SEASONAL AND SPATIAL VARIATION OF ROAD-KILLED VERTEBRATES ON BR-330, SOUTHWEST BAHIA, BRAZIL

Authors

  • Deivson Fraga de Oliveira Bastos Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Campus Jequié, Brasil.
  • Ricardo Alves Teixeira Souza Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Campus Jequié, Brasil.
  • Juliana Zina Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Campus Jequié , Brasil.
  • Clarissa Alves da Rosa Universidade Federal de Lavras

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4257/oeco.2019.2303.01

Keywords:

Caatinga, ecotone, road ecology, road impact, semi-arid environment

Abstract

 In the present study, we aimed to characterize and quantify the vertebrates road-killed along 12.8 km of the BR-330 highway in southwestern Bahia. The road is surrounded by patches of Atlantic Forest and Caatinga and by human-modified areas. From May/2012 to August/2013, we performed 35 surveys, monitoring 448 km in total. During this period, we registered 146 road-killed individuals belonging to 60 species (35 birds, 15 reptiles, 7 mammals and 3 amphibians). The species most likely to be road-killed in the study area were the toad Rhinella jimi and the snakes Oxyrhopus trigeminus and Sibynomorphus neuwiedi. The Jaccard index showed higher values when compared to the observed richness of road-killed species, which is corroborated by the ten new species recorded during five additional surveys from August/2015 to July/2016. The number of road-killed vertebrates was significantly higher in the rainy season than in the dry season. We identified 26 road-kill hotspots along the studied stretch of road. The presence of water bodies associated with vegetational landscape surrounding these hotspots may be a reason for the higher concentration of road-kills. Besides being one of the few studies conducted in an ecotonal area in the northeast of Brazil, our data indicate some important patterns that should be considered for regional and national policies on impact mitigation.

References

Andrade, G., & Carnaval, A. C. 2004. Rhinella jimi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T54674A11184744. DOI: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T54674A11184744.en

Andrews, K. M., & Gibbons, J. W. 2005. How do highways influence snake movement? Behavioral responses to roads and vehicles. Copeia, 4, 772 –782. DOI: 10.1643/0045-8511(2005)005[0772:HDHISM]2.0.CO;2

Bager, A., & Rosa, C. A. 2010. Priority ranking of Road sites for mitigating wildlife roadkill. Biota Neotropica, 10(4), 149–154. DOI: 10.1590/S1676-06032010000400020

Bager, A., & Rosa, C. A. 2011. Influence of sampling effort on the estimated richness of road-killed vertebrate wildlife. Environmental Management, 47, 851–858. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9656-x

Bueno, C., & Almeida, P. J. A. L. 2010. Sazonalidade de atropelamentos e os padrões de movimentos em mamíferos na BR-040 (Rio de Janeiro-Juiz de Fora). Revista Brasileira de Zoociências, 12(3), 219–226.

Bueno, C., Sousa, C., & Freitas, S. 2015. Habitat or matrix: Which is more relevant to predict road-kill of vertebrates? Brazilian Journal of Biology, 75(4), 228–238. DOI: 10.1590/1519-6984.12614

Bueno, C., Tambellini, M. F., & Freitas, S. 2013. Influence of landscape characteristics on capybara road-kill on highway BR-040, Southeastern Brazil. Oecologia Australis, 17, 130–137. DOI: 10.4257/oeco.2013.1702.11

Coelho, A.V. P., Coelho, I. P., Teixeira, F. T., & Kindel, A. 2014. Siriema: road mortality software. Manual do Usuário V. 2.0. Porto Alegre: NERF, UFRGS.

