O uso de artrópodes terrestres na avaliação de áreas em processo de restauração ecológica

Abstract

The use of indicator measures to evaluate the success of ecological restoration processes is essential for monitoring the ambitious goals proposed by the global restoration (eg Bonn Challenge and New York Declaration on Forests). Among the arthropods, ants have a long history of use in environmental monitoring. Ants make up a large proportion of terrestrial biomass and play a number of important functions for the functioning of ecosystems. We analyzed published works and through a meta-analysis we verified how the measures of richness and composition of species and functional groups of ants indicated the success in the process of restoration on a global scale. In addition, we verified the influence of ecosystem type, restoration technique and past land use on the restoration as measured by the ant community indicators. Another objective of this work was to analyze on a local scale the effects of tree species, used for the restoration of degraded lands in a region of Atlantic Forest in the State of Rio de Janeiro, on the community of ants and other arthropods. In this case, we sampled the ants and other arthropods from the litter of 4 tree species frequently used in reforestation in the region. In the first study, we verified that the recovery of ant diversity was faster in tropical than in temperate ecosystems. Restoration of ant functional groups occurred faster than species richness. Trends in species composition and functional groups were less predictable than in species richness and functional groups. In the second study we did not find significant effects of the tree species on the ant community, but some groups of arthropods were influenced.