Conhecimento ornitológico da Área de Relevante Interesse Ecológico Santa Helena (ARIE-SH), oeste do Paraná

Abstract

The Santa Helena Area of Relevant Ecological Interest (ARIE-SH), formerly known as the Santa Helena Biological Refuge, has been transformed into an island by excavating a channel that separates it from the mainland on the banks of Itaipu Lake. After being cleared for agricultural activities, ARIE-SH was destined for the reception of wild animals when the Lake was filled in the early 1980s. From 1982 on, reforestation with native and exotic species (some fruit trees) began. The ARIE-SH was the target of avifaunistic inventories from 1986, which also occurred in the following year and in 1991, 1998 and 2010. The accumulated knowledge is therefore out of date. Similarly, some undocumented records are questionable because they represent bird species, the geographical distribution of which does not include Paraná state. In order to compile this knowledge, I aimed to (1) perform a bibliographic review of the ornithological records made within it, (2) retrieve records from the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo and the useu de História Natural Capão do Imbuia, (3) search for records on citizen science websites and (4) recently survey ARIE-SH using standardized methods. Past studies have recorded 288 bird species distributed in 24 orders and 63 families. There are no records of species within ARIE-SH in museums or citizen science sites. I recent carried out systematic surveys throughout 2017 on both the ARIE-SH trails (land censuses) and its perimeter (aquatic censuses). For terrestrial species I used the list method, while for aquatic, I conductd on board transects. Richness of the terrestrial environment was 78 (Jacknife1 = 327 ± 1.41 SE) and the richness of the aquatic environment was 74 (Jacknife1 = 915 ± 28.80 SE), being 22 species considered aquatic within the criteria of the Ramsar Convention. Census in both environments totaled 112 species in 20 orders and 41 families. Two species are considered endemic to the Atlantic Forest and one is endangered at the state level. Comparison between birds recorded more than 30 years ago suggests that the aquatic community has not undergone much modification. The terrestrial community, however, was largely uncharacterized. Forest species belonging to specialized trophic guilds such as large frugivores and understory insectivores have no recent records. Although there is a possibility that recent censuses were not exhaustive, such species are common and have high detection probabilities in conserved environments, suggesting that their populations have been harmed in the ARIE-SH, either by fragmentation and reforestation or by hunting. I suggest continuous monitoring of ARIE-SH bird communities to verify such questions.