The importance of understorey on wildlife in a brazilian eucalypt plantation

Abstract

Wildlife surveys were conducted in two stands of Eucalyptus, one homogeneous and the other with a native species understorey in the Atlantic forest region of southeastern Brazil Deforestation has reduced the original forested habitat to a patchwork of cultivated fields and mono-specific forestry plantations. Wildlife communities were depauperate in the homogeneous stand, but richer in eucalypt forest with native species understorey. Small mammals, particularly didelphid marsupials, used the understorey rather than the eucalypt emergent trees Primates were absent from both areas. The increasing demand for charcoal for the growing steel industry in the region means that eucalypt plantations will persist until an alternative energy source is found. It is essential that management efforts be directed towards multi-use strategies in these plantations Eucalypt plantations with a native species understorey might provide sufficient habitat to support some wildlife species of the rapidly disappearing Atlantic coastal forest ecosystem.