Anthropic parameters of landscape and its influence on medium to large mammals

Abstract

There is a gap in the sampling of medium and large mammals in the southern region of Minas Gerais, in the same way several works on mammals do not take into account the characteristics of the landscape that surrounds the fragments studied. The objective of this study was to understand how the medium and large sized mammals are distributed in the southern region of Minas Gerais and whether these species are affected by environmental modifications at a local or regional scale. In the first article we have a survey of mammal species of medium and large size in the South of Minas Gerais, seeking to know the species and how they are distributed in this environment. In this paper we performed an NMDS analysis to understand if there is a difference in species composition among the municipalities. We also performed a beta diversity analysis to understand if there is a difference in the distribution of the species among the studied municipalities, either by substitution or compartmentalization of the species. Our results show a great difference in the richness and composition of species, as well as a great beta diversity among the municipalities, showing a great priority for the conservation of the whole region in the hope of keeping these species present. In the second article we try to understand which are the environmental variables that best explain the species richness found in eight landscapes with differences in the vegetation proportion, in the proximity of the Serra da Mantiqueira complex. We sought to see which variables were most influenced both locally and regionally. The results show a great influence of the size of the sampled fragment and the size of the trees in the local scale, and the proportion of vegetation and average of the size of the fragment, in the regional scale. With the results obtained in this dissertation we hope to bring to light the importance of this region for the conservation of this community of medium and large sized8+ mammals, showing the importance of conserving a large quantity of fragments throughout the region and that these fragments are managed for maintain, preferably to a large extension.