Analysis of the functional connectivity through the characterization of movement of the species Heliconius erato

• Grant number: 12/07352-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Danilo Boscolo
• Grantee: Julia de Lima Pinheiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The anthropic influence on natural habitats through the centuries has caused and still causes forest fragmentation. This process changes the amount of species because leads to changes in the dynamics of the flora and fauna, compromising their conservation. The effects of forest fragmentation depend, among other factors, on the functional connectivity, namely on how an organism perceives and responds to the landscape structure, changing its movement patterns between remaining patches. Within this perspective, the objective of the present project is to characterize the movement patterns of the butterfly species Heliconius erato by analyzing its the functional connectivity to infer about its dispersal capacity in Atlantic Forest fragmented landscapes. The study will be conducted in the region of Caucaia do Alto - São Paulo, which has as original vegetation dense mountain Atlantic rain forest. Individuals of the studied species will be translocated to the non-forested matrix at different distances from the forest patches. Translocated individuals will be observed in terms of the time and tortuosity of its way back to the forest. Path tortuosity will be measured through the Correlated Random Walk analysis. To relate this index with the distance to the forest, generalized linear models with different distributions of probability will be used. These models will be compared through a model selection perspective based on the information theory using the Akaike Information Criterion. Additionally, the rate of return of the translocated individuals to their original forest pacth in function of the distance will be evaluated with Cox survival analysis. (AU)