Influência de variáveis ambientais e geográficas na estruturação da comunidade de répteis squamata em florestas de várzea e terra firme na região do Médio Rio Solimões, Amazonas, Brasil

Abstract

This study aimed to do an inventory and evaluate the influence of environmental factors (depth of leaf litter, altitude, slope, distance from the nearest water body and number of fallen trees) and the distance between sampling units on the Squamata reptiles community at the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve (Amanã SDR). The study area is located in the State of Amazonas, Brazil, in the interfluve of the Negro and Solimões rivers and is composed of a mosaic of várzea (white-water flooded) forests and terra firme (non-flooded) forests. The data was collected in rainy and non-rainy periods, between October 2013 and February 2014. The species were captured using active search in 40 plots (20 in várzea and 20 in terra firme) of 250 meters long and 5 meters width and passively by sets of pitfall traps installed in each plot. The species composition was summarized by NMDS ordination axes and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) were performed in order to evaluate models of spatial and environmental variables on species composition. Variance partitioning analyses was used to evaluate the fraction of the variance explained by each component. The species composition was significantly different between the two forest types, with low similarity between the environments. The várzea was characterized by a smaller number of species, nonetheless with a greater total abundance of individuals; while at the terra firme have a greater number of species, but in a smaller abundance. The significant environmental variables were altitude, depth of leaf litter and slope. The variance partitioning analyses revealed that 5% of the community structure was explained by environmental variables, 7% by the geographical distances between the areas and 18% by the environmental and spatial component jointly. The great difference in composition between environments could be caused by direct or indirect influence to the recurrent flood pulse in the várzea environment, which selects species able to survive in these conditions. The moist of leaf litter layer may be influencing the community in the várzea during the dry season, even that these species are not specialist of this habitat. The effects of the altitude and slope on the community could be related to their role in determining the influence of severe floods at lower altitudes, consequently influencing on forest formation. The mosaic of these environments, illustrated by high species dissimilarity between the forests types (beta diversity), has a direct contribution to the diversity of the Amanã RDS region.