknown species. At least 45% of lizard species from this region are endemic to Patagonia, evidence of reptile importance in conservation strategies in this region. Niche modeling methods are being used in biogeography, distribution and conservation studies, and provides an important tool in priority areas analyses. Within this context our objective is to generate geographic distribution models for all reptile species from Chubut, in order to identify richness patterns and priority areas for this province conservation policy. All data were checked and reviewed and only those confirmed from voucher specimens and collection data were included in the analyzes. We summarize a total of 2291 data points, the majority from the Herpetological Collection of the Centro Nacional Patagonico (LJAMM-CENPAT). Climatic data were taken from Worldclim and we used 20 bioclimatic variables based on temperature, altitude and precipitation. We used the Maxent v.3.3.3a algorithm to resolve geographic distribution models. To analyze priority areas we used the software Zonation v2.0, that allows inclusion of species with different weights based ondata quality (insufficient to generate distribution models). This approach creates and analyzes alternative proposals for conservation units based on removal of less informative pixels. A potential richness model generated from overlapping distribution models from 35 species, showed that Telsen, Biedma, Gaiman and Rawson departments, from high plateaus and lowland Monte areas, have the higher species numbers. Some areas within the central region of the Paso de Indios department, north of the Gastre-Telsen limit (Patagonia Steppe), west of Cushamen, Futaleufu and Tehuelches (Patagonic forest) and Biedma, Gaiman and Rawson (highplateaus and lowland Monte), are also highlighted as priority conservation areas for reptiles, and they represent all ecoregions present in the province. Priority areas do not correspond exactly with higher richness areas, since they take into account composition as well as species number. Related to conservation units in the province, there is little overlapping between areas identified here and those already established. Only in the west region of Cushamen and Futaleufú (Lago Puelo and Los Alerces National Parks) and in Península Valdés, Biedma department, are there large protected areas, but there is norepresentation of Patagonian Steppe. These results show that effectiveness of actual protected areas is limited for lizard diversity, since many priority areas with high potential richness in Chubut province are unprotected, especially in central and central-south areas.