Caranguejo relictual na Serra da Ibiapaba: o que nos diz a teoria dos refúgios?

Abstract

The refuge theory predicts that the distribution of organisms was influenced by climaticvegetation oscillations during Quaternary, so that places less affected by these changes constituted true refuges for both fauna and flora that began to undergo a process of speciation. Among these refuges, there is Ibiapaba Plateau, one of the “brejos de altitude” in the Northeastern of Brazil. In this brejos, the occurrence of a freshwater crab of Amazonian origin, living in small places at high altitudes is registered. The objective of this study is to analyze through mitochondrial genes, traditional morphometry possible changes in shape, gonopod and genetics of this crab species, in order to find significant differences between the relictual population of Ibiapaba and its congeners in Amazon basin, in addition to being addressed comments on the conservation and ecology of this relictual population in the Ibiapaba Plateau. This thesis is structured as follows: In the first chapter (Chapter 1), we evaluate the areas where this relictual crab population is distributed throughout the Environmental Protection Area of Bica do Ipu, with the title: The distribution of freshwater crab , Fredius reflexifrons (Ortmann, 1897) (Brachyura, Pseudothelphusidae) in an environmental protection area in the Ibiapaba Plateau with new records and comments on its conservation. In the second chapter (Chapter 2) proposed for this Thesis, we have the title: Population structure and reproductive biology of a freshwater crab in a relic humid forest in Northeastern Brazil. Finally, for the fourth chapter (Chapter 4), we discussed phylogeographic aspects for the species under study where we deal with possible morphological and molecular divergences for the population of Serra da Ibiapaba. The results found in this study show that the relictual crab population of Serra da Ibiapaba, suffered an isolation process, subsequently differing from its congeners in the Amazon Basin.