Living in a changing world: effects of roads and Pinus monocultures on an anuran metacommunity in southern Brazil

The loss of species with unique traits and evolutionary histories resulting from anthropogenic land-use changes poses a risk to the maintenance of ecosystems. We investigated the influence of Pinus monocultures and roads on functional, phylogenetic, and taxonomic composition, as well as on functional dispersion of an anuran metacommunity in Brazil. We expected the influence of anthropogenic stressors to (1) vary according to the diversity component, with greater influence on the functional and phylogenetic components than on the taxonomic component; and (2) traits related to habitat exploration to be more influenced by monocultures, while the traits related to dispersal and physiological control to be influenced by roads and monocultures, especially for species with smaller body size and low dispersal potential. We found that, while the distance from ponds to monocultures influences the phylogenetic composition, distance to roads influences functional composition and dispersion. The anthropogenic stressors affect the structure of these communities, even those formed by generalist species in terms of habitat use. The phylogenetic composition shows that the distribution of evolutionary clades in human-modified areas is linked to the preferred habitat of species, while functional composition is related to body size. Furthermore, functional dispersion was higher in areas closer to roads, contrary to our expectations. Our results represent new evidence for the conservation of anurans in modified landscapes reinforcing the importance of including functional and phylogenetic information in conservation-driven studies.