Ver artículo

The African clawed frog Xenopus laevis is one of the most widely distributed amphibians in the world. It has invaded an area of approximately 21,200 km² since its naturalization in Chile in the early 1980s. Currently, there is scant knowledge on the factors and processes underlying its distributional pattern. We constructed a bioclimatic niche model considering areas susceptible to be invaded (coarse model). At a local scale, we explored topographic, ecological, and anthropic variables, to identify which of these have the greatest predictive power for the expansion of this African species in southern South America. Not surprisingly, the projection of the distribution of Xenopus laevis laevis in southern Africa had the highest probabilities associated with the mediterranean area of the Cape region. From the habitat projection on southern South America, we predict high habitat suitability for this species in the …