LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE AS PREDICTORS OF RICHNESS AND COMPOSITION OF FRUGIVORE VERTEBRATE ASSEMBLIES IN THE CERRADO UNDER INTENSE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

• Grant number: 24/07455-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Adriano Garcia Chiarello
• Grantee: Felipe Ferreira Pierossi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/00825-7 - PREDICTORS OF VERTEBRATE FRUGIVORE SPECIES RICHNESS AND COMPOSITION IN INTENSIFIED BIOFUEL AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

In the Modern Era, human actions were and continue to be the direct cause of a series of extinctions of species from a wide range of ecological guilds and phylogenetic clades, highlighting a crisis in global diversity. In Brazil, the expansion of agribusiness is the main threat to the preservation of natural heritage, especially in biomes that are already very fragmented, such as the Atlantic Forest, or poorly protected, such as the Cerrado. The situation of the remnants of both biomes in the state of São Paulo is extremely critical, as the area occupied by them is smaller than the area used solely for planting sugar cane. In the north-central region of the state, historically considered a transition area between the two biomes, the situation is even worse, where only 15 thousand hectares of the territory are Full Protection Conservation Units, and with sugarcane dominating 41 to 51 % of the landscape. However, degraded areas have the potential for passive regeneration, which is extremely dependent on frugivorous animals, and therefore makes it essential to understand how these species respond to landscape characteristics. Thus, the present project aims to analyze data on the occurrence of frugivorous mammals and birds in landscapes affected, to different degrees, by agribusiness and human occupation, exploring patterns of richness and dissimilarity between assemblages, investigating the influence of structure variables and composition of landscapes in these patterns. Using data whose collection has already been financed by FAPESP, this project seeks to better understand the effects of anthropogenic pressure on the local biodiversity of frugivorous animals.