Abstract
The vegetation physionomy and cover can show patterns of diversity and composition of the edaphic community, depending on the quantity and quality of litter in a specific habitat. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the vegetation gradient formed by Graminoid Field (GRF), Cerrado Sensu Stricto (CSS), Cerradão (CRD) and Semideciduous Seasonal Forest (SSF) on density, diversity and composition of the edaphic fauna community in two seasons of the year, in the Sete Cidades National Park (Piauí state). For fauna sampling, a total of eight pitfall traps, distanced 10 m, were placed in each area in the central part of each system, where they remained for seven days. In the wet period, there was a tendency to increase the number of individuals as a function of the complexity of the vegetation formation, with the inverse occurring in the dry period. It was verified an environmental variation of the climatic factors temperature and humidity according to the vegetal formation, contributing to a heterogeneous distribution of the fauna. The GRF formation presented a significantly lower value of average richness only in the dry period. Regarding the variables of diversity and uniformity, they did not show drastic variations in relation to the vegetation gradient studied. The dominant groups in the vegetation gradient were Formicidae, Coleoptera, Aranae, Acari and Collembola, with reduction of the number of Coleoptera in the dry season. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed greater differences in the composition of the communities between the vegetation formations for the rainy season. At this time, the formations SSF and CRD were associated to a greater diversity of invertebrates than CSS and GRF, demonstrating the influence of the vegetation complexity on the soil fauna community.
Highlights
The Sete Cidades National Park (PNSC), created in 1961, is located in the state of Piauí and is one of the most important Conservation Units of the northeastern Savanna, where several phytophysiognomic types can be recognized, composing a vegetation gradient with rural formations, savannas and forests (Matos and Felfili, 2010)
By analyzing the mean standard error of the number of individuals, a great environmental heterogeneity was observed, which showed an effect of seasonality in this study
There was a tendency to increase the standard error in the dry season, which in CRD and Graminoid Field (GRF) represented 40 and 38% of the average, respectively, well above the CRD and Seasonal Forest (SSF) groups that present values of this variable of 27 and 32% and shows that certain groups of invertebrates were found in only a few traps
Summary
The Sete Cidades National Park (PNSC), created in 1961, is located in the state of Piauí and is one of the most important Conservation Units of the northeastern Savanna, where several phytophysiognomic types can be recognized, composing a vegetation gradient with rural formations, savannas and forests (Matos and Felfili, 2010). The distribution and composition of the PNSC plant communities appear to be related to its own geographical location in areas bordering different floristic domains (Farias Castro, 2003). Notwithstanding, in spite of the importance of the PNSC, the work done so far is related to botanical (Oliveira et al, 2010), soil chemical and microbiological (Araújo et al, 2017) and geomorphological aspects (IBDF, 1979). In this sense, information on soil invertebrates is extremely relevant, since it can provide data on nutrient cycling and the regulation of primary productivity in these environments (Bustamante et al, 2004). Few studies have evaluated the fauna behavior in soils under preserved environments (Pereira et al, 2013)
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