RESEARCH PAPER
Effect of oil pipelines on landscape connectivity for long-furred woolly mouse opossum (Marmosa paraguayana) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
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1
Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Centro de Biociências e Biotecnologia, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro.
2
Instituto de Biodiversidade e Sustentabilidade NUPEM, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
3
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
4
Gerência de Tecnologias para Meio Ambiente, Centro de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento (CENPES), PETROBRAS.
Online publication date: 2023-09-13
Publication date: 2023-09-13
Corresponding author
Juan David Rojas Arias
Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Centro de Biociências e Biotecnologia, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro.
Hystrix It. J. Mamm. 2023;34(2):105-111
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ABSTRACT
Linear infrastructures like roads, pipelines, and electrical networks are among the main causes of
habitat fragmentation and diversity loss in animal species. We evaluated the effects of 20–30 m wide
deforested corridors above underground oil pipelines on the movements of the long-furred woolly
mouse opossum Marmosa paraguayana, an arboreal marsupial ubiquitous in the Brazilian Atlantic
Forest. Using capture, mark, and recapture protocols along four transects, two on either side of the
deforested corridor, one within the forest, and one along the forest edge, we compared movements
within the forest with those across the deforested corridor. This experimental design was repeated
in six locations within two protected areas in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pipeline crossings
were rare, performed by few individuals, and significantly less frequent than movements inside the
forest fragment, indicating that the deforested pipeline corridors act as a partial barrier to the move-
ments of M. paraguayana. All crossings were restricted to the mating season. Both sexes crossed
the pipeline strips and males travelled longer distances than females. Also, individuals used the
forest interior more frequently and avoided edges, decreasing the likelihood of crossing the unfor-
ested corridors. This study revealed an underestimated effect of a narrow-deforested matrix like the
ones created by underground pipelines on forest connectivity and the need for the development of
measures to mitigate these impacts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to Malinda Dawn Henry for the help in fieldwork and
criticisms on a draft of this paper. To Ana Cristina Petry for her valuable suggestions throughout this project. This paper is part of Juan
Rojas Arias master’s dissertation, and we also thank his MS committee,
Mariana Silva Ferreira, Marcelo Weber, and Alan Gerhardt Braz Magal-
hães, for the corrections and criticisms made. Finally, we thank PET-
ROBRAS/CENPES R, D&I project Landscape Connectivity – Assessment
of the effect of pipeline strips on landscape connectivity for mammals
and analysis of the effectiveness of fauna crossing structures, for the
support of field sampling and financing, through resources from RD&I
investments clauses of Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural
Gas and Biofuels (ANP).