Efeito de borda em pequenos mamíferos do sul do Brasil: variação entre áreas, relação com o uso do hábitat e estratificaçâo vertical

Abstract

The increase of forest edges is part of the influence of the fragmentation on forest remnants and may affect small-mammal communities. For evaluating such effect I sampled five areas representative of South-Brazilian forests. In each of them I sampled the abundance, richness, and diversity of small mammals, in the matrix (> 60 m of the forest), edge (up to 15 m to the forest interior), intermediate zone (60 m to the interior), and forest interior (150 m). I also evaluated the availability of food resources and structural characteristics of the vegetation at these habitats. For a total of 446 individuals (20 species) captured the results did not indicate evident edge effects for any of the community metrics. Such pattern may be explained by the lack of differences in structural characteristics between edges and the other forest habitats. Besides, I did not detect differences in resource availability (fruits and invertebrates) among the three forest habitats, either. However, rarefaction curves indicated s