O efeito de borda influencia a taxa de herbivoria em diferentes espécies de árvores na Mata Atlântica.

Abstract

This study aimed to examine whether the edge effect intensifies herbivory in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in the state of Paraíba. Our expectation is that individuals growing on the forest edges suffer a greater intensity of herbivory than individuals growing in the forest core. The material was collected at RPPN Engenho Gargaú from December 2017 to August 2018. Twenty individuals (10 borders and 10 cores) were analyzed for each of the four tree species: Himatanthus bracteatus; Cupania impressinervia; Schefflera morototoni e Thyrsodium spruceanum. For the analysis, five fully expanded leaves of each individual were collected at the border and in the forest core. The analyzes were performed using ImageJ software. The herbivory was more intense in H. bracteatus compared to the other three species studied. On average, individuals growing in environments subjected to edge effects suffered greater herbivory than individuals growing in the forest core. Considering the four species separately, only S. morototoni suffered greater herbivory at the forest edge than at the forest core, different from what was found in the other three species studied. Thus, it is of fundamental importance to understand the extent to which habitat fragmentation influences the edge effect and consequently the herbivory, since what is most happening nowadays is the fragmentation of forest areas and the creation of forest edges.