Diversidade genética de térmitas (Blattodea: Isoptera) em fragmentos de Floresta Atlântica : a permeabilidade da matriz urbana

Abstract

Termites are abundant organisms in tropical forests and play an important role in the dynamics of ecological processes related to energy flow and nutrient cycling. The success of their colony propagation directly depends on the efficiency of the alate swarming, which consequently influences gene flow between populations. In fragmented ecosystems, such as the Atlantic Forest, this gene flow may be reduced or nonexistent, which tends to decrease the genetic diversity of populations. This thesis, structured in two chapters, aims to analyze the effect of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity of termite populations in four fragments of the Atlantic Forest in Paraíba. In the first chapter, we evaluate the influence of urban matrix permeability on termite dispersion between fragments of the Atlantic Forest. To this end, we collected alates from termites in water bodies or actively in buildings, across 57 points in João Pessoa. From the sampled specimens, 43 species were identified, including 16 wood-feeders, 16 soil-feeders, seven intermediate wood/humus, and four intermediate wood/leaves, with alates of all species present in the more urbanized areas of the city. This study provides insights and may fill gaps regarding termite biodiversity in urban ecosystems. The second chapter discusses the influence of the urban matrix on the genetic diversity of termites and the functional connectivity between fragments of the Atlantic Forest. For this, we performed genotyping using four microsatellite markers in 36 populations, with four individuals sampled (N = 144), distributed among Anoplotermes banksi Emerson, 1925 (soil-feeder), Embiratermes neotenicus (Holmgren, 1906) (intermediate wood/soil-feeder), and Nasutitermes corniger (Mostchulsky, 1855) (wood-feeder). We found gene flow among the remnants, which was unrestricted for N. corniger, with low population structuring for E. neotenicus and moderate for A. banksi, with 20% influenced by the distance between fragments. The structural configuration of the urban matrix, in the case of termites, favors functional connectivity. Considering the Atlantic Forest, one of the largest tropical forests on the planet, it is essential to seek strategies to maintain fragments that allow for individual migration, minimizing population isolation and future species extinctions, aligning urban growth with biodiversity preservation.