G Model RBE-123; No. of Pages 8 ARTICLE IN PRESS Revista Brasileira de Entomologia xxx (2016) xxx–xxx REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE Entomologia A Journal on Insect Diversity and Evolution www.rbentomologia.com Biology, Ecology and Diversity Effects of changes in the riparian forest on the butterfly community (Insecta: Lepidoptera) in Cerrado areas a a b c,∗ Helena S.R. Cabette , Jaqueline R. Souza , Yulie Shimano , Leandro Juen a Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Campus Universitário de Nova Xavantina, Nova Xavantina, MT, Brazil b Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Campus de Pesquisa, Belém, PA, Brazil c Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservac¸ ão, Belém, PA, Brazil a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Preserved riparian vegetation usually has greater environmental complexity than the riparian vegetation Received 5 May 2016 modified by human actions. These systems may have a greater availability and diversity of food resources Accepted 17 October 2016 for the species. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of changes on the structure of the riparian forest Available online xxx on species richness, beta diversity and composition of butterfly species in the Cerrado of Mato Grosso. Associate Editor: Héctor Vargas We tested the hypotheses that: (i) higher species richness and (ii) beta diversity would be recorded in more preserved environments; and (iii) species composition would be more homogeneous in disturbed Keywords: habitats. For hypothesis testing, the riparian vegetation of eight streams were sampled in four periods of Conservation the year in a fixed transect of 100 m along the shores. The richness of butterfly species is lower in disturbed Environmental changes Integrity than in preserved areas. However, species richness is not affected by habitat integrity. Beta diversity differed among sites, such that preserved sites have greater beta diversity, showing greater variation in Riparian vegetation species composition. In addition, beta diversity was positively affected by environmental heterogeneity. A total of 23 of the 84 species sampled occurred only in the changed environment, 42 were exclusive to preserved sites and 19 occurred in both environments. The environmental change caused by riparian forest removal drastically affects the butterfly community. Therefore, riparian vegetation is extremely important for butterfly preservation in the Cerrado and may be a true biodiversity oasis, especially during the dry periods, when the biome undergoes water stress and resource supply is more limited. © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Entomologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Introduction Natural habitats have been drastically reduced and/or modified by intense human activities, which have caused only few vege- Riparian forest is defined as the forest vegetation established tation remnants to persist. The primary cause of the decline of along the shores of medium to large rivers. This vegetation has species diversity in riparian forest is habitat loss. Forest fragmen- important features and resources for the survival of animal commu- tation increases with the loss of original habitat and has its size nities (Ribeiro and Walter, 1998, 2001), providing high humidity, reduced, consequently, the isolation of habitat patches increases. temperatures that are cooler and more stable than that of the Changes in the use of the riparian vegetation, as well as the vari- surrounding landscape, low light incidence and abundant food ation in the intensity of use may cause the loss of some specific resources (Brown, 2000). In addition, riparian forests are also environmental conditions or resources that are important for the ecological corridors for wildlife, connect different habitat frag- species. Such loss may thus reduce abundance, cause local extinc- ments and effectively increase percolation in the landscape scale tion of more sensitive species or in some cases favor the input and (Metzger, 2010). The density of animal species in the riparian the establishment of generalist or invasive species (Barrella et al., forests in dryer regions and seasons may lead to an intense biotic 2000). pressure among the populations present, leading to genetic diversi- The Cerrado is one of the Brazilian biomes that have most suf- fication and evolution, and consequently to a high species richness fered the effects of anthropization. This biome has high levels of (Brown, 2000). endemism (Rodrigues, 2005; Camargo, 2001; Pinheiro, 2008) for several groups, in addition a high species diversity. An example is the butterfly fauna, which consists on a group with high species ∗ richness, extremely dependent on specific resources (plants) and Corresponding author. highly faithful to microhabitats (Brown and Freitas, 2002; Freitas E-mail: [email protected] (L. Juen). