Mirmecofauna em áreas em estágio inicial de restauração florestal sob diferentes manejos

Abstract

The ants represent a rich and abundant group of insects and are highly influenced by the heterogeneity of the environment, so environments with greater vegetal complexity offer better conditions for the ant fauna. The objective was to verify if different types of weed control and the use of fertilizers influence the dynamics of the ant fauna in terms of abundance and richness. The study was conducted in an initial restoration area located at UFSCar, in Araras, SP. The following treatments were adopted: intensive weed control with the use of fertilizers; intensive weed control without the use of fertilizers; non-intensive weed control with the use of fertilizers; non-intensive weed control without the use of fertilizers. Three collections of the ant fauna were carried out using pitfall traps between 2019 and 2020, and they were identified at a categorical level of species/morphospecies. The interaction between "weed management" and "fertilization or its absence" on the abundance and richness of ants was evaluated. A total of 6,731 ants were sampled, distributed in six subfamilies, 10 genera, and 14 species/morphospecies. The most frequent species were Dorymyrmex brunneus Forel, 1908 (56.63%), Atta sexdens Forel, 1908 (23.84%), Brachymyrmex admotus Mayr, 1887 (11.08%), and Pheidole oxyops Forel, 1908 (7.70%). Abundance was negatively affected by intensive management with fertilization. For richness, the Tukey test showed no significant difference for either weed management or fertilization. In the collection design used, the ant fauna could not be adopted as a secondary parameter for measuring the success of forest restoration in initial stage areas. These results suggest that considering the collections made and the evaluation period, our experiments could be the starting point for future studies to assess the dynamics of the ant fauna in areas in the initial stage of forest restoration.