Assessment of biodiversity loss in the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest biodiversity is considered of extreme biological importance; however, its fauna and flora richness has been threatened by deforestation. This study aimed to present a model for assessing biodiversity loss, considering the municipality of Viçosa do Ceará (northeastern Brazil) as the study area. The used method is based on the proposal of an indicator, from which, we sought to calculate the estimate of biodiversity loss through the decrease in the richness of birds, mammals, and scaly reptiles in the studied habitat, using the species-area relationship model as a reference. The following results were obtained: (1) the biodiversity loss in the study area is at an “extreme” level; (2) the rates of average variation and speed have accelerated movement, therefore, the greater the increase of deforested area, the faster the speed and acceleration of biodiversity loss; (3) the curvature of the function indicated that the critical point of biodiversity loss is reached when deforestation reaches 93% of the ecosystem area. It was concluded that the model used to estimate the loss of birds, mammals, and scaly reptiles was efficient to assess biodiversity loss in the Atlantic Forest ecosystem.

Keywords:
Species-area relationship; Mathematical model; Estimate; Coefficient