Vivendo na cidade: borboletas frugívoras em uma paisagem urbana

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Isabela Freitas
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Brasil; UFRN; PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ECOLOGIA
• Palavras-chave em Português: Urbanização; Lepidoptera; Praças; Comunidade; Aninhamento; CNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::ECOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/23451

As consequence of population growth and city expansion, the influence of the urbanization process on biodiversity has become an important topic of ecological studies. Green areas among buildings and streets tend to behave like islands, serving as refugia for many species. This study aimed to understand the factors that determine the structure of fruitfeeding butterflies assemblages in public squares and the influence of large area preserved (Dunes Park) in the dynamics of butterflies in public plazas. Eighteen plazas were selected within three distance categories to Dunes Park: Layer 1 (0-1000 m), Layer 2 (1001-2000 m) and Layer 3 (2001-3000 m). Within each distance layer, we selected, two small (1000-3000 m2), two medium (3001-5001 m2) and two large (> 5001 m2) plazas. Three sampling sites in Dunes Park were chosen as control. We capture 635 individuals of 13 species of fruit-feeding butterflies. We collected 475 individuals of 9 species in the plazas and 160 individuals of 12 species in the State Park. The low number of species found in the city is a reflection of a consistent local homogeneity of a nearly impervious matrix. We found that during the rainy season, species abundance increased significantly in plazas, revealing that when rainfall increases, the matrix becomes more permeable, allowing individuals movement and even the appearance of species classified as forest specialist. Rarefaction curves showed that the State Park supports more species than the plazas. In addiction to species richness, species composition was also significantly different between Park and squares, with the urban landscape dominated by generalist and tolerant species. The values of the components of beta diversity revealed that communities of butterflies in the plazas are nested subsets of the Park community. Using a model selection approach I show that richness and abundance of fruitfeeding butterflies are dominated by stochastic processes (null model) and number of fruit trees and plaza area. These results indicate that the conditions of the plazas differ greatly from the Dunes Park and that urban plazas are very strong filters for fruit-feeding butterflies, revealing a random and neutral dynamics.