Efeito da estrutura vegetal na ocorrência do sauim-de-coleira (Saguinus bicolor) em um fragmento florestal urbano

Abstract

Forest fragmentation is the process that transforms areas of continuous vegetation into disconnected forest patches. This process has impacted the structure of vegetation and the dynamics of fauna, affecting animals such as the collared tamarin (Saguinus bicolor), a species endemic to the Manaus/MA region and currently classified as critically endangered due to several factors such as accelerated urbanization and other threats. This study evaluated the effect of vegetation structure (tree diameter, tree abundance and understory openness) on the occurrence of the tamarin in an urban forest fragment. We used passive acoustic monitoring with 18 autonomous recorders and collected data on vegetation in 10x10m plots. A total of 1,403 hours of recordings were analyzed, combining active search by listening to the audios and automatic detection through the pattern matching tool available on the Arbimon artificial intelligence platform. Although the marmoset was recorded in 15 of the 18 sampled points, the statistical models (GLMM with inflated zero) did not detect significant relationships between the occurrence of the species and the environmental variables analyzed. The results indicate that the collared marmoset presents great ecological plasticity, occupying areas with different vegetation characteristics, which reinforces its potential for adaptation in fragmented environments. The acoustic monitoring methodology proved to be efficient, with low error rates, and its expansion for continuous monitoring of the species is suggested. We conclude that the conservation of forest fragments with diverse vegetation is essential for the persistence of the collared marmoset in urban environments.