Coelho, I. P., Kindel, A., & Coelho, A. V. P. 2008. Roadkills of vertebrate species on two highways through the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve, southern Brazil. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 54(4), 689–699. DOI: 10.1007/s10344-008-0197-4

Coelho, I. P., Teixeira, F. Z., Colombo, P., Coelho, A. V. P., & Kindel, A. 2012. Anuran road-kills neighboring a peri-urban reserve in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Journal of Environmental Management, 112, 17–26. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.07.004

Colwell, R.K. 2005. Estimates: Statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples. Version 7.5. (Retrieved December, 2017, from: http://purl.oclc.org/estimates).

Dornas, R. A. P. 2018. Siriema plots. Retrieved August, 2018, from https://rdornas.shinyapps.io/siriema_plots

Dornas, R. A. P., Kindel, A., Bager, A., & Freitas, S. R. 2017. Avaliação da mortalidade de vertebrados em rodovias no Brasil In: A. Bager (Ed.), Ecologia de estrada tendências e pesquisas. pp. 139–152. Lavras: UFLA.

Erritzoe, J., Mazgajski, T. D., & Rejt, L. 2003. Bird casualties on European roads - a review. Acta Ornithologica, 38(2), 77–93. DOI: 10.3161/068.038.0204

Fahrig, L., & Rytwinski, T. 2009. Effects of roads on animal abundance: an empirical review and synthesis. Ecology and Society, 14(1), 1–19.

Fonseca, M. A. 2017. Fragmentação, conservação e restauração da caatinga. Doctoral thesis. Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal. p. 104. Retrived June, 2017, from: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/24678

Forman, R. T. T. 1998. Road Ecology: a solution for the giant embracing us. Landscape Ecology, 13(4), 3–5. DOI: 10.1023/A:1008036602639

Freitas, S., Oliveira, A., Ciocheti, G., Silva Matos, D., & Vieira, M. 2015. How landscape patterns influence road-kill of three species of mammals in the Brazilian Savanna? Oecologia Australis, 18, 35–45. DOI: 10.4257/oeco.2014.1801.02

Frost, D. R. 2018. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. New York, USA: American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on September 9, 2018 from http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.html.

Garriga, N., Franch, M., Santos, X., Montori, A., & Llorente, G. A. 2017. Seasonal variation in vertebrate traffic casualties and its implications for mitigation measures. Landscape and Urban Planning, 157. 36–44. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.029

Glista, D. J., Devault, T. L., & Dewoody, A. J. 2008. Vertebrate road mortality predominantly impacts amphibians. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 3(1), 77-87.

Gonçalves L. O., Alvares D. J., Teixeira F. Z., Schuck, G., Coelho, I. P., Esperandio, I. B., Anza, J., Beduschi, J., Bastazini, V. A. G., & Kindel, A. 2018. Reptile road-kills in Southern Brazil: Composition, hot moments and hotspots. Science of the Total Environment, 615, 1438–1445. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.053

IUCN. 2018. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018-1. Retrieved on September 9, 2018 from http://www.iucnredlist.org

Jackson, H. D. 2003. A field survey to investigate why nightjars frequent roads at night. Ostrich, 74(1-2), 97–101. DOI: 10.2989/00306520309485374

Junior, R. O., Lima, J. P., Santos, A. L. W., Ribeiro, G. A. A., & Aride, P. H. R. 2012. Caracterização da fauna de vertebrados atropelada na rodovia BR 174, Amazonas, Brasil. Revista Colombiana de Ciência Animal, 4(2), 291–307.

Lantyer Silva, A. S. F., Siqueira Junior, S., & Zina, Z. 2013. Checklist of amphibians in a transitional area between the Caatinga and the Atlantic Forest, central-southern Bahia, Brazil. CheckList, 9(4), 725–732. DOI: 10.15560/9.4.725

Laurance W. F., Clements G. R., Sloan S., O’connell C. S., Mueller N. D., Goosem, M., Venter O., Edwards D. P., Phalan B., Balmford A., Van Der Ree R., & Arrea I. B. 2014. A global strategy for road building. Nature, 514(7521), 262–262. DOI: 10.1038/nature13876

Laurance, W. F., Goosem, M., & Laurance, S. G. W. 2009. Impacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 24, 659–699. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.06.009

Machado, F. S., Fontes, M. A., Moura, A. S., Mendes, P. B., & Romao, B. D. S. 2015. Roadkill on vertebrates in Brazil: seasonal variation and road type comparison. North-Western Journal of Zoology, 11(2), 247–252.

