Mirmecofauna em um fragmento de floresta atlântica urbana no município de Marília, Brasil

The aim of this study was to verify the influence of the habitat fragmentation on the Ant Fauna in an urban fragment of Semideciduous Seasonal Atlantic Forest located in the municipality of Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil. The studied fragment was divided into three environments in relation to edge: "Edge" (2m), "Transition" (30m) and "Interior" (90m). By using pitfalls traps and attractive baits there were done nine samples between November 2007 and February 2008. There were collected 3.873 individuals distributed into five subfamilies, 19 genera and 33 species. Five species were abundant on three studied environments: Ectatomma sp1, Mycocepurus goeldii, Paratrechina sp1, Pheidole sp2, Trachymyrmex sp1, Wasmannia auropunctata. The edge and transition environments presented the lower Simpsons diversity index and higher species dominance. However, it was observed little variation between these parameters between environments. Faunistic similarity between environments, expressed by Jaccard's similarity index showed high similarity between all studied environments. Because the studied site is an urban fragment, the similarity found between these areas can be related to habitat fragmentation process, an historical of constant anthropic perturbation and low local colonization rates. However, we suggest that a posteriori evaluation should be done with other arthropods groups like spiders and beetles in due to understand the changes that occur in urban fragments and support the choice of conservation and management actions in favor of this important forest remnant localized in urban area of Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil.

Biodiversity, Species Interactions and Ecological Networks in a Fragmented World

Biodiversity is organised into complex ecological networks of interacting species in local ecosystems, but our knowledge about the effects of habitat fragmentation on such systems remains limited. We consider the effects of this key driver of both local and global change on both mutualistic and antagonistic systems at different levels of biological organisation and spatiotemporal scales.There is a complex interplay of patterns and processes related to the variation and influence of spatial, temporal and biotic drivers in ecological networks. Species traits (e.g. body size, dispersal ability) play an important role in determining how networks respond to fragment size and isolation, edge shape and permeability, and the quality of the surrounding landscape matrix. Furthermore, the perception of spatial scale (e.g. environmental grain) and temporal effects (time lags, extinction debts) can differ markedly among species, network modules and trophic levels, highlighting the need to develop a more integrated perspective that considers not just nodes, but the structural role and strength of species interactions (e.g. as hubs, spatial couplers and determinants of connectance, nestedness and modularity) in response to habitat fragmentation.Many challenges remain for improving our understanding: the likely importance of specialisation, functional redundancy and trait matching has been largely overlooked. The potentially critical effects of apex consumers, abundant species and supergeneralists on network changes and evolutionary dynamics also need to be addressed in future research. Ultimately, spatial and ecological networks need to be combined to explore the effects of dispersal, colonisation, extinction and habitat fragmentation on network structure and coevolutionary dynamics. Finally, we need to embed network approaches more explicitly within applied ecology in general, because they offer great potential for improving on the current species-based or habitat-centric approaches to our management and conservation of biodiversity in the face of environmental change.

Genetic conservation of Brazilian fishes - Present state and perspectives

Natural environments have been worldwide affected by the growing impact of anthropogenic actions that promote the reduction or the extinction of several vertebrate species. Aquatic ecosystems represent one of the most affected environments and many fish species and/or populations have been increasingly fragmented distributed due to habitat degradation, predatory fishing, introduction of exotic species, river sedimentation, deforestation, pollution, reduction of food resource, and construction of hydroelectric dams. Actually, more than 150 Brazilian fish species, including freshwater, estuary and coastal species, can be considered threatened. Information on the diversity, conservation biology and population analysis on threatened species or populations, with several DNA markers, can be extremely useful for the success of fish species-recovery and maintenance programs. Although DNA analysis in Neotropical fish species are just beginning, they tend to increase with the widespread attention to the use of molecular approaches to minimize problems related to the risk of extinction. The accumulation of information on biology and pattern of genetic variation of fish species, associated with ecological and demographic data, and also education and respect to the nature, constitutes a crucial task to develop efficient conservation strategies in order to preserve the genetic diversity in aquatic environments.

