Banca de DEFESA: PEDRO HENRIQUE PIEROTE DE SOUSA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : PEDRO HENRIQUE PIEROTE DE SOUSA
DATE: 29/10/2021
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Google Meet
TITLE:

REPRODUCTIVE ACTIVITY AND USE OF PSEUDO-EGGS BY GRAY-HEADED GULLS (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus Vieillot, 1818 - Birds, Laridae) IN ARTIFICIAL SALINE ON THE COAST OF THE COSTA BRANCA OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE

KEY WORDS:

Gray-headed gull, Laridae, Artificial saline,Breeding biology, Pseudo-eggs.

PAGES: 67
BIG AREA: Outra
AREA: Ciências Ambientais
SUMMARY:

 

Human activities impact ecosystems and increase the rates of loss of natural habitat, becoming responsible for the loss of biodiversity, and these advances on coastal zone environments have generated habitat loss and degradation, causing drastic consequences for groups depending on these environments. This impacts the conservation of marine and coastal avifauna, which, like several bird populations, has been declining due to the direct or indirect influence of human actions. As a result, alternative environments such as artificial salt flats come to be used by birds from humid environments to supply their ecological needs, especially in Macau/RN, where a population of gray-headed gulls (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus Vieillot, 1818) uses a saline artificial to establish reproductive colonies. With this in mind, efforts to understand the population dynamics and the reproductive biology of the species in the study area are important to guide the management of the salt flats and to avoid conflicts of interest with the local population. In addition, this information will expand the basic reproductive knowledge of the species, subsidizing research and actions in other places. It is intended to investigate reproductive biology and report the occurrence of pseudo-egg incubation by the species in this saline. It seeks to understand whether the population varies numerically or not throughout the year, and whether this trend follows the temporal pattern of egg laying. It investigates whether environmental variables such as precipitation and temperature influence reproduction, and whether seagulls use the space of the saline uniformly. We monitor the reproductive colonies for a year, and on monthly visits, we count the number of seagulls, the number of nests, the number of eggs and nestlings. We collect morphometric information from nests and eggs over the months of the reproductive window. During the study, we recorded 4,174 nests, 2627 eggs and 2186 seagulls. The period of greatest abundance of seagulls was between March and June, and between September and December there were the lowest population averages. We recorded active or inactive nests throughout the monitoring, however, newly made nests only from January / 2020, indicating a new reproductive season. We recorded the highest number of active nests in June / 2020 and the highest abundance of nestlings in July / 2019, and the egg laying was highest between March and July. Part of the studies that present the formation of breeding colonies of gray-headed gulls, report such an establishment in localities of natural environments, such as islets, sand banks and freshwater bodies of water. In our study, we did not register reproductive colonies in natural environments. However, the analyzes indicated that the distance to natural environments of sea or river were not determinants of the amount of eggs deposited in the dykes. We observed that of the nine variables analyzed, five best explained the amount of eggs deposited: number of seagulls, average monthly temperature, total monthly rainfall, the dike and the sampled month. Birds dependent on humid environments are particularly exposed to population changes due to urbanization and landscape changes, however, some animals can take advantage of urban environments, including various species of seagulls, which can use suburban and urban areas for nesting sites and foraging. In this sense, understanding how the gray-headed gulls use the urban environment for reproduction, allows directing management and conservation decisions for the species.

BANKING MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1803589 - ADRIANA ROSA CARVALHO
Externo à Instituição - MARCELO DA SILVA - IDEMA
Interno - 073.420.314-45 - RAUL FERNANDES DANTAS DE SALES - UFRN