The probability of occurrence of disperser and pollinator birds in urban riparian forests

Abstract

Riparian forests are important for their ecological function and provision of services regarding the maintenance of water resources and wild fauna. Paradoxically, it is one of the ecosystems that suffer most from anthropization, especially urbanization. Thus, our objective was to compare the probability of occurrence of pollinating and dispersing species in two areas of riparian forest, where the periurban fragment is inserted in an area with patches of forest remnants and the urban fragment, an area of forest remnant located in a heavily constructed region. From the results obtained, we note that the riparian forest area considered preserved had the highest occurrence of dispersers, while the area inserted in the urban matrix had the highest occurrence of pollinators. In this way, it was possible to observe that the most preserved area showed greater equality between the groups, with a greater number of dispersers. Still, riparian forest isolated by strong urbanization showed that dispersers had a low frequency of occurrence, an essential function in the renewal and continuity of riparian forest in the future.