Opencast mining causes severe environmental impacts by removing the vegetation cover and depleting the fauna. Reforestation methods using native species and diverse pre-and post-disturbance approaches aim to recover the original richness and diversity of species found before the impact. Bioindicators are powerful tools to evaluate the restoration of the original environmental conditions in disturbed areas. We used species richness, endemism and diversity measurements of Collembola to compare successional stages in reforested sites of different ages compared with a control undisturbed area. Richness and abundance of Collembola were subjected to correlation analysis with age of plots and vegetational variables. Areas that were reforested for up to 16 years supported a much lower Collembola species richness than undisturbed areas. Both the age of reforestation plots and vegetation variables (number of trees, diameter of crowns, depth of leaf litter and tree species richness) were positively and significantly correlated to collembolan abundance and richness. The results showed that the diversity of the 16-year-old plot was significantly higher than that of younger areas, but significantly less diverse than that of the control area. Endemic species were more sensitive to disturbance than non-endemics. Thus, species richness and diversity of soil Collembola can be only partially restored with appropriate reforestation methods, and although it takes many years, to some extent even endemic species can be gradually restored. Nevertheless, the maintenance of undisturbed diversity reservoirs linked by ecological corridors to reforested plots is imperative, as only undisturbed areas can support most of the endemic species able to re-colonize reforested sites.

No abstract

As comunidades de Sphingidae da área de brejo e área de caatinga foram estudadas com armadilhas luminosas, durante 12 meses (março/2000 a fevereiro/2001), com o objetivo de conhecer a diversidade e estabelecer alguns parâmetros para o monitoramento dessas áreas. Dezenove espécies foram coletadas, sendo 15 na área de brejo e 14 na área de caatinga. Dez espécies foram comuns às áreas, 15 foram coletadas apenas no brejo e quatro na caatinga. Callionima grisescens elegans (Gehlen, 1935) foi a espécie mais abundante nas duas áreas. A distribuição da abundância de espécies no brejo segue o modelo log normal truncado. Na caatinga o padrão de distribuição de abundância de espécies não foi discriminado pelo teste chi2, embora evidências indiretas indicam uma tendência para o modelo série log. Os parâmetros estruturais das assembléias foram estimados a partir de índices de diversidade. No brejo, enquanto a equitatividade foi maior, os índices de Shannon e Brillouin superam àqueles da caatinga. Nessa localidade, os índices de Simpson e Berger-Parker são muito maior devido a uma maior dominância. A flutuação populacional para ambas as assembléias, mostraram que suas populações são afetadas pela distribuição de chuvas durante o ano, ou mais precisamente, pelo período de reposição de água no solo, como demonstrado pelo balanço hídrico.

No abstract

The species richness, abundance and seasonality of Coleoptera fauna associated with pig carcasses exposed in a Caatinga area were examined. Tray, pitfall and modified Shannon traps were settled together to collect these insects during two seasons (dry and rainy). 4,851 beetles were collected, belonging to 19 families and 88 species. Staphylinidae (2,184) and Histeridae (1,264) were the most abundant families and accounted for 71.1% of the specimens collected. Scarabaeidae (15)