Discussion

Given the low number of protected areas and high species richness of amphibians with restricted range in the Cerrado, it was expected that most of the species were not adequately protected and that a large area of biome would be of high conservation value, as demonstrated by the results presented here. An aggravating fact is the greatest richness and total ED of endemic species associated with the central and southeastern regions of the biome. As shown in Fig. 1, these are the areas that suffered the greatest habitat destruction and where remnants are scarce. Forecasts of future habitat degradation also indicate that these areas will suffer further habitat loss if the current economic and political scenarios remain unchanged (see Silvano 2011).

The fact that 39 endemic and restricted range species of amphibians from the Cerrado are completely unprotected is alarming. Several studies have shown that limited range species are more prone to extinction (e.g. Purvis et al. 2000a, b; Cooper et al. 2008). This can happen simply because environmental change can affect all or most of their narrow distributions (Cooper et al. 2008). Most of these species are habitat specialists, and more susceptible to environmental changes (Hero et al. 2005). Moreover, many species occur in low abundance, and also have low reproductive success, and are subject to demographic stochasticity and inbreeding (O'Grady et al. 2006). Among these species are Proceratophrys moratoi, an example of threatened restricted range species, which occurs in small populations in extremely degraded grassland areas in the state of São Paulo (Carvalho-Jr et al. 2010; Rolim et al. 2010; Maffei et al. 2011).

More relictual species, such as Chiasmocleis mehelyi, Oreobates heterodactylus, and Odontophrynus salvatori, are completely unprotected and all of them are restricted range species. Proceratophrys moratoi, although currently detected within a protected area in São Paulo state, is also considered a gap-species because only a very small proportion of its limited range is actually protected. Others, like Pristimantis dundeei and Oreobates crepitans are restricted to the region of the cities of Cuiabá and Chapada dos Guimarães at Mato Grosso state. Recent studies indicate that these species are not closely related to others of the same genus, because of their low number of chromosomes and ecological characteristics (Siqueira et al. 2009), which makes them even more unique.

The areas of greatest conservation value for endemic amphibians species are concentrated in the central portion of the biome on a northwest-southeast diagonal, and represent 18.6 % of the Cerrado area. In recent studies, in order to define important areas for inclusion in an efficient network of protected areas for the conservation of all species of Cerrado frogs, 17 priority areas were defined, based on distribution maps (minimum convex polygons) for 131 species (Diniz-Filho et al. 2007, 2009). The results were very similar to those found in a previous study (DinizFilho et al. 2004), with the same purpose but using a shorter list of species, different algorithms and a grid of cells of different sizes. These results indicate priority regions for conservation of anurans distributed widely in the biome, but the most important areas of concentration (“irreplaceable”) in the southeast part. Some of these areas are coincident with those found here and others are very different, as the northern portion of the biome, indicated by these studies as a priority and not selected here. The differences in results should be linked to the fact that (1) our study was based on a more complete database (see Valdujo et al. 2012), (2) we used modeled distribution maps based on topographic and climatic species requirements and (3) we included evolutionary characteristics.

The selection of areas along the elevation gradient, including both lowlands and river valleys as uplands and mountains, is related to the fact that endemic species have different habitat requirements (Valdujo et al. 2012). The São Francisco River basin has the highest species richness, certainly due to the high richness of endemic and restricted range species in the Espinhaço complex (see review in Leite et al. 2008). Other high elevation areas where endemic species have high richness are the Guimarães, Canasta and Central Brazil uplands (Valdujo et al. 2012).

The priority areas for achieving conservation goals established in this study seem to coincide with areas of high species richness and greater Total ED of amphibians in the Cerrado. According to our data, these areas incorporate most of the evolutionary history of Cerrado amphibians. The evolutionary history may be more important for maintaining ecosystem services than simply species richness (Cadotte et al. 2008). Conserving this diversity, we are also conserving the genotypic, phenotypic and functional diversity, giving more chances for ecosystems to respond appropriately to future changes (Cadotte and Davies 2010). In an assessment of the effects of climate change and habitat degradation on endemic amphibian species to the Cerrado, Silvano (2011) found that future scenarios are extremely unfavorable to the occurrence of these species. Thus, conservation strategies that consider the evolutionary diversity are mandatory tools for the future.

Since the resources available for conservation are limited and it is not possible to preserve the entire area due to conflicts with other social and especially economic interests, it is expected that the selection of these areas act as a starting point for decision makers. The areas considered here as priorities for the conservation of endemic Cerrado frogs should be investigated and appropriate plans for the conservation, management and control of these areas should be developed and implemented to ensure the existence of these species in the future.

Acknowledgements We thank Roseli Pellens for inviting us to write this chapter and for her review and comments. Anni Arponen, Annemarie Ohler and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions. Mario Barroso Ramos-Neto and Mariana da Silva Soares (Landscape Ecology Lab of WWF-Brasil) provided the planning units and cost layers for the Cerrado, built in a joint initiative with the Ministry of Environment. Hussam Zaher (MZUSP), Marcos Carvalho (ZUFMT), Rogério Bastos (ZUFG), Felipe Toledo (ZUEC), Célio Haddad (CFBH), Luciana Nascimento (MCN PUC-MG), Denise Rossa-Feres (DZSJRP), Franco Leandro de Souza (UFMS), José P. Pombal Junior (MNRJ), Ulisses Caramaschi (MNRJ) and Ulisses Galatti (MPEG) gently allowed us to examine museum specimens under their care. Mariana Gomes helped organizing the database. This study was funded FAPESP (fellowship 2007/51956-6 and grant 06/58011-4), CAPES, CNPq, FAP-DF, Conservation International (CP-FY 08/017 and CP-FY 08/018), Neotropical Grassland Conservancy, and Fundação O Boticario de Proteção à Natureza (0747_20071 and 0798_20082). Pequi –Pesquisa e Conservação do Cerrado provided logistical and institutional support for this project.

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