Borboletas Frugívoras como Bioindicadoras Frente ao Impacto da Mineração em Unidade de Conservação na Amazônia Brasileira

Abstract

The environmental impacts that mining causes in conservation units (UC) is still a topic little explore d in the scientific field. Even so, it is already recognized that practically every mining activity causes environmental impacts, both directly, with the suppression of local vegetation, and indirectly, through substances that can intoxicate the biota and surrounding water bodies. These impacts affect different groups of organisms and can vary in intensity and type. One of the taxa that most quickly responds to anthropic impacts is Insecta. Since hundreds of Brazilian UCs have some portion of their territor y overlapped by active mining processes, this dissertation addresses the topic in order to stimulate reflection and analyze the scope of these impacts in these areas amid the scenario produced by the activities of the mining sector. Thus, our objective was to verify how frugivorous butterfly assemblages respond to disturbances caused by mining activity through the study of its edge effect in the Tapirapé Aquiri National Forest (Pará State, Brazil). The monitoring of areas around the Salobo mine was carried out in transects of 1700 meters in length from the edge of the forest, and demonstrated that the local butterfly community presents distinct diversity patterns along the spatial gradient studied. The edge effect promoted a distinction in species compositio n, an increase in dominance, a decrease in species richness and abundance. This effect was observed throughout the gradient, but more pronouncedly up to 100 meters in the interior of the forest. The Satyrini tribe was the most abundant in the sampling and showed a positive correlation between its abundance and the distance from the edge of the vegetation, as well as the Haeterini tribe, which also showed high indication values for distances greater than 300m, serving as effective indicators of conserved vegetation.