Edson V. Lopes

The importance of riparian forest for the maintenance of bird species richness in an Atlantic Forest remnant, southern Brazil

We compared the composition and guild structure of bird communities of riparian and upland forest in an Atlantic forest reserve, the Godoy State Park (GP), in northern Parana State, southern Brazil. Unlimited distance point counts were sampled monthly from September-December 2001, along four trails. Two trails in upland forest (TA and TB) were parallel to each other and about 300 m apart. Two trails in riparian forest (TC and TD) were along the Apertados River, about 100 m away from the river. A total of 145 species were recorded: 81 species were recorded in both upland and riparian forests, 19 species were recorded only in upland forest and 45 species were recorded exclusively in riparian forest. Among the 81 species occurring in both forest types, 18 species had significantly higher numbers of contacts in the riparian forest while only 8 species had significantly higher numbers of contacts in the upland forest. Taking into account the contacts numbers of the species the large frugivores guild was closely associated to the upland forest, while bamboo and vine-tangles insectivore, canopy insectivores, edge omnivores, ground omnivore and midstory insectivores were those more closely related to the riparian forest.

Abundância, microhabitat e repartição ecológica de papa-formigas (Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae) na bacia hidrográfica do rio Tibagi, Paraná, Brasil

In this study, richness and abundance of Thamnophilidae were both evaluated and correlated with environmental parameters in four forest areas of the Tibagi river basin (B1, M1, A1 and A2), placed in an environmental gradient. In each site, the vegetation was characterized and, for each specie, was analyzed: 1) the microhabitat, 2) the spatial distribution and 3) the time spend in each foraging site (described here as foraging length). Bird species number was similar among areas, although, B1 inhabited higher abundance. The vegetation of this area, showed correlations relatively lower when compared to the other three, which showed higher values among themselves. Vine tangles in all strata, dense medium and higher strata and presence of clearings were representative in B1. Dense medium stratum showed representative to five species. On the other hand, vine tangles at the higher stratum and the absence of lower dense stratum were representative for only two species. The spatial distribution, the foraging length site and the microhabitats selection varied among the species. These were important factors in ecological partitioning of the species analyzed in this study.

Terrestrial passerines in an Atlantic forest remnant of Southern Brazil

Microhabitats of four terrestrial passerines were studied in an Atlantic forest remnant of southern Brazil, in two areas (northern and southern) of the Mata dos Godoy State Park (PG). Grallaria varia and Hylopezus nattereri showed low abundance and occurred in only one PG area, while Chamaeza campanisona and Corythopis delalandi were recorded in two. The microhabitats of C. campanisona, G. varia, and H. nattereri had many large trees and a dense understory. Corythopis delalandi was in areas having few large trees.

Effects of Connectivity on the Forest Bird Communities of Adjacent Fragmented Landscapes

Summary. We assessed bird sensitivity to forest fragmentation in two adjacent landscapes in the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. One landscape is naturally fragmented and has high connectivity, whereas the other is human-fragmented and has low connectivity. We tested whether the sensitivity of bird species to fragmentation depends more on the intrinsic characteristics of the birds than on landscape connectivity. Point counts were used to sample small and large forest remnants in each landscape. The abundance of each species in these remnants was used as a proxy for sensitivity. To test whether the two landscapes differ in connectivity, we compared the following landscape metrics: landscape shape index (LSI), proximity index (PROX) and connectance index (CONNECT). We analysed the sensitivity of 85 species, 51 of which occurred exclusively in one of the two landscapes. In the landscape with low connectivity we recorded a large number of sensitive species. Among the 34 species that occurred in both landscapes, 24 species (18 non-sensitive and six sensitive) had the same sensitivity. Landscape connectivity seems to be more significant when we focus on the bird communities as a whole. However, when we focus on the same bird species in different landscapes, intrinsic characteristics of species seem to affect their sensitivity to fragmentation more than does landscape connectivity, especially for bird species with lower sensitivity. Therefore, our results show that increasing landscape connectivity may not be the best tool for bird conservation in naturally fragmented landscapes. Nevertheless, it will be important to test further whether forest bird species are more sensitive to environmental degradation in naturally fragmented landscapes than in human-fragmented landscapes.