DIVERSIDADE, DISTRIBUIÇÃO E CONSERVAÇÃO DE MAMÍFEROS DE MÉDIO E GRANDE PORTE EM UMA ZONA DE TRANSIÇÃO CERRADO – MATA ATLÂNTICA

Abstract

Change in land use has been the main factor negatively influencing the biodiversity. Medium and large sized mammals perform various functions in the ecosystem, such as seed dispersers and predation. Therefore, they are extremely important for keeping the functioning of ecosystem, and the functional diversity is an index that reflects the role of the species in the ecosystem. Despite being extremely important, some studies have shown that functional diversity of medium and large sized mammals is influenced by forest patch size in Atlantic Forest. However, for the Cerrado, it is unknown how characteristics of forest patch influence the functional diversity, and still, as far as we know, there are no studies relating functional diversity through a multi-scale approach (e.g. patch and landscape metrics). Here, we inventoried the fauna of medium and large sized mammals in the Central South of Brazil. Still, we present the functional diversity of this group and the effect of change in the land use on functional diversity in a multiscale approach. In general, our results showed that, despite of highly fragmented, the study region still keep an expressive richness of medium and large sized mammals, with a functional diversity relatively high in relationship to the Cerrado Biome. Still, our results demonstrated that the functional diversity of medium and large sized mammals in the study area was influenced by patch and landscape metrics in different way. We xiv emphasize that this is the first study using a patch and landscape approach to investigate medium and large sized mammals of the Cerrado biome, as well as its functional diversity in landscapes with intensive anthropic activities.