Composição da comunidade de escaravelhos coprófagos em praças urbanas: efeito da área e isolamento

Abstract

Urbanization is an anthropic activity that drastically affects local biodiversity. The conservation of several functional groups in urban landscapes, however, is essential since the ecosystem services they provide are of paramount importance for the ecological balance of these environments. In particular, Scarabeids play a key role in the decomposition process, helping urban environments to remain adequate for human health. The objective of this study was to understand how population and community indices of Scarabeidae of the green squares from Natal City (RN, Brazil) are affected by the area of the square and its distance to a large green area of the city of Natal (Parque das Dunas) . In addition, the objective was to evaluate the effect of the number of fruit trees present, the percentage of vegetation cover in the square, the percentage of vegetation cover in the area (1 km), the percentage of impermeable cover and the type of soil. Nine drop traps were used to capture the organisms in each of the eighteen squares, for a period of seven days. 2,276 individuals were captured, belonging to five different species. The two dominant species are Canthidium manni and Dichotomius geminatus. Despite the high number of individuals collected, it was observed that only the vegetation around the squares significantly affected the populations and structure of the Scarabeidae community. Future work should assess how the availability of canine and feline feces in gardens and other private green areas influence spatiotemporal patterns of beetles in the urban environment.