Estabelecimento de padrões de estruturação ecológica na distribuição de mamíferos atuais da América do Sul

Abstract

current mammal faunas of South America. Such communities, when analyzed by their distribution, raise questions about the behavior of mammals in the use of natural resources of an ecosystem, which reflects the energy flow in different ecosystems. This work aims to understand the pattern of ecological structure of Neotropical mammal faunas. To this end, a literature survey was conducted of eleven representative mast communities from various ecosystems in South America (ranging from the Tropical Humid Forest to the Uruguayan Pampas) and from eight additional ecosystems in Central America. We then analyzed the ecological spectrum of these communities (weights/sizes, feeding habits, locomotor types, and daily activities). This was followed by the elaboration of cenograms for each community, which were based on the statistical treatment of the characteristic "weight" for variables transformed into natural logarithms. Finally, we proceeded with the preparation of histograms based on the treatment of simple coding, which allowed the analysis of other parameters such as eating habits and locomotor types. The initial result points to a possible standardization of the different ecosystem types, at least at the level of cenograms. The comparisons between the different levels of diversity (alpha, beta or gamma) of a biome are preliminarily consistent with each other. The scenograms show variations according to the type of ecosystem, which makes it possible to relate the feeding habits of a particular mammal to the position of its members in the food chain.