Fatores que influenciam o uso do habitat pelo tapiti (Sylvilagus brasiliensis) em uma das maiores províncias minerárias do mundo

Abstract

Human changes in the terrestrial biosphere threaten natural habitats, putting at risk wild animal and plant species, their ecological interactions and the ecosystem services provided by the environment as a whole. Given the intensity of human changes on the planet, the term Anthropocene was proposed to characterize the current geological epoch dominated by humans. The Iron Quadrangle (QF), southeast of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is an example of a region affected by human activities for centuries and which is responsible for providing essential ecosystem services for the region with the highest human density in the state of Minas Gerais, the capital Belo Horizonte and surrounding cities. In this region, the natural habitats are intersected by an anthropic matrix, restricting wild species to smaller and smaller native remnants. The tapiti (Sylvilagus brasiliensis), a species present in the QF, is an exclusive herbivore and the only representative of lagomorphs in Brazil. The species is responsible for a range of ecosystem services, such as cycling of nutrients present in its feces, acting on the population dynamics of plants through grazing and seed dispersal, influencing species composition through the predator-prey relationship and exerting influence on populations of invertebrates that use their feces to feed or reproduce. Combining the camera traps (AFs) method with occupation models, we evaluated how and which natural (i.e., water bodies and forest, cerrado and rupestrian fields) and anthropogenic (i.e., eucalyptus, mining, pasture, paved and unpaved roads and railroad and urbanization) would influence the probability of occupation (Ψ) and detection (p) of the tapiti in the QF. None of the variables influenced the probability of occupation of the tapiti (w+ < 0.50), which was low (Ψ = 0.21; 95%CI = 0.10 – 0.32), indicating that the species is restricted to a few natural habitats and, therefore, generating great uncertainty about the long-term presence of the species in the QF. On the other hand, the detection probability correlated positively with the distance for Eucalyptus plantations (w+ = 0.65), suggesting that the tapiti uses with lower intensity native areas surrounded by Eucalyptus, which may be related to the absence of understory in these areas and, therefore, a lower availability of resources and refuges for the species. The detection probability also correlated negatively with the distance to pasture areas (w+ = 0.57), suggesting that the tapiti uses native areas surrounded by pastures more intensively, which may be related to a greater availability of resources for the tapiti, as is the case of invasive exotic grasses that may even be being dispersed by the tapiti to other locations and, therefore, increasing their distribution in the region. The present study is the first to quantitatively 14 evaluate the influence of landscape variables on the probability of occupation and detection of the tapiti. We believe that our study can contribute to the direction of mitigation measures and strategies for the conservation of tapiti in a scenario of intense conversion of native habitats, demonstrating, for example, the need to manage Eucalyptus plantations and pastures for a respective increase in distribution of the species and so that the ecosystem services performed by it are restricted to the native environments of the QF.