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2016.10.004 0085-5626/© 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Entomologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Please cite this article in press as: Cabette, H.S., et al. Effects of changes in the riparian forest on the butterfly community (Insecta: Lepidoptera) in Cerrado areas. Rev. Brasil. Entomol. (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2016.10.004 G Model RBE-123; No. of Pages 8 ARTICLE IN PRESS 2 H.S. Cabette et al. / Revista Brasileira de Entomologia xxx (2016) xxx–xxx et al., 2003). Butterflies are especially dependent on specific for butterflies, in contrast to the observed when the vegetation is resources associated with environments with high humidity and removed (higher sunlight input, high temperatures, drought stress abundant food resources (Brown, 1992, 2000; Camargo, 2001). and loss of specific microhabitats). The reduction or elimination Butterflies respond quickly to environmental and climatic of resources and/or specific microhabitats would lead to the local changes are relatively easy to monitor, and its community struc- extinction of specialist species, favoring the persistence of gener- ture is easily assessed (Brown, 1992; Brown and Freitas, 1999, 2000; alist species. Raimundo et al., 2003; Uehara-Prado et al., 2009). These insects are involved in many interactions in the surrounding environment, for example, pollination and predation (Bogiani et al., 2012). There- Material and methods fore, butterflies are important for the functioning of ecosystem services and are good models for ecological studies. Given this Our study was carried out in two streams that drain from the Left scenario, our objective was to evaluate the effect of the riparian Bank of the Pindaíba River. This river is a tributary in the right bank forest changes on species richness, beta diversity and composi- of the Middle Mortes River, located at the Southwest region of the tion of butterfly species in savannah areas of Mato Grosso, Brazil. state of Mato Grosso, and runs through the municipalities of Barra Therefore, we tested the hypotheses that: (i) higher species rich- do Garc¸ as, Araguaiana, Cocalinho and Nova Xavantina. The regional ness and (ii) beta diversity would be recorded in more preserved climate is Aw according to Köppen, with two well-defined sea- environments, and (iii) species composition would be more homo- sons – dry from May to October and rainy from November to April geneous in disturbed habitats. Preserved sites have wider riparian (Peel et al., 2007). The average annual rainfall ranges from 1500 to ◦ forest and therefore may provide greater availability and diversity 1800 mm and the temperature from 18.9 and 33.7 C (INMET, 2009). of food resources. We assume that environmental conditions such The main soil use changes are derived from beef cattle breeding as temperature and humidity in preserved areas are more favorable activities and extensive agriculture. N 52º35’0”W 52º30’0”W 52º25’0”W 52º20’0”W 52º15’0”W 52º10’0”W 52º5’0”W 52º0’0”W 51º55’0”W 14º45’0”S 14º45’0” CRCV4 14º50’0”S 14º50’0” 14º55’0”S 14º55’0” CRCV3 CRM2 CRCV1 CRM1 CRM3 CRCV2 15º0’0”S CRM4 15º0’0”S 15º5’0”S 15º5’0”S 52º35’0”W 52º30’0”W 52º25’0”W 52º20’0”W 52º15’0”W 52º10’0”W 52º5’0”W 52º0’0”W 51º55’0”W 0 3500 7000 14 000 21 000 28 000 Meters Fig. 1. Butterfly sampling sites at the Pindaíba River Basin, MT – Brazil; (CVS 1, CVS 2, CVS 3, CVS 4 = Caveira stream (1st to 4th order); MS 1, MS 2, MS 3 and MS 4 = Mata Stream (1st to 4th order). Please cite this article in press as: Cabette, H.S., et al. Effects of changes in the riparian forest on the butterfly community (Insecta: Lepidoptera) in Cerrado areas. Rev. Brasil. Entomol. (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2016.10.004 G Model RBE-123; No. of Pages 8 ARTICLE IN PRESS H.S. Cabette et al. / Revista Brasileira de Entomologia xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 3 Table 1 used the richness estimated by the nonparametric jackknife esti- Butterfly sampling sites in the Riparian Forest, orders of streams, codes, geographical mator, using the software EstimateS Win 7.5.0 (Colwell, 2005). This coordinates and Habitat Integrity Index (HII); Pindaíba River Basin, MT, 2007–2008. technique yields more accurate values of species richness of a given Streams Orders Codes Coordinates HII community (Krebs, 1999; Walther and Morand, 1998), and provides ◦ ◦ Caveira 1st CVS 1 S14 59 06.0 W50 20 29.0 0.6 a confidence interval that enables statistical comparisons between ◦ ◦ 2nd CVS 2 S14 59 53.4 W52 18 17.5 0.5 two or more sampled regions. We used the inference by confidence ◦ ◦ 3rd CVS 3 S14 57 28.7 W52 13 43.9 0.7 ◦ ◦ interval to compare richness among sites, where a treatment is only 4th CVS 4 S14 49 47.7 W52 03 16.4 0.6 ◦ ◦ considered different from the other when the confidence interval Mata 1st MS 1 S14 29 51.7 W52 28 42.6 1.0 ◦ ◦ of a group does not overlap the mean of the other.