Influência das condições e recursos urbanos sobre a comunidade de curculionideos de ambientes semiáridos

Abstract

The quantity of the resource and the environmental conditions of cities are responsible for the faunal biodiversity that large urban centers can shelter. Street trees are one of the main types of green spaces that can promote the dispersion of associated entomofauna, as their quantity and diversity offer resources and shelter from high temperatures in cities. Thermal variations and rainfall differences are some of the environmental conditions that most influence the abundance, diversity and composition of insects. Herbivorous insects, such as curculionids, that associate with street trees respond quickly to habitat changes that occur in semi-arid environments through changes in their diversity and composition. Using curculionid beetles, this work aimed to understand how climatic conditions and urban resources affect and shape the diversity and composition of arboreal Curculionidae in a semi-arid region. Using an adapted entomological umbrella, we sampled the weevil fauna on street trees in ten cities in two mesoregions of the semi-arid region of Paraíba (Agreste and Sertão), northeastern Brazil. In each city, four collection points for street trees were inserted, spaced at least 100 meters apart. 3,046 curculionids were collected and 40 morphospecies from 8 subfamilies and 5 tribes were identified. The LMMs and GLMM's indicated that greater quantities of trees positively influenced diversity, but higher rainfall rates negatively impacted diversity on a local scale. Beta and gamma diversity showed that higher temperatures negatively impact diversity and positively impact abundance, and lead to changes in the composition of diversity in mesoregions. The conditions (temperature and rainfall) and resources (number of trees) proved to be determining variables for the diversity and composition of curculionids in the cities of the Agreste and hinterlands of Paraíba. The cooling benefits that street trees provide for wildlife can help reduce the negative effects of high temperatures on urban beetles. These responses showed the sensitivity of arboreal curculionids in the urban context, showing that variations in the pattern of the weevil community depend on the scale observed.