Comunidades de formigas (Hymenoptera : Formicidae) em dois estágios sucessionais e em um fragmento de Mata Atlântica do Estado de Sergipe

Abstract

Deforestation for the acquisition of land for agriculture and livestock is a major impacting activities in tropical ecosystems. The study of ants as biological indicators is a useful tool in evaluating the condition and degradation in terrestrial and in monitoring areas in the restoration process. This work aimed to study the soil ants communities in two areas reforested with native plant species: ZRI (7 years) and ZRII (5 years), and a native forest fragment (FMN) in good condition, located near the Laranjeiras city in the Sergipe State, in February (dry season) and June (rainy season) 2012. We estimated the wealth and the degree of similarity between areas, the effect of sampling time on ant species richness and identification of indicator species successional stage. To collect the ant was demarcated five transects (20 x 50m), spaced at 150 meters. In each transect was installed five traps "pitfall" without bait 10 meters apart from each other on each parcel, totaling 25 traps/area/season. Traps were buried with the opening at ground level and remained installed for 48 hours. We sampled 82 morphospecies of ants distributed in 31 genera and seven subfamilies. The richness of ants did not differ among the three study areas (F = 1.71, p = 0.19), however, the species richness of ants was higher in the dry period (F = 10.85, p = 0.0027). Through the analysis of non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), two distinct groups were formed, a group of parcels of native forest fragment and another group of two reforested areas. The composition of ant communities did not differ between forested areas, but significant difference between those with the last forest remnants of native bush. Current work made possible the appointment of a group of species that were the main contributors to the dissimilarity between the environments. The results demonstrate that ants have great potential for use as biomarkers, it is possible to infer about the restoration of the communities through the study of these organisms, and also highlights the importance of conservation of natural environments to maintain the biodiversity of native ants