Fragmentación, conectividad y movimiento de aves en un corredor ecológico de Selva Atlántica Interior, Argentin

ZURITA, GUSTAVO; ARIENTI, CECILIA; REY, NICOLÁS; CARBÓ, GUADALUPE; FOLETTO, FERNANDO; VARELA, DIEGO

Termas de Puyehue-Chile

Congreso; VII Neotropical Ornithological Congress; 2003

Neotropical Ornithological Society y Unión de Ornitólogos de Chile

The loss of continuous habitat and fragment formation precedes biodiversity loss and key ecological processes interruption. Biological corridors are currently considered one of the principal conservation strategies for environments affected by fragmentation. The objective of this project is to assess avifaunal use of an 3 km. ecological corridor between two protected areas (P.P Urugua-í y P.P. H. Foerster) in one Interior Atlantic Forest sector, Argentina. During the months of May-June 2003 understory bird community was characterized thought the use of mist nets in 5 continuous forest (Corridor zone) and 5 fragmented forest sites. 748 individuals belonging to 61 species were captured and ringed in 1526 net hours. Capture rates and species richness were significantly higher in the corridor with respect to the fragmented zone (Friedman two way, p=0.04 for both variables) as would be predicted for an area with a high flux of individuals. Principal component analysis clearly separated corridor from non corridor sites (1st axis), while the 2nd axis was strongly correlated with the surrounding matrix characteristics (measured as percentage of non forest area in a 500m radio around each survey site) (r=0.61, p<0.05). One of group of species (e.g. Platyrinchus mystaceus, Lepidocolaptes squamatus) appeared strongly bonded to the corridor and two species from the genera Drymophila spp. appeared to be highly sensitive to the surrounding degree of fragmentation. These results suggest, although indirectly, that there is an intense corridor use by one group of species, while there is another, restricted to protected areas, which seems not to be moving through it. We are currently developing a bird ringing and monitoring program which will allow us to quantify directly the corridor and fragments use by local avifauna.