Análise da distribuição de pequenos mamíferos (Didelphimorphia, Rodentia): uma abordagem biogeográfica do Cerrado

Abstract

The Cerrado biome is located in Central Brazil Plateau occupying 2,036.448 km². Its weather is characterized by seasonality and the landscape by a vegetation mosaic. Those factors contribute for Cerrado to be known as the richest savanna in the world. It is considered one of the 20 World Hotspots, because of its high level of diversity and threat. The Cerrado is still poorly known, especially in relation to its history, origin and distribution through time, which are important factors to comprehend its recent diversity. This project aims to determine the historically stable areas within Cerrado by modelling 14 marsupial and small rodent species potential distribution for past and present scenarios, to relate the detected areas with endemism levels, to compare the identified patterns with known biogeography hypothesis of other Cerrado organism groups, and to suggest priority areas for inventory. To generate the potential distribution maps I used the digital bases available by WWF and IBGE and the SIG ARCMAP 10.1 software. The potential distribution modelling was implemented by maximum-entropy algorithm (MAXENT), using WORLDCLIM 1.4 and PALEOCLIMATE MODELING INTERCOMPARISON PROJECT (PMIP) climate variables data. The open vegetation biomes of South America were the base area for modelling, with 2.5’ layers resolution (ca. 5 km²). To statistically evaluate model performance, I used the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. All models presented high AUC values. The hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the open formations expanded and the forest ones retracted, while the open formations retracted and forests expanded during the Last Interglacial (LIG) were supported by 20 of the 28 proposed models. The historically stable areas include the Parecis , Chapada dos Guimarães, Chapada Diamantina and Central Brazil Plateaus, the western Minas Gerais and the Espinhaço range. Those areas agree to other historically stable areas and/or endemism areas already proposed for other taxa, such as birds, squamate reptiles, anuran, lepdoptera and plants. They also reflect lack of inventory data. So, the fauna of those areas should be better investigated and its material used in future phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies. Conservation should also be considered in the light of their climatic stability, resulting in the possible creation, increasing or maintaining of Conservation Units.