Macroecologia de mamíferos neotropicais com ocorrência no Cerrado

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Macroecology of neotropical mammals with occurrence in the brazilian "Cerrado". The macroecological approach has been used recently to analyze corre lations between ecological variables in large taxonomic groups, at continental scales. A positive relationship between body weight and geographi c range size has been described as a poligonal space envelope form, that can be explained by ecological and evolutionaty constraints. However, these variables can be disturbed by spatial and phylogenetic autocorrelation effects. In this work, the relationship between body weight and geographic range size was analyzed for 80 species of Neotropical mammals present in lhe Brazilian "cerrado". Spatial and taxonomic effects were tested using a linear trend surface analysis and an ANOVA (at leveI of order), combined in a generalized model. Around 61 % of variation in geographic range size and 69% of variation in body weight in mammals ofthe "cerrado" can be explained simultaneously by spatial and taxonomic effects. The analysis 01' residuaIs of the generalized model showed that positive correlation between variables persist even atier removing these effects. Thus, variation and covariati on or traits in the maml11als or the brazilian "cerrado" agree with the general macroecological pattem proposed for another laxonomic groups such as l11aml11als, birds and snakes worldwilde. KEY WORDS . Macroecology, "Cell'ado" mammals, geographic range size, ecological and evolutionaty constraints, spatia l and phylogenetic autocorrelation A macroecologia analisa as relações entre variáveis ecológicas mensuradas em escalas grandes de tempo e espaço (BROWN & MAURER 1987 LEVrN 1992;BROWN 1995). A análise de variáveis macroecológicas, tais como o tamanho do corpo, área de distribuição e densidade populacional local das espécies, mensuradas em grandes grupos taxonômicos em escalas continentais, pode revelar processos ecológicos e evolutivos que participam na estruturação das comunidades (LABARBERA 1989;PETERS 1993; RlCKLEFS & SCHLUTER 1993;BROWN 1995).Dentre as principais relações macroecológicas, a obtida entre o tamanho do corpo (definida pela massa corpórea) e a área de distribuição das espécies tem sido descrita para diversos grupos taxonômicos, tais como insetos, peixes, aves e mamíferos, principalmente da América do Norte

Geographic range and body size in Neotropical marsupials

“…A positive association between body size and geographical range was observed in New World terrestrial Carnivora (Diniz‐Filho & Tôrres, 2002), in South American mammals of the Cerrado biome (Vieira & Diniz‐Filho, 2000) and in those of Neotropical forests (Diniz‐Filho & Balestra, 1998), but has not been tested for Neotropical marsupials, mostly members of the family Didelphidae. However, to test this hypothesis it is necessary to consider an intricate pattern of cross correlations of body size and geographical range with phylogeny and latitude.…”

“…Gaston & Blackburn (1996) reviewed the mechanisms that have been suggested to explain the relationship between body size and geographical range of species. The ‘minimum viable population size’ mechanism — hereafter MVP — is one of them, suggested to occur in several taxa (Brown & Maurer, 1987, 1989; Vieira & Diniz‐Filho, 2000; Diniz‐Filho & Tôrres, 2002; Diniz‐Filho, 2004; see Murray et al ., 1998 for an exception). According to this mechanism, larger‐bodied species would have larger home ranges, because a large body mass implies more energy expenditure in absolute values, hence more food resources and a large home range (McNab, 1963; Peters, 1983; Lindsted et al ., 1986).…”

“…Several authors have studied the relationship between body size and geographical range in many different groups of vertebrates, such as fishes (Gotelli & Pyron, 1991; Taylor & Gotelli, 1994; Pyron, 1999; Rosenfield, 2002), amphibians (Murray et al ., 1998), birds (Brown & Maurer, 1987; Sant’ana & Diniz‐Filho, 1999), reptiles (Bonfim et al ., 1998) and mammals (Brown, 1981; Arita et al ., 1990; Diniz‐Filho & Balestra, 1998; Vieira & Diniz‐Filho, 2000; Diniz‐Filho & Tôrres, 2002). Most studies report a positive relationship between these variables, although there are also examples of negative correlations (Glazier, 1980; Murray & Dickman, 2000).…”

About rats and jackfruit trees: modeling the carrying capacity of a Brazilian Atlantic Forest spiny-rat Trinomys dimidiatus (Günther, 1877) – Rodentia, Echimyidae – population with varying jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.) abundances

“…Because of their high species richness, relatively high densities and wide variety of habits (Prevedello et al, 2008), small mammals are commonly considered good models for understanding ecological patterns of endemism (Ceballos and Brown, 1995;Bonvicino et al, 2002) and macroecology (Vieira and Diniz-filho, 2000), and for understanding the dynamics of communities (Carvalho et al, 1999;Castro and Fernandez, 2004;Ribeiro and Marinho-Filho, 2005), processes of zoonosis transmission (Lemos et al, 2004;Pinto et al, 2009), seed dispersal and forest regeneration (Pardini et al, 2005;Jordano et al, 2006). The last are particularly important processes for tropical forests, since it is estimated that in these environments, about 50% to 90% of tree species are dispersed by animals (Jordano et al, 2006).…”