Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38034867›Full record

ArticlePeerJ2023

Amphibian diversity across three adjacent ecosystems in Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Alex W Edwards, Xavier A Harrison, M Alex Smith, Maria Marta Chavarría Díaz, Mahmood Sasa, Daniel H Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, Gerardo Chaves, Roberto Fernández, Caroline Palmer and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PeerJ, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Constructing a lower-bound estimate of the global number of insect species on a hyperdiverse empirical foundation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Alex W Edwards *School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK.
Xavier A Harrison *Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2004-3601
M Alex SmithDepartment of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Maria Marta Chavarría DíazDepartment of Research, Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Mahmood SasaSchool of Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Daniel H JanzenDepartment of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
Winnie HallwachsDepartment of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
Gerardo ChavesSchool of Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Roberto FernándezGuanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Philadelphia, United States of America.
Caroline PalmerSchool of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK.
Chloe WilsonSchool of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK.
Alexandra NorthSchool of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK.
Robert PuschendorfSchool of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8105-171X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Amphibians are the most threatened species-rich vertebrate group, with species extinctions and population declines occurring globally, even in protected and seemingly pristine habitats. These 'enigmatic declines' are generated by climate change and infectious diseases. However, the consequences of these declines are undocumented as no baseline ecological data exists for most affected areas. Like other neotropical countries, Costa Rica, including Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in north-western Costa Rica, experienced rapid amphibian population declines and apparent extinctions during the past three decades. To delineate amphibian diversity patterns within ACG, a large-scale comparison of multiple sites and habitats was conducted. Distance and time constrained visual encounter surveys characterised species richness at five sites-Murciélago (dry forest), Santa Rosa (dry forest), Maritza (mid-elevation dry-rain forest intersect), San Gerardo (rainforest) and Cacao (cloud forest). Furthermore, species-richness patterns for Cacao were compared with historic data from 1987-8, before amphibians declined in the area. Rainforests had the highest species richness, with triple the species of their dry forest counterparts. A decline of 45% (20 to 11 species) in amphibian species richness was encountered when comparing historic and contemporary data for Cacao. Conservation efforts sometimes focus on increasing the resilience of protected areas, by increasing their range of ecosystems. In this sense ACG is unique containing many tropical ecosystems compressed in a small geographic space, all protected and recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site. It thus provides an extraordinary platform to understand changes, past and present, and the resilience of tropical ecosystems and assemblages, or lack thereof, to climate change.

Indexed as

AmphibiansEcosystemAnimalsCosta RicaEndangered SpeciesForestsAmphibian declinesAnuransCosta RicaForest habitatsSpecies richness

Identifiers

PMID38034867
PMCPMC10688307

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.