Bird diversity and abundance in the understory of native forests and old eucalyptus plantations

• Grant number: 09/14778-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2009
• End date: May 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurelio Pizo Ferreira
• Grantee: Ileyne Tenório Lopes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most devastated and seriously threatened ecosystems of the planet, consequently the necessity for the conservation of this hotspot is urgent. The state of São Paulo contains only 7% of its original forest cover, most of it composed of small and isolated forest fragments. In this context the forest fragments and the secondary habitats have great importance, because they are able to preserve a good deal of the remaining biodiversity, allowing the maintenance of ecological relations even on a small spatial scale. The project main objective is to evaluate the diversity and abundance of the bird species at the understory of the Estadual Edmundo Navarro de Andrade Forest (Feena), comparing fragments of secondary native forest with Eucalyptus stands in regeneration for more than 90 years. Additionally, the structural characteristics of native and plantation stands will be measured to permit correlations between birds and habitat characteristics, thus allowing inferences about the habitat features permitting the use of the stands by the birds. Seven mist nets (12 x 3 m, 25 mm) set in lines within each sampled stand will be used to catch, mark and recapture birds. The mist nets will be opened at the morning (6h to 12h) and will be checked every thirty minutes. The birds will be captured in dry and rainy seasons in three spacial repetitions for each environment (i.e. native forest vs. plantation), thus totaling a sampling effort of 900 hours/nets by environment type.