Spatial patterns of mammalian diversity in a fragmented landscape in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest has reached alarming levels of fragmentation and loss of habitat, and biological diversity still remains poorly studied in many parts of this region. There is a great risk that species loss in the Atlantic Forest is occurring without being noticed, which is making it difficult to formulate appropriate conservation policies. The Sapucaí River basin in the southern part Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil, consists of an area of forest fragments that are poorly inventoried, and because of its geographical location (near the Mantiqueira mountain chain) this region has great potential for the maintenance of biodiversity. This study, based on two of the few faunistic works of this area, used the additive partitioning of biodiversity to assess the spatial pattern of medium- and large-sized mammals in the Sapucaí River landscape. The results indicate that the two fragments used in the analysis exhibit low complementarity in the maintenance of regional species diversity. Further studies in other forest remnants are required for a more detailed assessment, which will allow appropriate conservation decisions to be made about this region.