Impacto humano afeta negativamente a dispersão de sementes de frutos ornitocóricos: Uma perspectiva global

Ornithochorous fruits make up an important part of the diet of birds and many studies have related the different morphological types of fruits with the choice by birds. We analyzed the intrinsic characteristics of plants and how human impact can affect this choice. Through analyses of covariance we related the degree of human pressure in each study site (high or low) and the morphological characteristics of 57 ornithochorous species with visiting rates and consumption of fruits by birds. We did not find any intrinsic plant characteristic (life form, size and type of diaspore) that explains the rates of consumption and visit by birds. On the other hand, the degree of human impact affected directly the mutualism between plants and birds. Plant species located in areas that suffer high human pressure had number of visits and consumption rates 3,3 and 3,5 lower than plants located in pristine areas, respectively. The negative consequences of the reduction of consumption of fruits in areas with high human pressures may directly affects the interactions between birds and plants and the regeneration of the ornithochorous species.

Snake assemblage in a disturbed grassland environment in Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil: Population fluctuations of Liophis poecilogyrus and Pseudablabes agassizii

A mark-recapture study of a snake assemblage using pitfall traps with drift fences was carried out in a disturbed grassland environment (e.g. cattle breeding and cultivations), located in the Pampa Biome, in the central region of the Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil. From February 2001 to January 2004 we caught 272 snakes belonging to 20 species from the following families: Elapidae (5%), Viperidae (10%), and Colubridae (85%). The assemblage had a unimodal seasonal pattern of activity, and the highest number of captures occurred between September and May. There was a positive and significant correlation between the number of captures and monthly minimum and maximum average temperatures. Recruitment was observed from January to April. During the study, the area was affected by human activities, which altered the community structure: Pseudablabes agassizii was negatively affected by habitat devastation while Liophis poecilogyrus took advantage of this. Our results reinforced the impression that Pseudablabes agassizii is a habitat specialist species. We extend the understanding of the susceptibility of this species to environmental destruction in open natural environments of South America, and propose its use as a potential bio-indicator of the Pampa biome. We also discuss the importance of conservation strategies for snakes in grasslands of southern Brazil. © Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board 2007.

Distribution of carabid beetles in agroecosystems across spatial scales - A review

The review focuses on the questions (1) how does the spatial heterogeneity of landscape influences carabid biodiversity, and (2) what are the main factors causing this biodiversity across nested spatial scales (study point - plant association - landscape level). The analysis of recent literature indicates that the spatial distribution of carabids differs at various spatial scales, and the factors responsible for the distribution are different. At the study point level most of the communities exhibit high variability of population density and diversity, which has no correlations with soil, and sometimes, vegetation, parameters. Most of the factors that contribute to formation of the communities are stochastic, simply because patches of a factor are much smaller than the size of a distinct carabid community. At the level of plant association, soil factors begin to play the role in driving the communities. At this level, litter depth, micro-climate and vegetation composition are the main factors. At the landscape level, geological factors, such as topography, landscape geochemistry, and history are playing important roles. As a conservation measure, spatial heterogeneity should be kept at all spatial scales at the same time to maintain carabid biodiversity in agricultural areas.

Phenotypic changes and small mammal impoverishment on a Brazilian Atlantic Forest Island

Faunal impoverishment and distorted species compositions are common phenomena in oceanic islands; however, many land-bridge islands are poorly inventoried, especially in the Neotropics. We sampled a small mammal community on a land-bridge island (Anchieta Island) along the Brazilian coast. We found only one marsupial Didelphis aurita (Wied-Neuwied, 1826) and two rodent species Oligoryzomys nigripes (Olfers, 1818) and Trinomys iheringi (Thomas, 1911) during 12 months of live trapping and 9195 trap-nights. The diversity of rodents and marsupials was not explained by species-area relations, indicating possible past extinctions. The abundance of D. aurita and O. nigripes was approximately three times higher, while the abundance of T. iheringi was approximately four times lower than abundances reported from other Brazilian Atlantic Forest sites. The population of D. aurita exhibited many phenotypic changes; males were on average 8 % smaller and females produced 30 % less litters than those from the mainland and other land-bridge islands. The long history of forest disturbance, habitat loss, reduction in forest productivity, and the recent introduction of mesopredators may be the major drivers that explain the small mammal community composition on this island. © 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Avian assemblages in bamboo and non-bamboo habitats in a tropical rainforest

