Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: VAGNER LACERDA VASQUEZ

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : VAGNER LACERDA VASQUEZ
DATE: 03/06/2024
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Departamento de Ecologia da UFRN e RNP meeting (online)
TITLE:

Atlantic Forest primates food resources and effects of climate change on the suitability of Brachyteles and its resources

KEY WORDS:

Atlantic Forest primates food resources and effects of climate change on the suitability of Brachyteles and its resources

PAGES: 106
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Ecologia
SUBÁREA: Ecologia Aplicada
SUMMARY:

Primates are arboreal and semiarboreal species, dependent on vascular plants to meet their ecological needs. In proportion, they are the most threatened by extinction mammals, mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, which can be increased by climate change. The history of deforestation and fragmentation of the Atlantic Forest, combined with the high richness of primate species and the climate changes expected for this region, makes it fundamental for primate conservation actions. This thesis is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, we investigated in the scientific literature the temporal and spatial distribution of studies with information on the diet of Atlantic Forest primates, the main taxa recorded as food resources and the parts of plants most consumed by these primates. Approximately 96% of the records were from plants, mainly fruits (50%), leaves (31%), and flowers (14%). Most species, genera, and families of plants have few records. The most recorded families were Myrtaceae (n=440) and Fabaceae (n=392), and the genera were Eugenia (n=123), Inga (n=113), Ficus (n=109) and Myrcia (n=102). Some primate species with long-standing conservation programs or population monitoring had the highest number of records. Study sites generally cover only a small part of these primates’ geographic ranges, indicating a geographic bias. These results highlight the scarcity of research on the diet of Atlantic Forest primates, particularly concerning threatened species, such as Callithrix aurita and Leontopithecus caissara, which have only occasional natural history notes on food resources, and Sapajus robustus, which has no record of food resources. In the second chapter, we evaluated the effects of climate change on the distributions of muriquis (Brachyteles arachnoides and B. hypoxanthus) and their main food resources. We modeled the current and future distributions (2041–2061) of muriquis and 46 plants (26 for B. arachnoides and 20 for B. hypoxanthus) recorded in the literature as their food resources. In the geographic ranges of muriquis, considering different climate scenarios (one for the current climate and four future scenarios), we evaluated: the areas of modeled distributions of muriquis and plants; the overlap between the distributions of muriquis and plants; and the number of plants per pixel. The distribution of B. arachnoides varied between 1% and 3% in the different scenarios, and the distribution of B. hypoxanthus was predicted to decrease by 45-62%. In general, plant distributions are expected to decline in the future. The overlap between muriquis distributions and their resources will be smaller in the future than in the current scenario, and the worse the future climate scenario, the lower this value. The number of plants per pixel will be lower in the future than in the current for B. arachnoides, and this reduction will be smaller for B. hypoxanthus. Other studies have demonstrated potential reductions in future distributions of muriquis and Atlantic Forest plants. The expected reductions in distributions of B. hypoxanthus and its resources are greater than for B. arachnoides and its resources. The potential future unavailability of food resources, especially for B. hypoxanthus, is a threat factor in climate change scenarios, especially considering the high loss and fragmentation of habitats in the Atlantic Forest. Population viability, associated with the maintenance of large areas of habitat, and dispersal, associated with the connection between habitats, are fundamental for organisms that will be subject to displacement or reductions in climatically suitable areas. In the third chapter (in progress), we will diagnose the conservation of forest fragments in the geographic ranges of muriquis in the face of climate change. In these fragments, we will calculate the current and future suitability averages of these primates and their food resources, and the maximum number of resource species in the current and future scenarios. We will also calculate the area of the fragments, the landscape connectivity, and identify the fragments protected by conservation units and with known occurrence of these primates. Therefore, we will categorize each fragment into four classes of conservation strategy: high opportunity, low opportunity, high challenge, and low challenge.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa à Instituição - BIANCA INGBERMAN
Presidente - 1914239 - MIRIAM PLAZA PINTO
Externo à Instituição - RAONE BELTRÃO MENDES
Interna - 3058386 - VANESSA GRAZIELE STAGGEMEIER