Banca de DEFESA: GABRIELA DA SILVA BATISTA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GABRIELA DA SILVA BATISTA
DATE: 24/10/2023
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Google Meet
TITLE:

Não possui.

KEY WORDS:

Camera traps; ecological function; experiments; functional groups; ethogram; National Forest; vertebrates.

PAGES: 57
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Ecologia
SUMMARY:

Wildlife defaunation leads to the loss of essential ecological functions, such as predation, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling. However, quantifying these losses through observational studies is very challenging. In recent decades, exclusion experiments have become a popular approach to investigate the impacts of wildlife loss on seedlings species diversity, but little has been done to assess the impact of defaunation on ecological functions. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate how ecosystem functions can be altered due to changes in the occurrence and frequency of behaviors exhibited by terrestrial vertebrates in areas with different levels of experimental defaunation: non-defaunated (control), intermediate (partial exclosure), and severe (total exclosure). Additionally, we asked whether behaviors change more seasonally in non-defaunated than in defaunated experimental treatments, providing relevant information about the temporal heterogeneity of systems. We recorded and quantified vertebrate behaviors within different treatments using camera traps, grouping species into functional groups. Behaviors were categorized as feeding, excretion or defecation, soil disturbance, and trampling and weighted by species biomass. The weighted frequency of all behaviors was drastically reduced (> 95% reduction for trampling, feeding and bioturbation, and defecation) under severe defaunation conditions. During the dry season, there was an increase in the number of behavior records, mainly defecation or scent marking, with an emphasis on large rodents and small mammals in defaunated treatments. In the rainy season, bird records stood out, mainly in bioturbation and feeding behaviors. The removal of medium and large terrestrial mammals and birds led to a significant loss of behaviors and ecological functions, potentially reducing the services provided by tropical forests as a whole. 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - JULIANO ANDRÉ BOGONI - UFMS
Externa à Instituição - MAÍRA BENCHIMOL DE SOUZA
Presidente - 1738813 - RODRIGO FERREIRA FADINI