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Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon

Several forest types compose the apparently homogenous forest landscape of the lowland Amazon. The seasonally flooded forests (igapós) of the narrow floodplains of the blackwater rivers of the Amazon basin support their community of animals; however, these animals are required to adapt to survive in...

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Autores principales: Gonçalves, André L. S., de Oliveira, Tadeu G., Arévalo-Sandi, Alexander R., Canto, Lucian V., Yabe, Tsuneaki, Spironello, Wilson R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36530392
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14374
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author Gonçalves, André L. S.
de Oliveira, Tadeu G.
Arévalo-Sandi, Alexander R.
Canto, Lucian V.
Yabe, Tsuneaki
Spironello, Wilson R.
author_facet Gonçalves, André L. S.
de Oliveira, Tadeu G.
Arévalo-Sandi, Alexander R.
Canto, Lucian V.
Yabe, Tsuneaki
Spironello, Wilson R.
author_sort Gonçalves, André L. S.
collection PubMed
description Several forest types compose the apparently homogenous forest landscape of the lowland Amazon. The seasonally flooded forests (igapós) of the narrow floodplains of the blackwater rivers of the Amazon basin support their community of animals; however, these animals are required to adapt to survive in this environment. Furthermore, several taxa are an important source of seasonal resources for the animals in the adjacent unflooded forest (terra firme). During the low-water phase, the igapó becomes available to terrestrial species that make use of terra firme and igapó forests. Nonetheless, these lateral movements of terrestrial mammals between hydrologically distinct forest types remain poorly understood. This study tested the hypothesis that the attributes of the assemblages (abundance, richness, evenness, and functional groups) of the terrestrial mammals in both these forest types of the Cuieiras River basin, which is located in the Central Amazon, are distinct and arise from the ecological heterogeneity induced by seasonal floods. After a sampling effort of 10,743 camera trap days over four campaigns, two for the terra firme (6,013 trap days) and two for the igapó forests (4,730 trap days), a total of 31 mammal species (five were considered eventual) were recorded in both forest types. The species richness was similar in the igapó and terra firme forests, and the species abundance and biomass were greater in the terra firme forest, which were probably due to its higher primary productivity; whereas the evenness was increased in the igapós when compared to the terra firme forest. Although both forest types shared 84% of the species, generally a marked difference was observed in the composition of the terrestrial mammal species. These differences were associated with abundances of some specific functional groups, i.e., frugivores/granivores. Within-group variation was explained by balanced variation in abundance and turnover, which the individuals of a given species at one site were substituted by an equivalent number of individuals of a different species at another site. However, the occupancy was similar between both forest types for some groups such as carnivores. These findings indicate that seasonal flooding is a relevant factor in structuring the composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages between terra firme and floodplain forests, even in nutrient-poor habitats such as igapós. The results also highlight the importance of maintaining the mosaic of natural habitats on the scale of the entire landscape, with major drainage basins representing management units that provide sufficiently large areas to support a range of ecological processes (e.g., nutrient transport, lateral movements and the persistence of apex predators).
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spelling pubmed-97537602022-12-16 Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon Gonçalves, André L. S. de Oliveira, Tadeu G. Arévalo-Sandi, Alexander R. Canto, Lucian V. Yabe, Tsuneaki Spironello, Wilson R. PeerJ Biodiversity Several forest types compose the apparently homogenous forest landscape of the lowland Amazon. The seasonally flooded forests (igapós) of the narrow floodplains of the blackwater rivers of the Amazon basin support their community of animals; however, these animals are required to adapt to survive in this environment. Furthermore, several taxa are an important source of seasonal resources for the animals in the adjacent unflooded forest (terra firme). During the low-water phase, the igapó becomes available to terrestrial species that make use of terra firme and igapó forests. Nonetheless, these lateral movements of terrestrial mammals between hydrologically distinct forest types remain poorly understood. This study tested the hypothesis that the attributes of the assemblages (abundance, richness, evenness, and functional groups) of the terrestrial mammals in both these forest types of the Cuieiras River basin, which is located in the Central Amazon, are distinct and arise from the ecological heterogeneity induced by seasonal floods. After a sampling effort of 10,743 camera trap days over four campaigns, two for the terra firme (6,013 trap days) and two for the igapó forests (4,730 trap days), a total of 31 mammal species (five were considered eventual) were recorded in both forest types. The species richness was similar in the igapó and terra firme forests, and the species abundance and biomass were greater in the terra firme forest, which were probably due to its higher primary productivity; whereas the evenness was increased in the igapós when compared to the terra firme forest. Although both forest types shared 84% of the species, generally a marked difference was observed in the composition of the terrestrial mammal species. These differences were associated with abundances of some specific functional groups, i.e., frugivores/granivores. Within-group variation was explained by balanced variation in abundance and turnover, which the individuals of a given species at one site were substituted by an equivalent number of individuals of a different species at another site. However, the occupancy was similar between both forest types for some groups such as carnivores. These findings indicate that seasonal flooding is a relevant factor in structuring the composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages between terra firme and floodplain forests, even in nutrient-poor habitats such as igapós. The results also highlight the importance of maintaining the mosaic of natural habitats on the scale of the entire landscape, with major drainage basins representing management units that provide sufficiently large areas to support a range of ecological processes (e.g., nutrient transport, lateral movements and the persistence of apex predators). PeerJ Inc. 2022-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9753760/ /pubmed/36530392 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14374 Text en © 2022 Gonçalves et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Gonçalves, André L. S.
de Oliveira, Tadeu G.
Arévalo-Sandi, Alexander R.
Canto, Lucian V.
Yabe, Tsuneaki
Spironello, Wilson R.
Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title_full Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title_fullStr Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title_full_unstemmed Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title_short Composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the Central Amazon
title_sort composition of terrestrial mammal assemblages and their habitat use in unflooded and flooded blackwater forests in the central amazon
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36530392
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14374
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