Efeitos da fragmentação de habitat sobre a comunidade de pequenos mamíferos de Mata Atlântica no Estado de São Paulo / Effects of habitat fragmentation on community of the Atlantic forest small mammals in São Paulo State

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

30/03/2010

RESUMO

The negative effects of habitat fragmentation on small-mammals are widely recognized. Nevertheless, the intensity of these effects depend on multiple factors such as the pattern of fragmentation, the evaluated scale, the permeability of different types of matrices, and the behavioral plasticity of different groups of species. In this study, we evaluated the effects of fragmentation on the community of small-mammals in a severely fragmented landscape of Brazilian Atlantic forest (i) through the differential use of habitats by the small-mammal community and by small-mammal guilds that use forest habitats, open areas or both (generalists); (ii) through the patterns of utilization of micro-habitats by small-mammal guilds; (iii) through the similarity in the use of the landscape, between sexes and generalist species in different space scales. We used pitfall traps installed in six sites. In each site, we sampled five habitats: forest fragments with streams, forest fragments without streams, forest edge, pasture matrix with streams, and pasture matrix without streams. We have detected that the pasture matrix without streams harbored lower species abundance than all other landscape units. The guilds responded differently to the different landscape units. The pasture matrix without streams is inhospitable for forest species which, even for generalists, suffer their effect, decreasing in abundance. A slight increase in the complexity of the vegetation, as observed in riparian matrices, mitigates its negative effect, making the abundance, richness and diversity of matrices with streams comparable to forest habitats. The richness and the abundance of macro-habitat-related guilds were, in general, influenced by the complexity of vegetation into the micro-habitat’s scale and revealed a high degree of specificities of the macro- and micro-habitats. This specificity shows that, even in highly fragmented and altered landscapes, the invasion of forest habitats by open-area dwellers does not occur and that the forest dwellers are incapable to use the severely altered micro-habitats. Our results also indicate that in highly fragmented landscapes, the similarity in the use of the landscape varies between species and sexes, among different space scales, and can be strongly dependent on the pattern of fragmentation. The management of fragmented landscapes requires the existence of permeable matrices, as the pasture matrix with stream, which may function as potential habitat, decreasing the division of the landscape and facilitating the maintenance of the original community in the fragmented landscape.

ASSUNTO(S)

paisagem habitat antrópico matriz de habitat micro-habitat escala espacial landscape anthropogenic habitat matrix habitat microhabitat spatial scale

Documentos Relacionados