ABSTRACT

Springs are important ecosystems in terms of environmental services and their quality has been degraded by various land uses. Aquatic insects are strongly affected by anthropogenic impacts. For this reason, researchers, use the taxonomic and functional structure of the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) assemblages for the evaluation of environmental quality of Neotropical springs in areas cultivated with eucalyptus. In this respect, we tested the hypothesis that taxa richness is lower in eucalyptus areas, and the taxonomic composition and functional diversity are different from those of forest areas. In order to verify this hypothesis, we used a pond net sampler to collect the substrate of 20 springs in Southeastern Brazil. Our results showed that in areas planted with eucalyptus, springs showed less richness of genera and a different EPT taxonomical composition compared to springs in forest areas. We also found that respiration and body size were the functional traits most influenced by abiotic variables in springs both in eucalyptus and forest areas. The reduced marginal vegetation and homogenization of the canopy in eucalyptus areas reduced the quality of the plant matter, altering the substrate composition and water quality of springs in those areas.

摘要

就环境服务而言，泉水是重要的生态系统，其质量已因各种土地用途而退化。水生昆虫受到人为影响的强烈影响。出于这个原因，研究人员利用蜉蝣目、蜉蝣目和毛翅目 (EPT) 组合的分类学和功能结构来评估桉树种植区新热带泉水的环境质量。在这方面，我们检验了桉树地区的分类群丰富度较低的假设，并且分类组成和功能多样性与森林地区不同。为了验证这一假设，我们使用池塘网采样器收集了巴西东南部 20 个泉水的基质。我们的结果表明，在种植桉树的地区，与森林地区的泉水相比，泉水属的丰富度较低，EPT 分类学组成也不同。我们还发现呼吸和体型是桉树和森林地区春季受非生物变量影响最大的功能性状。桉树地区边缘植被的减少和树冠的同质化降低了植物物质的质量，改变了这些地区泉水的基质成分和水质。