Redução da integridade da biodiversidade do cerrado devido as alterações antrópicas da paisagem: estudo de caso com formigas

Abstract

There is an important relationship between the loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation caused by humans, especially when areas of native vegetation are replaced for the establishment of pastures, agriculture and urbanization. These impacts are one of the main factors for the decrease in biodiversity in the Cerrado Biome, considered one of the hotspots of Brazilian biodiversity. The use of invertebrates as ecological indicators is one of the different models that serve to determine the recognition of the conservation status of natural areas. Therefore, in order to verify how the anthropization of the landscape has affected the Cerrado biome, this study carried out a survey of the diversity of ants in different types of natural habitats (savannah and forest) and anthropic environments (forestry, farming, pasture and areas urban). Therefore, based on data on the diversity of ants found and on the area occupied by these types of environments, the biodiversity integrity (IB) of the myrmecofauna in the Cerrado in the last decades (between 1985 and 2020) was estimated. The variables used to calculate this index were richness and similarity. The work was carried out in five municipalities, Uberlândia - MG, Araguari - MG, Cumari -GO, Goiandira - GO and Catalão - GO, selecting 30 collection areas equally divided into 6 types of land use: savannah, forest, farming, pasture , forestry and urban area. It was verified with the richness index, according to the biodiversity integrity index, a greater impact of the anthropized areas in this order: crops, pastures, crop-pasture mosaic, forestry and urban areas. Considering the similarity, the decreasing impact of the BI of each area occurred with the following position: pasture, crop, crop-pasture mosaic, forestry and urban area. Over the period 1985-2020, there was a 13.7% loss of natural area in the Cerrado, resulting in a BI loss rate of 0.62% richness and 0.73% similarity per year. As for the least conserved states of this biome during this same period, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná stood out. The state of Bahia had the largest average reduction in biodiversity integrity, followed by São Paulo and Mato Grosso.