Marques, O. A. V., Eterovic, A., Guedes, T. B., & Sazima, I. 2017. Serpentes da Caatinga: guia ilustrado. Cotia: Ponto A: p. 240.

Marques, O. A.V., Eterovic, A., Strussman, C., & Sazima, I. 2005. Serpentes do Pantanal: guia ilustrado. Ribeirão Preto: Holos: p. 184.

Mccardle, L. D., & Fontenot, C. L. 2016. The influence of thermal biology on road mortality risk in snakes. Journal of Thermal Biology, 56, 39–49. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2015.12.004

Morelli, F., Beim, M., Jerzak, L., Jones, D., & Tryjanowski, P. 2014. Can roads, railways and related structures have positive effects on birds? – A review. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 30, 21–31. DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2014.05.006

Moura, M. S. B., Galvincio, J. D., Brito, L. T. L., Souza, L. S. B. De, Sá, I. I. S., & Silva, T. G. F. 2007. Clima e água de chuva no semi-árido. In: L. T. L. Brito, M. S. B. Moura, & G. F. B. Gama (Eds.), Potencialidades da água de chuva no Semiárido brasileiro. pp. 37–59. Petrolina: Embrapa Semiárido.

Novaes, R. L. M., Laurindo, R. S., Dornas, R. A. P., Esberard, C. E. L., & Bueno, C. 2018. On a collision course: the vulnerability of bats to roadkills in Brazil. Mastozoología Neotropical, 25(1), 115–128.

Pereira, A. N., Calabuig, C., & Wachlevski, M. 2018. Less impacted or simply neglected? Anuran mortality on roads in the Brazilian semiarid zone. Journal of Arid Environments, 150, 28–33. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.11.015

Pinheiro, B. F., & Turci, L. C. B. 2013. Vertebrados atropelados na estrada da Variante (BR-307), Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brasil. Natureza On Line, 11(2), 68–78.

Pracucci, A., Rosa, C. A., & Bager, A. 2012. Variação sazonal da fauna selvagem atropelada na rodovia MG234, sul de Minas Gerais-Brasil. Biotemas, 25(1), 73–79. DOI: 10.5007/2175-7925.2012v25n1p73

Ratton, P., Secco, H., & Rosa, C. A. 2014. Carcass permanency time and its implications to the roadkill data. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 60(3), 543–546. DOI: 10.1007/s10344-014-0798-z

Reis, N. R., Peracchi, A. L., Pedro, W. A., & Lima I. P. 2007. Morcegos do Brasil. Londrina: UEL.

Rosa, C. A., Cardoso, T. R., Teixeira, F. Z., & Bager, A. 2012. Atropelamento de fauna selvagem: Amostragem e análise de dados em ecologia de estrada. In: A. Bager (Ed.), Ecologia de Estradas - Tendências e Pesquisas. pp. 79–98. UFLA.

Rosa, C. A., & Bager, A. 2012. Seasonality and habitat types affect roadkill of neotropical birds. Journal of Environmental Management, 97, 1–5. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.11.004

Rydell, J. 2006. Bats and their insect prey at streetlights. In: C. Rich, & T. Longcore (Eds.), Ecological consequences of artificial night lighting. p. 43–61. Washington: Island Press.

