Arachnida, Opiliones) at Juruti River Plateau, State of Pará, Brazil Ricardo Pinto-Da-Rocha & Alexandre B
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ARTÍCULO: A structured inventory of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) at Juruti River plateau, State of Pará, Brazil Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha & Alexandre B. Bonaldo Abstract: The first structured inventory of harvestmen in the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest was carried out at Juruti municipality, Pará State. The sampling protocol was done in three plots of (1 ha each) non-flooded upland forest, on the Juruti River plateau, nearly 60 km from the right margin of the Amazon river, and one plot in a floodplain forest area, at the Amazon river margin. To ensure assessment of the majority of potential habitats, seven collecting techniques were used, resulting in 466 individuals from 28 species. Each ARTÍCULO: upland site provided 16-18 species. Flooded forest habitat was A structured inventory of undersampled, and only five species were recorded. From the seven harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones) collecting methods employed, litter manual sorting resulted in the highest at Juruti River plateau, State of Pará, number of species per sample, and beating tray the highest ratio of Brazil individuals per sample. These two collection techniques, along with nocturnal ground search, were the most effective sampling techniques for a protocol for Ricardo Pinto da Rocha collecting harvestmen in this site. Departamento de Zoologia, Key words: Amazonian Rain Forest, Diversity, Inventory, Opiliones, Sampling protocol Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, 321, Un inventario estructurado de los Opiliones (Arachnida) del altiplano 05508-900 São Paulo SP, Brazil; [email protected] del Río Juruti, Estado de Pará, Brasil Alexandre B. Bonaldo Resumen: Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, El primer inventario estructurado de Opiliones en la Selva Amazónica fue Coordenação de Zoologia, realizado en Juruti, Estado de Pará, Brazil. El método de muestreo se aplicó Campus de Pesquisa, en cuatro áreas (cada una con 1 ha de extensión), tres en un bosque de Av. Perimetral, 1901, tierra firme no inundado, en el altiplano del Río Juruti, a 60 km de la margen 66077-530, Belém, PA, Brazil. derecha del Río Amazonas, y una en un área de bosque de inundación, en la margen del Río Amazonas. Fueron utilizadas siete técnicas de muestreo para abarcar la mayor parte de los hábitats, obteniéndose 466 especimenes de 28 especies. En cada área de tierra firme se detectaron entre 16 y 18 especies. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología El hábitat del bosque de inundación fue poco muestreada y solamente cinco ISSN: 1576 - 9518. especies fueron registradas. Dentro de todos los métodos empleados, la Dep. Legal: Z-2656-2000. colecta manual de suelo registró el mayor número de especies y el paraguas Vol. 13, 30-VI-2006 entomológico registró el mayor número de especimenes por muestra. Estas Sección: Artículos y Notas. dos técnicas de muestreo, en conjunto con la búsqueda nocturna en suelo, Pp: 155-162 fueron las metodologías más efectivas para el trabajo de colecta en este lugar. Palabras clave: Selva Amazónica, Diversidad, Inventario, Opiliones, Método de Edita: muestreo. Grupo Ibérico de Aracnología (GIA) Grupo de trabajo en Aracnología de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa (SEA) Introduction Avda. Radio Juventud, 37 50012 Zaragoza (ESPAÑA) Harvestmen (Opiliones) are represented by more than 6000 described species Tef. 976 324415 (Hallan, 2005), and comprise the third most diverse order of Arachnida, Fax. 976 535697 C-elect.: [email protected] reaching maximum richness in the Neotropical Region, especially in the humid forests of Brazil (Curtis & Machado, in press). They occur in Director: Carles Ribera superficial soil layers, leaf litter, under bark, on vegetation, and even in the C-elect.: [email protected] canopy, from the equator zone to near the poles. Harvestmen are very Información sobre suscripción, susceptible to dehydration, and their need for moist habitats is probably a índices, resúmenes de artículos on significant ecological factor that limits their occurrence in xeric line, normas de publicación, etc., en: http://entomologia.rediris.es/sea/ environments (Curtis & Machado, in press). publicaciones/ria/index.htm The Harvestmen diversity pattern in the Neotropical Region is still little Página web GIA: known, both on regional and local scales. The most intensely studied area in http://entomologia.rediris.es/gia the neotropics is the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest in southeastern, where the Página web SEA: twentieth century specialist worked and where the major collections are http://www.sea-entomologia.org located (Pinto-da-Rocha, 1999). Studies in the systematics and biogeography