Banca de DEFESA: Bárbara de Araújo Gonçalves

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : Bárbara de Araújo Gonçalves
DATE: 31/10/2022
TIME: 08:30
LOCAL: a definir
TITLE:

"Short-term effects of prescribed fires on abundance and seed removal by small mammals and invertebrates in Cerrado grasslands".

KEY WORDS:

Seed predation; Rodents; Ants; Savanna; Fire management.

PAGES: 64
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Ecologia
SUMMARY:

Prescribed burns are an important tool for the management and conservation of protected areas and understanding their effects on the ecosystem is essential to ensure the effectiveness of these burns. Despite that, few studies assess the indirect impacts of prescribed fires on relevant ecological processes in tropical savannahs. In the present study, we investigated short-term effects of prescribed burns on seed removal by small mammals and invertebrates in grassland areas of the Cerrado, the most diverse savannah of the world. There was a short-term effect (up to 3 months) of the prescribed burns on the abundance of small mammals and on the species composition of this group, but not on invertebrate abundance. The fire did not markedly affect the overall seed removal rate or the relative role of small mammals and invertebrates in this process. However, invertebrates found seed depots more frequently when considering habitat characteristics (ground plant cover and vegetation height), the occurrence of burning, and removal agent (small mammals or invertebrates). We also found opposite effects of vegetation height on seed removal. Small mammals removed seeds more frequently at higher heights whereas removal by invertebrates was negatively related to this variable, in agreement with a ‘landscape of fear’ scenario for small mammals. Our results provided support for the assumption that prescribed fires carried out in a controlled manner and at the beginning of the dry season do not significantly affect the natural processes of predation and seed removal by animals in areas of Cerrado grasslands. Besides being an important tool for preventing large-scale fires, prescribed fires also promote greater small-mammal diversity at a landscape scale.

BANKING MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - ALEXANDER VICENTE CHRISTIANINI - UFSCAR
Interno - 1438994 - ANDRE FARIA MENDONCA
Presidente - 1653455 - EMERSON MONTEIRO VIEIRA
Interna - 1365470 - ISABEL BELLONI SCHMIDT