Ecologia de Anuros do Oeste do Pará e o uso de Ferramentas Alternativas para Ecoturismo e Conservação de espécies.

Abstract

Information on biodiversity and relationships between species and native or human-altered environments are essential for decision-making on conservation policies and programs. In Brazil, biodiversity conservation is mainly done by the implementation of different types of reserves (UCs - Brazilian acronym for “conservation units”, a term used for environmental reserves). National Forests (FLONAs) are protected areas for sustainable use, which allow populations to remain living within their borders, based on a guidelines established by the management plan. In contrast, environmental protection areas (APAs) allow a wide variety of land uses and occupations, including the expansion of urban areas, agriculture and other types of industry, which make them very susceptible to the potential negative impacts of human actions, such as deforestation. The western region of Pará provides a great opportunity to investigate how a deforestation gradient between an APA (Alter do Chão) and a FLONA (Tapajós) affects biodiversity. Due to its scenic beauty, this region also provides opportunities for ecotourism, although it still lacks support material for guides and tourists. One of the reasons for the lack may be the inherent difficulty in identifying species, since the Amazon has the greatest biodiversity in the world. Therefore, in the first part of this thesis, we used near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy techniques and multivariate analysis to obtain species-specific spectral signatures, which act as fingerprints. We applied NIR both on specimens preserved in formalin and conservedin ethanol within zoological collections (Chapter 1), and on live individuals (Chapter 2) to test the efficiency of the technique to identify frog species and differentiate morphologically similar species. We have achieved success rates of up to 100%, even for specimens conserved over 30 years. We also identified that the belly is the position for collecting spectral data that generates the best results. For live frogs, a portable NIR device was able to correctly identify 62.5% of the species tested, with success rates above 80%. However, we detected some biases in the use of this technique that may direct further studies to optimize success rates. In the second part of this thesis (Chapter 3), we used frogs as models to investigate the effects of deforestation and other environmental gradients on estimates of variation in species diversity and functional traits (e.g., morphological variables, type of most frequently occupied microhabitat, reproductive mode). Through standardized 13 sampling in 57 plots, we observed that frog assemblages are locally structured by species turnover along gradients of distance from water bodies, vegetation structure, soil sand and silt content, and proportional deforestation. Furthermore, we observed that small-bodied species and those with direct reproduction (without larval stage) are no longer present in the most deforested areas. These results suggest the importance of creating reserves to protect forests and maintain connectivity between forest fragments, which are mainly concentrated in the APA, a region less protected by legislation and environmental inspection. Considering the combination of frog diversity dependent on the integrity of forests, and the ecotourism potential of the study area, in the third part of this thesis (Chapter 4) we developed two freely distributed products focused on ecotourism as a conservation method, which are an illustrated guide to frog identification (Guide to the Frogs of the Floresta Nacional do Tapajós, available in print and E-book format), and a digital app for mobiles and tablets (BioCheck Tapajós), which will be continually updated with information and photos of many groups of animals and plants. The objective of both products is to promote the role of local people in ecotourism practices, since they are efficient and easy-to-use materials for environmental education and popularization of scientific knowledge.