of Atlantic Rainforest Opiliones demonstrated that species of the order are extremely useful in reconstructing the complex history of this biome (Pinto- da-Rocha et al., 2005). Recent structured inventories in São Paulo State 156 R. Pinto da Rocha & A. B. Bonaldo showed that species richness comparisons among areas The annual mean precipitation in the Juruti River and environments can bring important insights to help area is 2100mm, with a three to four months long dry land management decisions and environmental impact season, normally from July to October. Temperature analyses, since both the abundance and species richness ranges from 22 to 28°C and the relative air humidity of these animals are susceptible to the loss of from 77%, in the dry season, to 88%, during the rainy environmental quality as well as habitat fragmentation season. (Bragagnolo et al., unpublished data.). Sampling protocols were adapted from Coddington The Amazon region as a whole is extremely poorly et al. (1991), and arachnid collections (mainly known concerning Opiliones taxonomic composition, harvestmen and spiders) were undertaken between distribution and species richness. Present knowledge on September 2 and 20, 2002, by two collectors (Alexandre Amazon Opiliones was summarized by Kury & Pinto- Bonaldo and a technician). The sampling effort was da-Rocha (2002), who listed 173 species known from concentrated in the three dry land 1ha plots on the Juruti the Brazilian, Peruvian and Colombian Amazonia. This plateau and one site on flooded forest (Fig.1): list can be compared with the species list from São DL1. 02o 36’ 45”S - 56o 11’ 27”W, disturbed mature Paulo State (232 species), an area much smaller than the forest at igarapé Mutum valley; Amazonia, but which has been extensively sampled since the beginning of the last century. For the two DL2. 02o 36’ 10”S - 56o 12’ 25”W, mostly undistur- major Brazilian Amazonia states, Amazonas and Pará, bed mature forest at the Igarapé Mutum only 94 and 59 species have been documented valley; respectively (Kury, 2003). However, based on previous DL3. 02o 33’ 07”S - 56o 13’ 06”W, nearly 30 yr old experience in determining material from localities near secondary growth forest at the Cairanga- to the city of Manaus, and on data produced from Museu Mutum Road; Paraense Emilio Goeldi by recent inventory projects on o o both Central and Oriental Amazon, we believe that FLO. 02 24’ 33”S / 56 26’ 10” W, Jurutizinho actual species richness in these regions will be between flooded Forest. three to five times higher than what is presently known. The dry land areas (terra firme) neighboring the Structured inventories can characterize communities Juruti River were subject the intense wood extraction in in terms of species abundance, species richness and the 1970´s. The exploitation of the Pau-Rosa tree (Aniba complementarity. A good inventory (defined as rosaedora Ducke, Lauraceae), which provides an steepness of species accumulation curves, see Longino essential oil (linalool) used worldwide in perfumery & Colwell, 1997), provides a checklist of organisms, (May & Barata, 2004), proved to be disastrous in the which can be compared between areas since the Juruti River plateau. Wood extraction, even selective, sampling techniques and sampling effort employed are changed forest conditions, favoring the incidence of fire, standardized. In this paper we present the results of a which can be devastating for Amazonian forests structured inventory of Opiliones carried out in an area (Williamson & Mesquita, 2001). For these reasons, the that has never been surveyed before, a low plateau near areas of easiest access are quite impoverished. The to the Juruti River, a tributary of the Amazon River right plateau itself is dominated by a nearly 30 yr old margin, Juruti municipality, State of Pará, Brazil. This secondary growth forest, in which the most abundant area is scheduled for intense Bauxite mining, and the trees are Cecropia spp. (Cecropiaceae). The mature data about harvestmen diversity will be available for forests, in various degrees of disturbance, are left mainly longterm evaluations on the environmental in the low valleys formed by small tributary creeks consequences of these mining activities. We also (igarapés). The flooded forests nearby the Juruti and compared a variety of sampling protocols, specifically Amazon Rivers were mostly pristine, but a certain evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of different degree of disturbance due to extensive cattle farming techniques. This information can be used to recommend was observed in some areas. specific protocols, as a model for completing additional The following techniques were used within each plot surveys of Opiliones from other areas in the Amazon. on dry land sites: Material and methods PIT. Pitfall traps – 30 plastic cups (500ml) with ethanol 70%, nearly 5m apart one from the The study area includes three