Comunidade de morcegos em uma paisagem fragmentada da Mata Atlantica do Sul da Bahia, Brasil

Orientador : Wesley Rodrigues SilvaTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de BiologiaResumo: O processo de conversão de florestas tropicais em paisagens fragmentadas e alteradas é uma das principais causas das elevadas taxas atuais de extinção. Este estudo procurou analisar o impacto da fragmentação e alteração dos ambientes florestais em uma paisagem da Mata Atlântica do sul da Bahia, Brasil. A estrutura da vegetação e da comunidade de morcegos foi investigada em seis categorias de ambientes que compõem a maior parte do mosaico florestal da região de Una: interiores e bordas de floresta contínua (> 1.000 ha) e fragmentos (1,000 ha) and fragments «100 ha), cacao shade plantations (cabrucas) and early secondary forests (capoeiras). In the Una region, fragmentation, regeneration and land use have resulted in overall modifications of the original forest structure, and it was possible to order the previously defined forest categories along gradients of structural disturbance. Pattems of bat species richness and abundance were not directly affected by the reduction of forest area, with fragments showing the same diversity, mean species richness and capture frequency as continuous forest tracts, although significant differences were reported to occur in the abundance of a single species, Artibeus obscurus, that was less frequent in fragments than continuous areas. The main impact of fragmentation on bats appears to be the formation of edges. Overall, species richness in all forest edge sites was roughly half the number reported to occur for all interior sites. Secondary forests, comprising the bulk of the forest matrix in the Una region, proved to be permeable to only a small fraction of bat species. On the other hand, shade cacao plantations showed a rich and diverse bat assemblage, including rare species. However, this striking richness seem to be closely linked with the presence of forest remnants nearby these plantations, as samples taken from cabrucas located at some distance from forest tracts were poorer and less diverse compared with those from Una region. The response of bats to different forest categories seems to be partially associated with some modifications on the original forest structure. This study brings some important information for the conservation of bats in this region of the Atlantic rainforestDoutoradoDoutor em Ecologi