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Vol. 53, 2014
Effects of pine invasion on land planarian communities in an
area covered by Araucaria moist forest
Simone
Machado de Oliveira1, Piter Kehoma Boll1, Vanessa
dos Anjos Baptista1,2 and Ana Maria Leal-Zanchet1*
1Graduate
Program in Diversity and Management of Wildlife and Institute for
Planarian Research, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS,
Av. Unisinos, 950, Cristo Rei, São Leopoldo, RS 93022-000, Brazil
2Universidade Regional Integrada - URI, Av. Batista Bonotto Sobrinho, Santiago, RS 99700-000, Brazil
Abstract
Background: Cultivation of exotic pine species has increased in areas of Araucaria
moist forest, which is an ecosystem with high biological diversity.
Land planarians are generally susceptible to replacement of natural
habitat by exotic tree species plantations. However, how planarian
communities respond to the invasion of exotic species in natural
habitats is unknown: (1) Are there differences in richness and
abundance of land planarians between sitesof Araucaria
moist forest with (AMF-P) and without (AMF) pine trees and between
these areas and pine plantations (P)? (2) Does the species composition
of land planarians vary among AMF, AMF-P, and P?
Results: This
study shows that mean richness and abundance of land planarians per
sample unit are higher in AMF sites than AMF-P sites. In addition, AMF
sites have a higher estimated richness per sample unit than pine
plantations and AMF-P sites. In AMF-P sites, mean richness and
abundance are higher in sample units not influenced by pine trees than
in those with pine needles. An ordination analysis indicated that the
communities of each site aredistinct, especially the communities of the AMF and P sites.
Conclusions: The
present work demonstrated negative impacts from a recent invasion of an
exotic species of pine on the richness and abundance of land planarians
in a site of Araucaria moist forest and significant variation in theplanarian community composition between sites of Araucaria moist forest and pine plantation.
Key words: Community structure; Species composition; Flatworms; Exotic species; Conservation.
*Correspondence: E-mail: zanchet@unisinos.br
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