Diversidade e ecologia espaço-temporal de uma taxocenose de lagartos e serpentes em uma área da Caatinga, Nordeste Brasileiro.

Abstract

The anthropic actions have caused damage to the environment, since there is technicalscientific helplessness on the part of the human being making the use of resources sometimes aggressive to nature. In this context, it is considered of scientific value to know the fauna of areas without sampling and to apply to the species found ecology methodologies so that one can understand how the groupings of species are distributed in nature and how they are influenced by abiotic factors and by the interactions between populations. Squamata reptiles are considered model organisms for this type of research. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity and ecology of a community of Squamata reptiles in an area of Caatinga, in the Verdes Pastos Ecological Reserve (REVP), São Mamede, Paraíba, Brazil. The fieldwork was conducted between September 2016 and August 2017, with monthly expedition and that lasted for three days each. Three methods were considered for data collection, with "visual demand limited by time" being the main method. The statistical analyzes for the data included the richness and abundance of the species and also the temporal and spatial niche. In terms of diversity, REVP presents a richness of 27 species of Squamata reptiles. The observed richness was lower than that estimated by the estimators. The distribution of abundances was adjusted to the log-normal model. The dominant species were Ameivula ocellifera (n = 543; 37.5%) and Tropidurus hispidus (n = 333; 22.3%). In the study of community ecology, there were 1448 sightings distributed among individuals of 23 species, 14 species (8 families) of lizards and 9 species (4 families) of snakes. The reptiles were observed using 40 types of microhabitats, the microhabitat being the "litter among/under seasonal herbaceous stratum", most used by the studied community (N=317, 21.95%). The species with the greatest spatial niche (microhabitat) and temporal width was Brasiliscincus heathi (BM=0.690; BTBhe=0.710). High spatial and temporal niche overlap rates were observed between Leptodeira annulata snake and four lizard species. It was observed that atmospheric conditions influence the activity of sighted individuals. There was no significant difference between rainfall and abundance (rs = 0.9378 t = 8.5414 p = 0.0001). This research was the second to record two species of Micrurus in an area of Caatinga bringing to the fore a taxonomic problem about the genus Micrurus in the biome, implying conservation issues. Further studies on the survey of Squamata reptiles fauna, and perhaps even more urgent, are needed to carry out studies on the ecology of these communities in Caatinga areas, since many knowledge gaps need to be filled and the constant degradation of the biome the information not yet discovered.