Bird assemblages in the urban area in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Authors

  • Anne Gomes Sacco Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Centro de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Laboratório de Ecologia de Populações e Comunidades
  • Fabiane Borba Bergmann Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Centro de Ciências Naturais e Exatas
  • Ana Maria Rui Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Ecologia

Keywords:

relative abundance, Pampa Biome, richness, seasonality, urbanization

Abstract

Urbanization causes changes in the composition and diversity of biotic communities. The goals of this work are to present a list of bird species that use the urban area in the city of Pelotas (RS), in the southernmost end of Brazil, and to describe the bird assemblages structure underlining the richness, composition, and relative abundance of species and their seasonal variability. Data collection took place between October 2007 and September 2008, at 216 fixed points, distributed in groups of 6 equidistant points at each 200 meters in streets with varied levels of urbanization, sampled once a season. The observer stayed for 8 minutes at each point, resulting in a sampling effort of 28.8 hours each season and 115.2 hours during the year. A total of 9,595 contacts of 84 bird species were found, belonging to 34 families and 14 orders. In regard to relative abundance, 72 species presented less than 200 contacts; 7 presented between 200 and 1,000; and 4 presented over 1,000 contacts. The species with more than 1,000 contacts were Furnarius rufus, Columba livia, Myiopsitta monachus, and Pitangus sulphuratus, accounting for 5,136 contacts. In all 84 species, 67 were present in less than 20% of the sampled points; 7 were registered at between 20-40% and between 40-60% of the points; and 3 were sighted at between 80-100% of the observation points. Species with the highest frequency of occurrence were P. sulphuratus, Passer domesticus, and F. rufus. Total richness ranged from 55 species in the fall to 61 in the winter. Of the 84 species, 21 were present in 1 season, 17 in 2, 9 in 3, and 37 were present in all four seasons. The season with the highest relative abundance was spring, with 2,936 contacts; the one with the least abundance was autumn, with 2,149 contacts. The bird assemblages presented a representative richness relative to the region, though very few species are abundant and well distributed. Such pattern may be a reflection of the low quality and heterogeneity of the urban matrix, which has few parks and green areas, no reserves with native vegetation and lakes, and a low degree of tree coverage.

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Published

2013-06-01

How to Cite

Sacco, A. G., Bergmann, F. B., & Rui, A. M. (2013). Bird assemblages in the urban area in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Biota Neotropica, 13(2). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1178

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