Landscape influence on the persistence of terrestrial mammals in Atlantic Forest fragments

Author(s)

Gabrielle Cristina Beca

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Rio Claro. 2016-02-26.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro
• Defense date: 2016-01-29
• Advisor: Mauro Galetti; Milton Cezar Ribeiro

Abstract

The growing demand for alternative energy sources has contributed to increased biofuel production, leading to fragmentation of natural habitats. However, natural landscapes immersed in agricultural matrices can retain a considerable diversity of species, but the effects of the change in land use for the production of biofuels on the persistence of the species in these landscapes remain unclear. The Atlantic Forest, the most fragmented ecosystems in Brazil, has only about 12% of its original vegetation cover. The most of these remnants are distributed in small and isolated fragments due to agricultural expansion, especially by the sugarcane monocultures. In the present study we examined the richness and composition of medium and large sized mammals, and quantify the contribution of the forest cover, the structural area and the edge amount over persistence of these animals. We sampled 20 fragmented landscapes on a forest cover gradient (3% to 96%), immersed in sugarcane plantations. We recorded only 50% of expected species of medium and large sized mammals in all the 20 landscapes, compared to the largest remnant of semideciduous forest, the "Morro do Diabo State Park". This shows that the Atlantic Forest remnants are highly depleted, with only 25% of forest-specialist species and most of the mammals registered are generalist species, exotic and typical from savana. Forest cover was important to explain only the presence of some ungulates and a medium sized rodent. The mammal communities responded to a high turnover of species between the landscapes, which represented 94% of the total β- diversity. Our study is novel in showing that mammal richness was not affected by the habitat amount. It is important to implement effective conservation measures in natural areas in agricultural landscapes in order to develop measures of restoration of forest cover of the fragments, because they are crucial to maintain viable populations of forest-dependent species and still persist in these modified environments. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/21939-3 - Functional diversity of mammals of medium and large size in landscapes fragmented of the Atlantic Forest
• Grantee: Gabrielle Cristina Beca
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master