Estrutura da assembleia e uso do habitat por aves na ecoregião da Savana Uruguaia : campos semi-naturais vs. campos de soja

• Ano de defesa: 2014
• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Thaiane Weinert da
• Orientador(a): Fontana, Carla Suertegaray
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia
• Departamento: Faculdade de Biociências
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: ZOOLOGIA; AVES - ESPÉCIES; AVES - RIO GRANDE DO SUL; AVES - URUGUAI; CERRADO; ORNITOLOGIA
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::ZOOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/274

The Uruguayan savanna ecoregion has been affected by land use changes, particularly livestock production and monocultures, such as soybean. As consequence, the habitat quality and the avian assemblages in the region are also being affected, and if we are to protect this habitat and its bird species, studies that generate information that can be used for conservation interventions in the region are essential. We sampled bird species in semi-natural grassland and soybean sites with grassland patches, in Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, between 2010 and 2012. In two chapters we evaluated (1) the differences in species richness, density and composition of the avian assemblage in semi-natural grasslands and soybean fields, and (2) the patterns of habitat use by grassland birds, through assessment of species richness and abundance. In the first chapter, we found that soybean fields have the lower species richness. Moreover, species considered as grassland specialists had the greatest value of density in semi-natural grassland sites, and species that are common and habitat generalists were more abundant in the soybean fields. Turning to species composition, our results demonstrated that the types of land use were clearly separated. Among the species recorded, five are classified as threatened or near-threatened according to global and/or regional red lists: Rhea americana, Athene cunicularia and Xolmis dominicanus were recorded in both soya and semi-natural grassland sites, whereas Cistothorus platensis and Xanthopsar flavus were recorded only in semi-natural grassland sites. In the second chapter we analyzed the habitat use of grassland birds by establishing a buffer of 100 meters in each of the 160 points sampled. We calculated the percentage of each land use type in each buffer and found that most of the grassland s bird species analyzed occurred preferentially in sites with large percentage of natural grasslands and/or wet grasslands, and none of them used the soybean fields preferentially. Moreover, more than 60% of the records occurred in the buffers composed by over 90% of natural grassland, and the same pattern was found for the total number of individuals of all bird species. Based on our results, we can conclude that the natural grassland sites are important for the maintenance of the avian assemblage in the region. For the conservation of the grasslands in the region, some important measures are needed, such as 1) control on agricultural management practices (e.g. maintain patches of grasslands in the soybean fields), and 2) development of policies combining agriculture production and conservation of biodiversity.