Biodiversity and forestry: relative abundance of Nothura maculosa in eucalyptus plantations and native grasslands in southern Brazil

Abstract

Over the last decades, agribusiness has shown a great expansion in the Pampa Biome. Forestry, mainly with eucalyptus, has expanded its planting in the Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil. The objective of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the impact of planted forests on Brazilian Pampa biodiversity, through the comparison of the relative abundance of Nothura maculosa in areas of native field and areas with young (aged 6–12 months) eucalyptus. Pointing dogs were used to define the relative abundance (individuals per hour) of N. maculosa on 16 farms and ten eucalyptus plantations. A total of 307 individuals of N. maculosa were recorded on the 26 sampled properties, of which 188 were found in grasslands (average of 12.6 ind.h-1) and 119 in eucalyptus plantings (average of 13.5 ind.h-1). No statistically significant differences were found between the sampled areas (p = 0.18; α = 0.05). The main conclusion of this study is that when the landscape spatial-temporal mosaic is considered, the term “green desert” become quite limited.