Fatores de risco para a conservação de Glaucomastix littoralis e a importância dos saberes populares na preservação de espécies de lagartos

Abstract

Lizards are threatened worldwide by various factors, whether physical, climatic or anthropological. Although often rejected and bad (if ever) seen, they are important elements of the biocenoses to which they belong. In this paper we go through some of the factors that threaten the existence of lizards and mischaracterize their natural environment. First we analyze the main studies involving the response of these organisms to climate change. From a literature review, we identified that predictive thermoregulation modeling is being a methodology widely used by researchers to design and study the persistence of different species of lizards around the world.Then, having as object of study the lizard Glaucomastix littoralis, an endemic species restricted to restingas of the state of Rio de Janeiro and currently threatened with extinction, we monitored the density of its populations in the four areas where it occurs; analyzed the degree of physical degradation and the thermal quality of each restinga; measured the thermal accuracy and the thermoregulation efficiency of each population; and performed a predictive model to assess which areas would still be suitable for species maintenance in different climate change scenarios. We identified that the population density of this species decreased with the increasing physical disturbances of its occurrence areas, and that the four restingas analyzed presented adequate temperatures for the thermoregulation of G. littoralis considering the different microhabitats throughout the day. However, we do not know the resilience of this thermal equilibrium in relation to a global temperature increase, since the restingas more thermally stable for the maintenance of the populations of this species are the ones that currently have the highest degradation index. We also developed an ethnobiological study to investigate the familiarity of traditional communities with the local lizard fauna, that is, what their relationship with the lizards is, how they characterize the lizards and the importance of protected land demarcation for the preservation of species, especially the endemic ones. Residents demonstrated a wide knowledge about the variation in density and richness of the local lizard community, with these animals being part of the daily lives and the subsistence of these residents.Still about local communities, we developed a scientific divulgation work in a school of coastal zone in order to dialogue with the residentstudents about the current condition of restingas and the importance of preserving them for the ecological balance. Finally, we developed a freely distributed booklet about the endangered species G. littoralis, the situation of restingas and the importance of considering local knowledge in environmental preservation actions.The booklet produced aimed to collaborate with the dissemination of information acquired beyond the academy, having as target audience the restingas' residents and visitors and the managers of the Conservation Units.c