EFEITOS DA ATIVIDADE CANAVIEIRA NA RIQUEZA E COMPOSIÇÃO DE ESPÉCIES DE MAMÍFEROS DE MÉDIO E GRANDE PORTE, NO SUDOESTE DE GOIÁS

Abstract

The effects caused by the modification of the landscape due to the cultivation of monocultures in medium and large mammals are important factors to be studied, aiming at the conservation of this group. The Cerrado is one of the most affected biomes with fragmentation and loss of habitats due to the intense cultivation of agricultural crops, among them the planting of sugar cane which in recent years has grown rapidly, especially in the state of Goiás. This study sought to evaluate the effects of habitat fragmentation on the richness and composition of medium and large mammals in areas of landscapes altered by sugar cane activity in the municipalities of Mineiros and Perolândia, Goiás. The species were recorded using photographic traps installed in fragments of remaining vegetation between the years 2013 and 2019. The characterization of the landscape was made through the classification of land use and occupation in seven landscapes with a radius of 2 km, created around the sampling points. Species richness in each landscape was estimated for the entire sampled period, using the Jackknife 1 estimator and the species similarity between the landscapes was calculated using the Jaccard Similarity Index (Cj). The comparison of the species richness estimated between the landscapes was performed by inference by overlapping the confidence intervals (CI). To determine the relationship between the estimated mammal richness and the landscape variables, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed. In total, 23 species of medium and large mammals were recorded in the study area, six of which were considered under some threat category. Species richness was greater in the sampling points where the native Cerrado vegetation was the most representative class. the only significant metric was the ENN_MN responsible for quantifying the average Euclidean distance from the nearest vegetation fragment, with no significant influence of other metrics being observed. Therefore, it was admitted that sugarcane plantations can also be considered as habitats for some medium and large species, since the metric of quantity of native habitat was not a predictive factor of species richness in the analyzed landscapes. Thus, even if the cane fields form a habitat for the use of some species according to the analysis, keeping Cerrado vegetation fragments close to each other is an important environment variable that influences the richness of mammal species.