CARACTERIZAÇÃO ECOLÓGICA DE SEIS ÁREAS DE MANGUEZAIS DO LITORAL NORTE PAULISTA COM SUBSÍDIO AO ESTUDO DE CARANGUEJOS BRAQUIÚROS

NEGREIROS-FRANSOZO MARIA LUCIA; CHACUR MONICA; GUERRERO-OCAMPO CECILIA; REIGADA ALVARO; COLPO KARINE; GUIMARAES FERNANDA

RECIFE - PE - BRASIL

Congreso; Sustainable use of estuarines and mangroves: Challenges and prospects; 2000

This work aimed to characterize six mangrove areas in the Southeastern Brazilian coast as a support for studies on brachyuran crabs population. The studied areas are located at northern coast of the State of Sao Paulo (230 20´ to 23° 35´ S; 44° 50´ to 450 14´ W), including the rivers ltapanhau, Itaguare and Guaratuba (in Bertioga region) and Comprido, Indaia and Ubatumirim (in Ubatuba region). The mangroves were described according to some physical and biotic factors. The sampling design for plants was aleatory, being recorded: height (m), density (number of plants/16 m Z) and diameter at breast height (mm). The tree Laguncularia racemosa (69.6% to 98.8%) has the highest percentage of occurrence in most of the studied sites, except in Itapanhau, where Rhizophora mangle predominates with 64.4%. The Guaratuba mangrove presented the lowest density of trees, but it contains the highest ones among the studied sites. The Itapanhau mangrove has the lowest trees but with intermediate density. The mangroves lndaia and Ubatumirim presented the highest densities and the smallest trees diameter for plants larger than 25 mm of DBH, which it could means higher availability of leaves as food for crabs. An analysis of the size of the crab Aratus pisonii, indicates that the smallest ones occurred at Itapanhau mangrove and the largest specimens occurred at Indaia mangrove. Such findings suggests a relationship between crabs population and habitat productivity.