Community responses to fine-scale environmental conditions: Ferns alpha and beta diversity along Brazilian Atlantic forest remnants

AbstractWe report the roadkill of a jaguar in one of the longest highways in Brazil (BR-101), in the stretch where this road crosses one of the most important Atlantic Forest remnants in the country: the Linhares-Sooretama block. The jaguar population present in this area represents the very last in entire Espírito Santo state. There is an approved project to the lines duplication of the entire BR-101 Highway and the company responsible by the work has already started the first activities in the state. However, there is no environmental impact assessment already done neither planning for the implementation of measures to avoid or reduce the roadkill risk in the region. Thus, to minimize the impacts associated with the BR-101, we do not recommend its lines duplication along the 15 km stretch traversing the Linhares-Sooretama block. In addition, alternatively, we suggest the deviation of the current route of the BR-101 Highway or the construction of overpasses to fauna in the most critical points, interspersing these overpasses with electronic speed monitoring devices and warning and educational plates.

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An assessment of leaf-litter and epigaeic ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) living in different landscapes of the Atlantic Forest Biome in the State of Bahia, Brazil

Journal of Insect Biodiversity ◽

10.12976/jib/2017.5.19 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (19) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Roberta De Jesus Santos ◽

Elmo Borges Azevedo Koch ◽

Clarissa Machado Pinto Leite ◽

Tiago Jordão Porto ◽

Jacques Hubert Charles Delabie

Keyword(s):

Leaf Litter ◽

Atlantic Forest ◽

The State ◽

Brazilian Atlantic Forest ◽

The North ◽

Forest Remnants ◽

Axis Parallel ◽

Leaf Litter Ants ◽

South Axis ◽

East West

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest has a rich biodiversity increasingly threatened by human activities. Since the colonial period, the coast of the state of Bahia is among the most affected regions of Brazil by anthropic pressure. Bahia encloses Atlantic Forest remnants distributed in an area reaching 100-200 km along the east-west axis, by 1,000 km along the north-south axis, parallel to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We report hereafter the results of an intensive field survey of leaf litter and epigaeic ants realized in forest remnants of the Atlantic Forest landscapes within the original extension of the biome in 11 localities distributed along four degrees of latitude in the state of Bahia. In each site, 16 plots were collected using pitfall and eight using Winkler traps. We identified 391 ant species belonging to 71 genera and nine subfamilies. Among all species recorded, 21 were common to the whole 11 localities, while 98 species were recorded in a single locality. This study highlights the richness and diversity of epigaeic and leaf-litter ants living in the northern part of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and is one of the most representative soil ants’ inventories ever done in this biome for a single state of Brazil.

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