Remaining biodiversity in Permanent Preservation Areas (Ppa) from the northeast of the State of São Paulo: medium and large sized mammals' situation

• Grant number: 14/13759-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 13, 2014
• End date: December 22, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Adriano Garcia Chiarello
• Grantee: Roberta Montanheiro Paolino
• Supervisor: Jeffrey Andrew Royle
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/12914-7 - Remaining biodiversity in permanent preservation areas (PPAs) from the northeast of the state of São Paulo: medium and large sized mammals situation, BP.MS

Abstract

The habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution and the introduction of alien species have threatened the biodiversity and increased the extinction rates, particularly of mammals. Maintaining the biodiversity is one of the key functions of the permanent preservation areas (PPA), whose configuration has been the focus of great discussion recently, both before and after the approval of the controversial law Nº 12651/2012 that changed the Brazilian Forest Code. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the role PPA, located in zones of intensive agriculture and silviculture, have as reservoirs of medium and large sized mammals in the northeast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The analysis will be based on the Wildlife Picture Index (WPI) for sites inside and outside PPA in three distinct landscapes encompassing important Cerrado remnants. To calculate the WPI, the detection and occupancy probabilities of each species will be modeled with site covariates to understand which landscape factors (amount of native vegetation, sugar cane, silviculture, urban areas, and distance to reads) as well as climate variables (precipitation and temperature) are most relevant for biodiversity maintenance. The presence/absence data that are going to be used in this study were collected with camera-traps during two dry seasons (2013 and 2014). Furthermore, the relative abundance of the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) inside and outside PPA and what landscape factors affects it will be estimated by Royle & Nichols protocol and by capture-recapture models. (AU)