Diversidade funcional em comunidades de aves em fragmentos de Mata Atlântica no Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

The effects of habitat fragmentation on species are well known. However, there have been few similar studies on functional diversity (FD), a key component for maintaining ecosystem functioning. Moreover, due to a greater dependence on niche partitioning, FD may show different associations with fragment characteristics (e.g. size, shape isolation) than species diversity. Here, we examine the impacts of fragment characteristics on the FD of birds of the Atlantic forest in the Murici region of northeast Brazil, home to the largest number of species of endangered birds in the Americas and one of the highest concentration of threatened birds in the World. First, we tested whether observed levels of FD differed from those expected by chance. Second, we quantified the effect of fragment size, shape and degree of isolation on bird FD. Our results indicate that bird FD was different from random expectations. Moreover, only size had influence on FD, shape and degree of isolation of fragments had no measurable influence on FD. Furthermore, indicate that the construction of the local assemblies studied appears to have been influenced by the ecological relationships between species and larger fragments by having a wider range of features show a pattern characterized by differences between groups.