Poster Details
SUGAR-CANE CULTIVATION AND CHIRONOMID DIVERSITY FROM NEOTROPICAL STREAMS
In Brazil, numerous areas of the native land cover vegetation have been removed and replaced by the sugar cane agriculture. This practice has caused deforestation, especially in the Brazilian southeast region. Currently, Brazil produces about 637 million tons of sugar cane in an area of 10 million of hectares. With the objective to contribute for designing Brazilian freshwater futures, we analyze eight streams (four located in areas with sugar-cane cultivation and four located in preserved areas) we collected the Chironomidae fauna and applied a simple method to find indicator species that would characterize groups of sites. In preserved streams, Parametriocnemus sp., Ablabesmyia (Karelia) and Endotribelos spp. had high densities. Chironomus spp. and Rheotanytarus spp. were dominant in streams located in areas of sugar-cane cultivation. The analyses of indicator species point to eight taxa in preserved streams and two taxa in the sugar-cane streams. NMDS (Non-metric Multidimensional Scale) analysis point to two groups, one gathered in the streams near the sugar-cane plantation and the other in the preserved streams. This agricultural activity seems to influence the Chironomidae community in Neotropical streams.
Juliano Corbi (Primary Presenter/Author), University of São Paulo, julianocorbi@usp.br;