Efeitos do manejo florestal sustentável no padrão de atividade de espécies presas de Panthera onca em uma floresta de terra firme na Amazônia brasileira

Abstract

Tropical forests are being deforested at an accelerated rate, driven by conversion to agricultural use, logging, and urban expansion. Studies indicate that a substantial portion of these areas has been converted to timber or agricultural production, resulting in the degradation of biodiversity and the loss of ecosystem services. The exploitation of forest resources is related to population growth and economic demands, with its intensity being influenced by environmental policies, management practices, and socioeconomic factors. Sustainable forest management, associated with low-impact logging techniques, has been adopted as a strategy to reconcile resource exploitation with biodiversity conservation. Scientific evidence indicates that these techniques can mitigate the impacts of logging, although their effectiveness varies according to local ecological characteristics and the intensity of logging. However, there is still a need to evaluate how these practices affect biological communities, since the results available in the literature are not uniform and may constitute direct and indirect effects on biological diversity. The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest feline in the Americas and a symbol of biodiversity conservation. In Brazil, the species is already extinct in the Pampa biome and is critically endangered in other biomes. Its population has been threatened by habitat fragmentation, direct persecution, and decline in prey populations. This feline is part of a large guild of mammalian predators and exerts significant influence on the structure and functioning of Neotropical ecosystems. Therefore, it is essential to understand the impacts of human activities on the species that make up the trophic base of large felines, considering their essential role in maintaining ecological dynamics. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of sustainable forest management on the activity pattern of jaguar prey species and to investigate possible changes in the ecological roles of these species over time after logging. To this end, areas with different ages since selective logging were sampled, in addition to two unlogged areas. Species were monitored using camera traps, allowing the characterization of activity patterns. The relationship between species richness and frequency of occurrence with time since logging was tested using mixed linear models. Species activity patterns were determined based on circular variables, and Kernel density estimation curves were generated to describe the temporal distribution of activities. Species richness and frequency of occurrence varied over time since logging. However, no statistically significant changes in activity patterns were detected between sampled areas. The results indicate that activity patterns of prey species remained consistent between logged and unlogged areas, regardless of the time elapsed since logging. Temporal overlap analyses showed high levels of similarity in activity patterns, indicating that species exhibit behavioral resilience to low-impact forest management practices.