Some species of bird are closely associated with bamboos (bamboo specialists) but community-wide studies comparing the avian assemblages in bamboo and non-bamboo habitats are lacking. Using point counts, we compared the species richness, abundance and composition of the avian assemblages in bamboo and non-bamboo habitats in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Apart from considering bamboo specialists and non-specialist species, we contrasted birds from different categories of forest dependence, forest strata and diet. We recorded a total of 81 species of birds (74 in bamboo, 55 in non-bamboo habitats), including 15 bamboo specialists. Species richness was greater in bamboo habitats in all categories of diet and forest dependence. Bamboo and non-bamboo habitats had a similar number of canopy species, but bamboo habitats had a greater number of non-canopy species. The abundance of the whole avian community or of each of the dietary categories did not differ between habitats. The overall species composition differed between habitats, with a more homogeneous composition in non-bamboo habitats. A great number of species use bamboo habitats, even if they are not bamboo specialists. The initial expansion of bamboos, forming discrete patches of bamboo within mature forest, represents an intermediate-level disturbance that enhances forest heterogeneity and promotes the diversity of avian communities. © BirdLife Australia 2013.

Water availability determines the richness and density of fig trees within Brazilian semideciduous forest landscapes

The success of fig trees in tropical ecosystems is evidenced by the great diversity (+750 species) and wide geographic distribution of the genus. We assessed the contribution of environmental variables on the species richness and density of fig trees in fragments of seasonal semideciduous forest (SSF) in Brazil. We assessed 20 forest fragments in three regions in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Fig tree richness and density was estimated in rectangular plots, comprising 31.4 ha sampled. Both richness and fig tree density were linearly modeled as function of variables representing (1) fragment metrics, (2) forest structure, and (3) landscape metrics expressing water drainage in the fragments. Model selection was performed by comparing the AIC values (Akaike Information Criterion) and the relative weight of each model (wAIC). Both species richness and fig tree density were better explained by the water availability in the fragment (meter of streams/ha): wAICrichness = 0.45, wAICdensity = 0.96. The remaining variables related to anthropic perturbation and forest structure were of little weight in the models. The rainfall seasonality in SSF seems to select for both establishment strategies and morphological adaptations in the hemiepiphytic fig tree species. In the studied SSF, hemiepiphytes established at lower heights in their host trees than reported for fig trees in evergreen rainforests. Some hemiepiphytic fig species evolved superficial roots extending up to 100 m from their trunks, resulting in hectare-scale root zones that allow them to efficiently forage water and soil nutrients. The community of fig trees was robust to variation in forest structure and conservation level of SSF fragments, making this group of plants an important element for the functioning of seasonal tropical forests. © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Edge-interior differences in the species richness and abundance of drosophilids in a semideciduous forest fragment

Habitat fragmentation is the main cause of biodiversity loss, as remnant fragments are exposed to negative influences that include edge effects, prevention of migration, declines in effective population sizes, loss of genetic variability and invasion of exotic species. The Drosophilidae (Diptera), especially species of the genus Drosophila, which are highly sensitive to environmental variation, have been used as bioindicators. A twelve-month field study was conducted to evaluate the abundance and richness of drosophilids in an edge-interior transect in a fragment of semideciduous forest in São Paulo State, Brazil. One objective of the study was to evaluate the applied methodology with respect to its potential use in future studies addressing the monitoring and conservation of threatened areas. The species abundance along the transect showed a clear gradient, with species associated with disturbed environments, such as Drosophila simulans, Scaptodrosophila latifasciaeformis and Zaprionus indianus, being collected at the fragment edge and the species D. willistoni and D. mediostriata being found in the fragment's interior. Replacement of these species occurred at approximately 60 meters from the edge, which may be a reflection of edge effects on species abundance and richness because the species found within the habitat fragment are more sensitive to variations in temperature and humidity than those sampled near the edge. The results support the use of this methodology in studies on environmental impacts. © 2013 Penariol and Madi-Ravazzi; licensee Springer.

