Efeito das mudanças climáticas na ecologia e conservação de Ramphastidae

Abstract

Toucans and araçaris (Ramphastidae) are one of the oldest strains of birds with live offspring. They are eye-catching animals, with striking features such as huge beaks and contrasting colors. Although they feed on eggs and small vertebrates, they are predominantly frugivores and play an important role as seed dispersers of neotropical canopies. Large forest-dwelling frugivorous birds are often among the first species to disappear in the face of anthropogenic disturbances. Decline in the populations of these birds may have implications for the community's biotic integrity due to their ecological role as seed dispersers. In this Doctoral dissertation, in the first chapter, we discuss about the Ramphastidae family in terms of publication trends about species. In this study, our results indicated that the family, compared to the Birds group, is poorly studied. This factor is aggravated since threatened and non-threatened species have been given equal importance in terms of publication. Despite the small amount of work done on the group, in situ and ex situ did not differ in quantitative terms, indicating that little background knowledge has been generated about the family. Thus, we suggest that the family needs a higher level of attention, as it has little studied endangered species and few studies on species in their natural habitat. In the second chapter, we use ecological niche modeling to assess the influence of interactions on the final distribution of a focus species in two scenarios over time, one optimistic (RCP 26) and one pessimistic (RCP 85) for the 2050s. and 2070. We compared how the distribution of the focus species was affected by the insertion of two types of interspecific interactions at different scales (South American continent and Pantanal biome). Our results showed that the impact of insertion of biotic interactions depends on the spatial scale used. In addition, it has important implications for the species conservation plan. Human-induced climate change along with habitat loss can pose a threat to species survival, but the potency of this effect can vary by combining biotic interactions. Already in the third chapter, we compare the distribution areas of the family species in the current time period and in the future scenarios of the years 2050 and 2070 for the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. We have found that climate change influences can double the number of species in some threat to species preservation. Thus, in general, we can say that both total distribution areas and distribution areas that are within protected areas tend to decrease as the climate scenario worsens and as time goes on. This is even more dangerous for populations with more restricted distributions. Species that are not currently threatened by any criteria may become in the future due to loss of range. In order to prevent the extinction of these species, extensive research into previously unexplored regions within the current distribution of the species must be undertaken, and intensive conservation and protection programs developed at the sites expected to remain definitively appropriate for the species in the future.