Biodiversity in a fragmented sugarcane landscape

Abstract

Sugarcane production is increasingly expanding into biodiversity rich and highly fragmented areas in Brazil. This stresses the need for management practices that merge production with conservation, however knowledge on the effects of the sugarcane landscape on biodiversity is currently limited. In this article we analyzed the effects of the fragmented sugarcane landscape on mammals, by relating the presence of mammal species to knowledge about preferred habitat. Comparison of camera trap data from the sugarcane matrix with the remaining fragments revealed that the matrix appeared to be permeable to a large share of the mammal species occurring in the region. Different reasons might underlie these results, such as scarcity of natural habitat, or the predominance of habitat generalists in the Cerrado region. Our data indicated a few negative effects with regards to the use of the matrix by mammal species, suggesting that the matrix does have a lower habitat quality compared to the Cerrado. Our habitat preference hypothesis was supported as the habitat generalists showed the highest capture frequencies in the matrix. It is too early to tell whether the limited effects of sugarcane plantations on biodiversity suggested by our results will sustain over time or worsen due to an extinction debt in this region.