ARPHA Conference Abstracts : Conference Abstract
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Conference Abstract
Distribution of herpetofauna in caves of Portuguese karst massifs
expand article infoAna Marques‡, Joana Soares‡, Fernando Gonçalves§, Sérgio M. Marques§, Ana Sofia P. S. Reboleira|
‡ University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
§ Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
| Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Corresponding author: Sérgio M. Marques (sergio.marques@ua.pt)
Received: 09 Oct 2018 | Published: 19 Oct 2018
© 2018 Ana Marques, Joana Soares, Fernando Gonçalves, Sérgio Marques, Ana Sofia P. S. Reboleira
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Marques A, Soares J, Gonçalves F, Marques S, Reboleira A (2018) Distribution of herpetofauna in caves of Portuguese karst massifs. ARPHA Conference Abstracts 1: e30452. https://doi.org/10.3897/aca.1.e30452
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Abstract

Amphibians are frequently found exploring subterranean environments. Even though in Europe there are already some reports of amphibians present in subterranean habitats, in Portugal there is a major lack of knowledge of these ecosystems, namely in the karst region. Considering the relevance of amphibians and their current conservational status, it is important to assess their presence in every potential habitat. In order to provide further knowledge over this subject a preliminary survey was carried out in two Portuguese karst massifs, Estremenho and Sicó. A total of 24 caves were surveyed and as result three species (Tarentola mauritanica; Salamandra salamandra and Pleorodeles waltl) were found in Estremenho karst massif, and two species (Triturus marmoratus and Bufo bufo) were observed in Sicó karst massif. Furthermore, evidences were found that P. waltl uses caves for reproduction, which had only been reported once in Spain. This allowed perceiving that herpetofauna species occupy caves of Portuguese karst massifs and are also using them as reproduction sites.

Presenting author

Sérgio M. Marques

Presented at

24th International Conference on Subterranean Biology

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638), to FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC), and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. Also Sérgio Marques is a recipient of an individual research grant by FCT (SFRH/BPD/112803/2015) and ASR is supported by a research grant (15471) from the VILLUM FONDEN.

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