Padrões de diversidade e suas implicações para a conservação de Odonata (Insecta) em igarapés amazônicos

Abstract

The distribution of species within a landscape and the mechanisms that determine this distribution are fundamental questions for the understanding of the ecology of biological communities. The understanding of these phenomena is essential for the management of ecosystems and decision-making on the conservation of biodiversity, environmental conditions, and ecosystem resources. In this dissertation, we focused on the communities of the damselflies, suborder Zygoptera (Insecta: Odonata), found in streams in the Brazilian Amazon region to investigate their alpha diversity (Chapter 1), beta diversity (Chapter 2), and the elements that structure metacommunities (Chapters 3), as well as the spatial priorities for the conservation of Amazonian odonates (Chapter 4). We used environmental, biogeographic, and spatial predictors to investigate the mechanisms that structure the distribution of the communities analyzed in this dissertation. In the case of alpha diversity (Chapter 1), environmental heterogeneity (climate) and primary productivity were the most important determinants of zygopteran species richness. For beta diversity (Chapter 2), turnover was the most important component of changes in species composition within the landscape, together with the spatial distance between sites, and the biogeographic region (centers of endemism), which were the most important predictors of zygopteran beta diversity. In our analysis of metacommunity patterns (Chapter 3), we found a Clementsian pattern in well-preserved streams, with a major change in the configuration of the communities in streams with environmental alterations, which represented subsets of the better preserved areas. In Chapter 4, we show that the spatial distribution of the conservation units in the Amazon region is relatively ineffective for the conservation of most of the beta diversity of the region’s odonates. As the priority areas are located predominantly in southern Amazonia, and most of these areas have already been deforested, given that they lie within the arc of deforestation, the priority areas were displaced toward the forested environments located nearer the center of the Amazon region. Based on this analysis, we suggest the creation of new conservation units or the implementation of incentives for the establishment of activities that cause reduced environmental impacts in more central, priority areas, which are still forested, as well as 4 the restoration of priority areas that have already been deforested. One possibility here would be the implementation of programs that pay for ecosystem services, such as carbon credits obtained through reforestation and/or the development of activities with a reduced impact on biodiversity, such as agroforestry. This study also makes a major contribution to the reduction of the Wallacean and Hutchisonian shortfalls on the zygopterans of the Brazilian Amazon region.