A mirmecofauna como bioindicador em agroecossistema: estudo de caso em áreas de restauração no Vale do Ribeira, Sete Barras, SP

Abstract

The diversification of farm and agroforestry systems brings many ecosystemical services to the environment, the attraction of natural enemies and the decrease of herbivorous insects. A particular group of insects in agroecosystems are the ants, organisms that occur in all land Agroecosystems as predators and as plagues. The aim of this experiment was to analyze the occurrence of different guilds of ants in different forest restoration strategies in agroecosysten. For this purpose were collected monthly from February to July of 2013 ants on a farm in the city of Sete Barras in the Ribeira Valley, in different patterns of forest environments and agroforestry. It was noted that the predatory ants occur more frequently in areas with advanced vegetation successional stage, and that the leaf cutting ants occur more frequently in environments of vegetation in early stages of succession. This information can be use as an indicator of ecosystemical services by the biodiversity inside the agricultural properties that can be noted by the farmers himself suggesting that ants can be used as biological indicators in Agroecosystems transitions.