OS LAGOS ARTIFICIAIS DE PEQUENAS CENTRAIS HIDRELÉTRICAS ALTERAM A COMUNIDADE DE MORCEGOS (Mammalia: Chiroptera) DO CERRADO?

Abstract

The growth of humanity has increased the demand for electricity. Among the sources that feed the Brazilian energy matrix, such small hydropower plants (SHPs) have been very appealing for investment and therefore are increasingly implanted. Considerations on the implementation of SHPs have promoted the loss of habitat for several non-Cerrado species, this work has the objective of evaluating its effects on local bats communities after the implementation of 10 artificial lakes in the Cerrado of Goiás and Minas Gerais. Bats were collected using mist networks, with a sampling effort of 705,600 m² / h, divided into eight campaigns, four before and four after the formation of the artificial lakes of the SHPs, equivalent to a mean axis of two years after the disturbances. After the installation of the SHPs, there was an average increase of 380% in the coverage of water. In all, 2,441 specimens (1,129 before and 1,312 after) were cataloged from 43 species (34 before and 36 after) belonging to six families and distributed in six trophic guilds. Among the taxa registered, Carollia perspicillata was the species with the highest number of catches (N = 967, 39.6%), considering 475 before and 492 after. As for other species, the abundances of evidence are discrete (<13% each). The results demonstrate that asbestos caused in the landscape by the implementation of SHPs are not sufficient to cause species richness, frequency of catches and composition of the local community of bats. There are, for example, frugivorous and hematophagous, which were most captured after the implementation of SHPs in the rainy season. The environmental changes promoted by SHPs were not sufficient to change the communities of bats in the Cerrado in the time scale analyzed.