ASSESSMENT OF THE FAUNAL BIODIVERSITY IN ORGANIC SUGAR-CANE AGROECOSYSTEMS IN SÃO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL
Keywords:
organic agriculture, biodiversity indices, sugar cane, faunal habitat, faunal distribution, species richness, vertebratesAbstract
For more than twenty years, researchers at Embrapa Monitoring by Satellite have developed methods for the evaluation of biodiversity in agricultural systems, with emphasis on the study of vegetation and wild terrestrial vertebrates. These studies have been applied to several types of rural properties, from small farmers to modern and intensified rural enterprises. Several results and methods have been consolidated during these years. Since 1990, the research team follows the conversion to organic agriculture, and the agroecological management, in several rural properties, including those investing in sugar cane production. In one of these case studies, in areas of the Usina São Francisco, a mill company at the State of São Paulo, the detected faunal diversity and richness were exceptional. During 12 months, between 2002 and 2003, 820 zooecological surveys were carried out with focus on the wild mastofauna. The experts detected and identified 247 species of terrestrial vertebrates (5 amphibians, 13 reptiles, 191 birds, and 38 mammals). The results allowed a qualitative and quantitative description of the faunal diversity among the various habitats occurring within the property farms. The results were surprising, due to the elevated indices for faunal richness, as well as for the inter-habitats and intra-habitat biodiversity found in these agricultural lands, even when compared with indices found in natural ecosystems. This paper, in addition to considerations on the quality, in terms of present species, of the vertebrate biodiversity observed during the research, presents the development of a methodological protocol for this type of approach.
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