Microclimatic variables influence the temporal dynamics of an anuran metacommunity in a non-stationary way

Understanding the temporal dynamics of communities is crucial to elucidate how communities respond to climate change. The activities of ectothermic vertebrates are sensitive to climatic variations due to their sensibility to temperature and humidity. However, the factors that affect the temporal dynamics of communities of terrestrial ectothermic vertebrate remain poorly known. Here, we tested how microclimatic variables influence anuran species composition and if species abundances are stable through time in a metacommunity in the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. Using a multivariate method, called STATICO, we described the stable patterns and the spatio-temporal changes of the relationship between species composition and the microclimatic variables. We found that species turnover showed an asynchronous spatial pattern, while species composition exhibited a non-stationary response to climate, which was mainly related to temperature, rainfall, and humidity during the spring and summer. These results suggest storage effect as the main coexistence mechanism at play in the metacommunity, in which the asynchronous fluctuations promote species coexistence under a scenario of environmental variability.<br><br>