Bird assembly in restinga reforested areas

Malva Isabel Medina Hernandez,Gustavo Alves Toledo Da Costa,Helder Farias Pereira De Araujo,Erich De Freitas Mariano,Arnaldo Honorato Vieira-Filho

doi:10.22571/2526-4338305

Malva Isabel Medina Hernandez, Gustavo Alves Toledo Da Costa + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.22571/2526-4338305

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Abstract

Fragmentation is one of environmental degradation and reduction of biodiversity causes, including in bird communities, mainly in Atlantic Forest areas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in richness and functional groups structure in the ornitofauna from a Restinga forest fragment and four areas with different ages of reforestation. We selected five forest fragments in a Restinga area in the state of Paraiba. A native fragment (Control Area-AC) and four fragments that have undergone a mining process and present different ages of reforestation (1989, 1997, 2001 and 2003). The avifauna samples occurred in four expeditions between November 2006 and April 2008 and counted with a total effort of 2700 net.m2 per expedition. Statistical tests verified richness differences between studied areas, as well as the composition of their functional groups. In general, 90 bird species were recorded, and the highest reforestation age area presented the highest richness (n = 51 spp.). The species richness comparisons indicated that the difference in the richness between AC and reforested areas is not statistically significant. The similarity analysis indicates that reforested areas share a large amount of species and AC has a great differentiation in composition. This differentiation is explained by the significant presence of frugivorous, nectarivorous, leaf and understory-insectivorous species. Changes in species richness and composition in degraded areas are expected and reforested areas usually have a smaller number of forest-dependent species due to the deficiency of available resources. The recovery of areas by reforestation are important conservation strategies, however there is need for management measures that promote the enrichment of these areas and the availability of resources for species dependent on environments Forest.

Highlights

In Brazil, landscape fragmentation has been a major cause of environmental degradation and decreased biological diversity (Machado, Drummond & Paglia, 2008)
This study evaluates differences in avifauna richness and analyzes the structure of functional groups in a restinga forest fragment and four fragments with different reforestation ages, verifying the efficiency of reforestation actions conducted in the area
Positive values on axis 1 are associated with the areas with the largest number of leaf insectivores (LIN), understory insectivores (UIN), and trunk and branch insectivores (TTI), while negative values on this axis refer to areas with higher concentration of edge/open area granivores (EGR) and terrestrial insectivores (TIN)

Summary

Introduction

In Brazil, landscape fragmentation has been a major cause of environmental degradation and decreased biological diversity (Machado, Drummond & Paglia, 2008). The. Brazilian Atlantic Forest has undergone a long process of fragmentation over the last centuries, resulting in loss of habitat and landscape change. Et al – Bird assembly in reforested restinga than 50 ha The Atlantic Forest has only 11.45% of its original coverage (Ribeiro et al, 2009). In northeast Brazil, original coverage is less than 5%. This region is highly fragmented, especially due to industrial sugarcane processing, real estate speculation, and mining activities (Ribeiro et al, 2009). The main phytophysiognomies found are the restinga and board formations (Duré, Barbosa, Gadelha-Neto, Lima & Lima, 2018)

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