Biodiversity of interaction between fruit-eating vertebrates and plants of the Atl...
| Grant number: | 01/14463-5 |
| Support type: | BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Regular Research Grants |
| Duration: | October 01, 2002 - January 31, 2006 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Ecology |
| Principal Investigator: | Mauro Galetti Rodrigues |
| Grantee: | Mauro Galetti Rodrigues |
| Home Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil |
Abstract
Currently there is a lot of controversy regarding the most efficient manner for the conservation of tropical ecosystems, and in particular, on the role that protected areas perform to attain this objective. Birds and large-sized mammals are among the most vulnerable to over-exploitation by hunting, loss of habitat, trafficking or competition for resources with human beings. In tropical forests the animals that consume fruit (frugivores) make up around 80 per cent of the biomass of all the vertebrates, exercising a fundamental role in the structuration. Among them many are threatened with extinction, such as the large primates (woolly spider monkey, Brachyteles arachnoides) and the piping guans (Pipile jacutinga). In the Atlantic Rainforest merely 2 per cent of the 8 per cent remaining of the original Forest is given up to conservation units of indirect use.Many of these units, however, are under huge pressure from hunting, directly affecting the populations of cynegetic animals, which certainly affect the whole tropical chain. On the other hand, these units are not the majority nor is their spatial distribution in these areas. This project consists of diagnosing populations of birds and cynegetic mammals in six conservation units on the Atlantic Rainforest in the State of São Paulo. In addition, precise information on the spatial distribution of these animals in the conservation units will be collected for future monitoring and effective protection. Our project is the first study of spatial distribution and density of cynegetic species in the conservation units of the Atlantic Rainforest of São Paulo and its methodology could be employed in other areas. (AU)