Metodologias diferenciadas aumentam a eficiência de inventários faunísticos em cavernas?

Abstract

Communities that inhabit the subterranean environment are different and varied. The species that compose such communities present preferences for certain substrata, as aquatic or terrestrial, poor or rich in food resources, among others. In this way, the objective of the present work was to verify the importance of employing different methodologies for sampling invertebrate in different cave biotopes. Thereffore, three different methodologies were used at a large cave (Lapa Nova, Vazante, MG, Brasil). One of them was the manual collection conducted in terrestrial environments; the other included the use of Berlese-Tullgren funnel-type extractors in a large guano deposit, and finally, samplings in the aquatic environments through zooplankton nets. The guano and the water sampling methods added 39 species to the sampling employed throughout the whole cave extension. The Berlese funnels represented an increase of almost 20% in the richness of the cave, while the zooplankton net contributed with an increase of 1.6%. Thus, with the use of different and specific methodologies, the total richness of the cave rose from 187 to 226 species. Based on those results, it can be concluded that to obtain a good sampling of cave fauna, it is necessary to apply differentiated methodologies which are complementary and meet the specificities of each environment under study.