DEFAU-BIOTA: effects of defaunation on soil carbon and plant functional diversity in the Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 24/06084-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Journalism
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Mauro Galetti Rodrigues
• Grantee: Emilly Geovana Lima da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10639-5 - Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change, AP.CEPID

Abstract

DEFAU-BIOTA: Effects of defaunation on the diversity of the Atlantic ForestThe problem of species extinction is a serious global challenge, in which its perception often goes unnoticed, although its impacts reach the entire planet. Threats become risks and exert intense pressures on ecosystem services, compromising the longevity, stability and functionality of these environments. The total or partial subtraction of animal species from their natural habitats is known as defaunation. The effects of this phenomenon are significantly harmful, as they carry the potential to reconfigure ecosystems through weakened interactions. Among the cases, the fragmentation of the areas limits the locomotion and distribution of animals, especially medium and large species. Regardless of trophic level, both become exposed to anthropogenic actions, however other species can benefit from this scenario. Thus the absence of superior predators trigger prey pressure in the face of predation and benefits the eruption of herbivorous predators, native and exotic species enjoy the fragmentation offered by the availability of comprehensive resources of contact zones between urban or agricultural areas and habitat patches. The changes generated in the environment are results of the set of human activities or triggered by them. These actions have the potential to harm mutualistic interactions, which involves mutual benefits between two or more individuals. Frugivory is an example of balance. The plants produce and provide fleshy and nutritious fruits, vertebrates play a crucial role in seed dispersal. The extinction of these dispersers in a regional or global way directly affects the present and future of the plants that depend on this service. The effects of short-term climate change intensify the incidence of forest fires, in the medium or long term can modify the vast extent of forests in open savannas, making environments unsuitable and unsuitable for arboreal species. The community of herbivorous mammals such as peccaries and peccaries act on the journey of plant growth, due to their participation in the nitrogen cycle in the forests, their droppings act as "fertilization" the structural diversity of plant growth forms. The effects of defaunation in forests show the interruption of feeding cycles of several species result in changes in population abundance and affect both survival and reproduction of these individuals. In turn, they reflect on ecosystems and potentiate climate change. Each species responds uniquely to the effects imposed on them, its role in the ecological community has the potential to go through multiple directions, hindering the predictability of its trajectory, however, highlighting the final points of the reorganization process that have already passed and the functional consequences of this change assist in the efficient management of conservation measures. DEFAU-BIOTA is a project that aims to elucidate the role of large herbivorous mammals in the diversity of soil and plant microorganisms in the Atlantic Forest. Monitoring soil carbon changes and plant functional characteristics, resulting from the influence of diversity and abundance of these mammals. For this it is necessary to carry out several long-term tests in order to evaluate such effects so that it is possible to implement measures capable of reducing the loss of fauna and restoring the biodiversity of the tropical forest.