Relação entre capacidade de dispersão, tolerância ambiental e tamanho da distribuição geográfica em Artibeus (Mammalia, Chiroptera)

• Ano de defesa: 2020
• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Rafaela Gonçalves
• Orientador(a): Marco Júnior, Paulo De
• Banca de defesa: Diniz Filho, José Alexandre Felizola, Oliveira, Arthur Angelo Bispo de
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Goiás
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução (ICB)
• Departamento: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas - ICB (RG)
• País: Brasil
• Palavras-chave em Português: Dispersão; Tolerância ambiental; Distribuição geográfica; Morcegos
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Dispersal; Environmental tolerance; Geografical range size; Bats
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::ECOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/10403

The species’ dispersal ability is relate to several ecological processes, such as the establishment of new populations, and may be associated with species responses to environmental changes. However, direct measurements of this parameter are difficult to obtain, so that several studies use morphological data as surrogate of dispersal ability. In this study, we tested whether bat species of the genus Artibeus with greater dispersal ability have greater geographic distribution and tolerance limits. We used morphological data available in the literature, represented by forearm size, body weight, Relative Wing Loading (RWL) and Aspect Ratio (AR). We calculated the geographical range size for species with morphological data available in the literature. We estimated the limits of environmental tolerance through the Outlying Mean Index (OMI), based on the species geographical range and a set of environmental variables. We used Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares models (PGLS) to control the phylogenic effect in our analysis. Species with higher RWL showed higher environmental tolerances, while no morphological measures influenced the geographical range size or the environmental tolerance. High RWL values could facilitate individual’s flight over long distances, exposing them to greater variations in environmental conditions, and leading to an increase in environmental tolerance. The low predictive power of the dispersal ability in relation to the area may be related to the variation of the environmental heterogeneity within the limits of the species distribution. Finally, we emphasize that the RWL can be a good dispersal ability surrogate, as it considers several morphological parameters of the Artibeus’ species.