Functional extinction of birds drives rapid evolutionary changes in seed size

Local extinctions have cascading effects on ecosystem functions, yet little is known about the potential for the rapid evolutionary change of species in human-modified scenarios. We show that the functional extinction of large-gape seed dispersers in the Brazilian Atlantic forest is associated with the consistent reduction of the seed size of a keystone palm species. Among 22 palm populations, areas deprived of large avian frugivores for several decades present smaller seeds than nondefaunated forests, with negative consequences for palm regeneration. Coalescence and phenotypic selection models indicate that seed size reduction most likely occurred within the past 100 years, associated with human-driven fragmentation. The fast-paced defaunation of large vertebrates is most likely causing unprecedented changes in the evolutionary trajectories and community composition of tropical forests.

An index for defaunation

Defaunation, originally conceived as the loss of large vertebrates due to hunting or fragmentation, has been widely used in conservation studies yet the term has been arbitrarily used and poorly defined. Here we refine this term by creating a quantitative index that can be used to compare ecological communities over large zoogeographical regions. We propose a defaunation index (. D) as a weighted measure of dissimilarity between the current assemblage of a given location and a reference assemblage that represents a historical and/or unperturbed state. We analyzed the index by means of three case studies that included two empirical assessments of mammal communities in Neotropical rainforests and one hypothetical example, encompassing a variety of criteria to quantify differences in species density and importance. These cases illustrate the broad range of index applicability and show that incorporating functional differences among species, such as those based on body size, conservation status or evolutionary originality can add important information beyond simply species richness. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Mammal defaunation as surrogate of trophic cascades in a biodiversity hotspot

Preserving large tracts of natural habitats is essential to maintain biodiversity. Nevertheless, even large areas may still suffer from less visible impacts such as loss of ecological processes. Because mapping ecological processes over large scales is not practical, an alternative is to map surrogate species that are key for those processes. In this study, we chose four species of Neotropical large mammals (the largest apex predator: jaguar - Panthera onca; the largest herbivore: tapir - Tapirus terrestris; the largest seed predator: white-lipped peccary - Tayassu pecari; and the largest arboreal seed disperser: muriqui - Brachyteles spp.) in an ecosystem with an old history of human impact (the Atlantic Forest) to test whether areas with native forest still harbor ecological processes that may guarantee long-term ecosystem maintenance. We gathered 94 locations with recent presence of the four species to map current ranges and model suitable areas. Our results reveal that 96% of the remaining Atlantic Forest is depleted of at least one of the four surrogate species and 88% is completely depleted of all four surrogate species. We also found that only 16% is still environmentally suitable for all four, and 55% is completely unsuitable to all four of them. Our study highlights the importance of looking beyond land cover to fully depict intactness of natural areas, and suggests that ecosystems with a long history of human impact (such as the Atlantic Forest) may be suffering from ecological impacts not seen at a first glance. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

No changes in seedling recruitment when terrestrial mammals are excluded in a partially defaunated Atlantic rainforest

One of the most intriguing questions in ecology is how to identify which and how many species will be able to inhabit human-modified landscapes. Large-bodied mammals structure plant communities by trampling, herbivory, seed dispersal and predation, and their local extinction may have pervasive consequences in plant communities due to the breakdown of key interactions. Although much attention has been given to understanding the effects of defaunation on plant communities, information on the potential impacts on plant functional groups (seed dispersal, seed size and seedling leaves defense) inhabiting continuous forests after defaunation is scarce. We conducted mammal surveys (line transects and camera trapping) to determine the defaunation status of a continuous Atlantic forest in Brazil. Then, we evaluated the effects of defaunation on seedling diversity, richness and abundance of functional groups using 15 plot-pairs (each pair with one open and one exclusion plot) monitored over 36. months. We found that the studied area is partially defaunated because it exhibits high abundance of primates, while terrestrial mammals, such as large rodents and ungulates, are rare. We found no significant changes in either seedling richness and diversity or in the seedling composition of plant functional groups in response to mammal exclosure. Seedling mortality and recruitment were similar between plot types. Our findings suggest that at semi-defaunated areas, where arboreal species are still present, terrestrial mammals have low impacts on the plant community reassembly. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Contribuição diferencial de quatro famílias de aves dispersoras de sementes na recuperação de habitats florestais

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