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ABSTRACT. We investigated the richness, composition, and species relative abundance of a terrestrial small mammal community in a Deciduous Forest area in the austral boundary of the Atlantic Forest. The microhabitat use of the most common species was also investigated. Six rodents -Akodon montensis (Thomas, 1913) what could facilitate aboveground movements, and was negatively correlated to mature forest indicators, which reinforce the idea that this species has opportunistic habits.

SummaryUnderstanding cascading effects of species loss is a major challenge for ecologists. Traditionally, the robustness of ecological networks has been evaluated based on simulation studies where primary extinctions occur at random or as a function of species specialization, ignoring other important biological factors. Here, we estimate the robustness of a seed dispersal network from a grassland–forest mosaic in southern Brazil, simulating distinct scenarios of woody plant species extinction, including scenarios where species are eliminated based on their evolutionary and functional distinctiveness. Our results suggest that the network is more robust when species are eliminated based on their evolutionary uniqueness, followed by random extinctions, the extinction of the most specialist species, functional distinctiveness and, at last, when the most generalist species are sequentially eliminated. Our results provide important information for grassland–forest mosaic management, as they indicate that loss of generalist species and functional diversity makes the system more likely to collapse.

Bat species have differences in diet composition, use of vertical space, and nocturnal activity period. We analyzed diet and partitioning of spatial and temporal resources among fruit bats, and the influence of fruit availability on the number of bat captures in the southern boundary of the Atlantic Forest. Artibeus lituratus and A. fimbriatus fed mainly on Ficus, whereas Sturnira lilium fed on Solanaceae, Piperaceae, and Ficus. However, we did not find correlation between number of fruit bat captures with fruit availability. S. lilium was more active at dusk, whereas A. fimbriatus and A. lituratus were more active at dawn. S. lilium flew more in the understory than canopy and A. lituratus and A. fimbriatus did not show differences in the use of vertical space. There was no difference in the use of vertical space among these fruit bats. We showed that differences in one dimension of the niche, such as food, can help to explain differences in another dimension, such as space use. Niche overlap is greater for related species and studies about niche overlap addressing more than one spatial dimension can elucidate the patterns in use of these resources and also the understanding about bat community composition.

Understanding cascading effects of species loss has become a major challenge for ecologists. Traditionally, the robustness of ecological networks has been evaluated based on scenarios where primary extinctions occur at random or as a function of species specialization, ignoring other important biological factors. Here, we estimated the robustness of a seed dispersal network from a grassland-forest mosaic in southern Brazil simulating distinct scenarios of woody plant species extinction, including scenarios where species are eliminated based . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.The copyright holder for this preprint . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/187179 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online on their evolutionary and functional distinctiveness. Our results suggest that the network is more robust when species are eliminated based on their evolutionary uniqueness, followed by random extinctions, the extinction of the most specialist species, functional distinctiveness and, at last, when the most generalist species are sequentially eliminated. Our results provide important information for grassland-forest mosaic management, as they indicate that loss of generalist species and functional diversity makes the system more likely to collapse.