Sabino, J., & Prado, P. I. 2003. Avaliação do estado de conhecimento da diversidade biológica do Brasil. Vertebrados. Ministério do Meio Ambiente, COBIO/MMA – GTB/CNPq – NEPAM/UNICAMP. Retrieved August, 2018, from http://www.mma.gov.br/informma/item/7933-avaliação-do-conhecimento-sobre-a-diversidade-biológica.html

Santos R. A. L., Santos S. M., Santos-Reis M., Figueredo, A. P., Bager, A., Aguiar, L. M. S., & Ascensão, F. 2016. Carcass persistence and detectability: reducing the uncertainty surrounding wildlife-vehicle collision surveys. PLOS ONE, 11(11), e0165608. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165608

Santos, A. J. 2003. Estimativas de riqueza em espécies. In: L. Cullen, R. Rudran, & C. Valladares-Padua (Orgs.), Métodos de estudo em biologia da conservação e manejo da vida silvestre. pp. 19–41. Curitiba: Ed. UFPR e Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza.

Secco, H, Ratton, P., Castro, E., Lucas, P., & Bager, A. 2014. Intentional snake road-kill: a case study using fake snakes on a Brazilian road Introduction. Tropical Conservation Science, 7, 561–571. DOI: 10.1177/194008291400700313

Secco, H., Augusto, L. G., Lemos, H., Mayer, F., Machado, T., Guerrero, M. G., & Gregorin, R. 2017. Road and landscape features that affect bat roadkills in southeastern Brazil. Oecologia Australis, 21, 323–336. DOI: 10.4257/oeco.2017.2103.09.

Sick, H. 2001. Ornitologia Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira.

Sigrist, T. 2013. Avifauna brasileira: guia de campo Avis Brasilis. Avis Brasilis Editora: p. 591.

Sullivan, B. K. 1981. Observed differences in body temperature and associated behavior of four snake species. Journal of Herpetology, 15(2), 245–246. DOI: 10.2307/1563390

Teixeira, F. Z., Coelho, A. V. P., Esperandio, I. B., & Kindel, A. 2013. Vertebrate road mortality estimates: Effects of sampling methods and carcass removal. Biological Conservation, 157, 317–323. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2012.09.006

Toledo, L. F., Zina, J., & Haddad, C. F. B. 2003. Distribuição espacial e temporal de uma comunidade de anfíbios do Município de Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil. Holos Environment, 3(2), 136–149.

Trombulak, S. C., & Frissell, C. A. 2000. Review of ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic communities. Conservation Biology, 14, 18–30. DOI: 10.1046/j.1523-1739.2000.99084.x

Tucker, M. A. et al. 2018. Moving in the Anthropocene: Global reductions in terrestrial mammalian movements. Science, 359(6374), 466–469. DOI: 10.1126/science.aam9712

Uetz, P. 2018. The Reptile Database. Retrieved on September 9, 2018 from http://www.reptile-database.org

Van Der Grift, E. A., Van Der Ree, R., Fahrig, L., Findlay, S., Houlahan, J., Jaeger, J. A. G., Klar, N., Madriñan, L. F., & Olson, L. 2013. Evaluating the effectiveness of road mitigation measures. Biodiversity and Conservation, 22(2), 425–448. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-012-0421-0

Wikiaves. 2018. WikiAves, a Enciclopédia das Aves do Brasil. Retrieved on September 9, 2018, from http://www.wikiaves.com.br/

Williams, B. L., Brawn, J. D., & Paige, K. N. 2003. Landscape scale genetic effects of habitat fragmentation on a high gene flow species: Speyeria idalia (Nymphalidae). Molecular Ecology, 12(1), 11–20. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2003.01700.x

Zar, J. H. 2010. Biostatistical Analysis. 5. ed. Upper Sadle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall: p. 944.

Zina, J., Ennser, J., Pinheiro, S. C. P., Haddad, C. F. B., & Toledo, L. F. 2007. Taxocenose de anuros de uma mata semidecídua do interior do Estado de São Paulo e comparações com outras taxocenoses do Estado, sudeste do Brasil. Biota Neotropica, 7, 1–9. DOI: 10.1590/S1676-06032007000200005

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2019-09-06