Beta diversity of frogs in the forests of New Guinea, Amazonia and Europe_ contrasting tropical and temperate communities

A large proportion of the world’s tropical forests consists of lowland rain forests situated in basins of major tropical rivers, such as the Amazon, the Congo, and the Sepik–Ramu and Fly– Strickland river systems of New Guinea. These forests also form a major part of the three remaining Tropical Wilderness Areas, defined as large pristine areas exceeding 10,000 km of which > 70% is free from anthropogenic disturbance (Mittermeier et al., 2003). It is therefore unfortunate that the distribution of biodiversity within these large blocks of forest is particularly poorly understood (Novotny et al., 2007). New Guinea Binatang Research Center and University of Papua New Guinea, Madang, Papua New Guinea, Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Department of Zoology, National Museum, Praha, Czech Republic and Vertebrates Department, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, and Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Atherton, Australia