Fatores espaço-temporais determinantes na diversidade de borboletas na região Neotropical

Abstract

The Neotropics is the most diverse region for butterflies, with the Amazon rainforest having the highest diversity of these organisms. However, the knowledge of the ecological processes responsible for generating patterns of butterfly diversity in the Brazilian Amazon region is still lacking compared to other regions. Similarly, little is known about how changes in climate and vegetation will impact the distribution and diversity of Neotropical butterflies. Thus, in this thesis, I evaluate how different environmental and climatic factors in the Neotropical region shape the diversity and distribution of butterflies in space and time. In Chapter I, we assess the butterfly community structure in three dominant forest types in central Amazonia. In Chapter II, we compare the fruit-feeding butterfly communities during the high- and low-water seasons in different forest types and strata. In Chapter III, we investigate the community structure of butterflies along an altitudinal gradient in northern Amazonia. Finally, in Chapter IV, we evaluate how changes in climate and land cover changes will affect the future distribution and diversity of butterfly species in the Neotropical region. We observed that butterfly composition is markedly different among forest types, with terra firme supporting the highest species richness, whereas várzea provided the highest abundance. The flooding pulse decreased the dominance of butterfly species in flooded forests, contributing to greater species replacement. On the tepui (mountain) in northern Amazonia, we observed that the community structure of butterflies along the altitudinal gradient followed the pattern of vegetation characterization and endemism of tepuis in general. Furthermore, we found that a large proportion of the butterfly fauna will potentially decrease its future distribution under extreme scenarios of climate and land cover changes. This pattern was observed for geographically restricted and widely distributed species. This thesis contributed to understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that shaped patterns of butterfly diversity in the Neotropical and Brazilian Amazon regions at different spatial and temporal scales. We hope these results stimulate and foster further studies on the ecology and diversity of butterflies in the Amazon region.