EARTH FAUNA IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS IN THE SOUTHERN AMAZON

Objective: To evaluate the soil fauna in Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) of restored and degraded watercourses, and in a preserved forest fragment, located in the municipality of Alta Floresta - MT. Theoretical framework: Forest restoration is extremely important for the reestablishment of ecosystem functions, especially in areas on the banks of water bodies. And the evaluation of this process can be carried out through soil fauna, which is considered a bioindicator of environmental quality. Methodology: The soil fauna was collected using pitfall soil traps (Provid model), installed in the three study environments along a linear transect of 70 meters, remaining in the field for 48 hours, with subsequent collection, cleaning and screening, followed by identification at order and/or family level. Soil sampling was also carried out at the points where meso-and macrofauna sampling was established, forming a composite sample from each study area. To analyze the results, the diversity, equitability, similarity and correlation indices were calculated using the PAST software. Results and conclusion: The restored APP was the one that most matched the preserved forest fragment when evaluating the environments' soil fauna, also presenting the highest levels of diversity and equitability. The soil fauna responded to the heterogeneity of the environments, since the degraded APP had less incidence of soil organisms.


INTRODUCTION
The soil fauna is considered an excellent biological indicator of soil quality, since for the occurrence of most species it is necessary that the soil be endowed with resources such as water, oxygen and availability of organic matter, besides its biological activities indirectly benefit the chemical and structural composition of the soil, and these are also the factors that influence its population dynamics.Because of this, this group has been widely studied as a biological tool for verifying soil quality.
The meso and macrofauna perform important ecological functions such as nutrient cycling, soil upheaval, incorporation of organic matter and biological control of soil pests (Melo et al., 2009), being fundamental in the balance of the ecosystem.However, anthropic actions such as deforestation cause the soil's biotic population to decrease dramatically, since they are extremely sensitive to any changes in the environment.Therefore, they can be used as a parameter for assessing environmental quality because they respond relatively quickly to changes (Baretta et al., 2011).
In the face of the alterations to the ecosystems, which result in losses in structural and functional integrity as a consequence of the removal of the native vegetation for other uses of the land, the Brazilian Amazon is highlighted by the high levels of degradation.A recent survey indicated that the Legal Amazon had a cumulative deforestation of 457,474 km² in the period between 1988 and 2020, and that only the state of Mato Grosso, which covers the Southern Amazon, were 147,926.00km², representing 32.34% of the total accumulated in that same period for all Legal Amazon (Kohler et al., 2021).
The South Amazon presents areas located in the border region of the southern states of Amazonas and Pará, and the north of Mato Grosso and Rondônia, being a region also known as the 'deforestation arc', justified by the advance of deforestation occurring in the northern direction of Brazil (Souza, 2018).Several research studies have proven that deforestation results in the loss of ecosystem functions, and forest restoration is expected to be able to increase these functions and reverse this scenario (Rodrigues, 2019).However, science emphasizes challenging and dynamic nature, taking into account that interventions rarely achieve full environmental recovery, and that there are still many uncertainties regarding the recovery of natural processes (Chazdon, 2014;Higgs, 2003).
The restoration and/or recovery of vegetation from waterside vegetation is considered of extreme importance for performing peculiar and unique functions (Pusey;Arthington, 2003), such as the protection of water bodies avoiding silting, as well as safeguarding aquatic and terrestrial fauna.Thus, the restoration of these areas is essential for the integrity of this ecosystem.However, little scientific information raises doubts as to whether or not restoration methods result in the recovery of key ecosystem processes and functions (Rodrigues, 2019), but it is known that the soil biotic population performs functions that are able to assist in the restoration process, and that can be synonymous with environmental quality by the presence of certain soil organisms.
Considering the above, it is important to analyze whether the restoration process is succeeding.Therefore, the objective of the study was to evaluate the soil fauna in Permanent Preservation Areas of restored and degraded waterways, and in a preserved forest fragment, located in the municipality of Alta Floresta -MT.

Field of Study
The study was carried out in the municipality of Alta Floresta, in the far north of the state of Mato Grosso in the southern limit of the Amazon, in the geographical coordinates 9°50'39.64"Sand 56°6'56.23"O.The climate of the region according to the Köppen classification is of type Am characterized by clear seasons of drought and rain, with annual precipitation reaching 3,000 mm and average temperature of 26°C (Alvarez et al., 2014;Labegalini et al., 2016).The biome is Amazonian, with predominant formations of the type Open Ombrophilous Forest with Dense Ombrophilous Forest and Semi-deciduous Seasonal Forest with forest physiognomy composed of more spaced trees and shrub stratum little dense (IBGE, 2004).

Methodological Procedures
Sampling of the soil meso and macrofauna was performed in three environments.The first site was the restored APP (Permanent Preservation Area) of watercourse with approximately 17 hectares, environment with predominance of plants of the species Bixa orellana L., popularly known as Urucum, and shrub stratum with few regenerants and fully shaded by the ecological group of pioneers.The second was the forest fragment, with an approximate area of 12 hectares, which is composed of primary forest vegetation, which was used as a parameter of a healthy environment.And the third environment was the degraded watercourse APP, with 2.3 hectares, which is dominated by grasses of the Brachiaria genus, which are exotic and considered invasive.
The survey of soil meso and macrofauna was carried out passively, using pitfall soil traps (Provid model) according to the methodology proposed by Antoniolli et al. (2006).The traps were made of transparent pet bottles with a capacity of two liters.Inside the traps, a preservative saline solution was added, consisting of 250 ml of water, 20 g of salt and 4 drops of detergent for the conservation of the fauna until the time of collection, as proposed by Garlet et al. (2015).
In the three environments, the traps were installed at seven points distributed along a linear passage of 70 meters in the east-west direction of the areas, and the passage was allocated in such a way as to avoid the edge effect.These traps were arranged parallel to the left of the crossing, ten meters apart, and remained in the field for 48 hours.After this, the preservative liquid was collected with the soil organisms and the material was taken to the laboratory to carry out the cleaning and screening for identification at the order and/or family level, quantifying the collected specimens and preserving them in alcohol 70%.Four samples were taken to sample the soil fauna in the summer (rainy) and winter (dry) seasons, with the following collection dates: collection 1 -08/09/2021; collection 2 -30/11/2021; collection 3 -15/06/2022; and collection 4 -25/08/2022.
Soil sampling was also performed for chemical analyzes to investigate any relationship between the presence of fauna and chemical attributes.The collection of soil for the sampling was done manually with the help of a skull, collecting at a depth of ten centimeters, and parallel to the left of the transects, at the points where the collection of the same and macrofauna was established, forming a composite sample of each area of study.
The soil analysis was carried out by UNEMAT's Soil, Fertilizer and Foliar Analysis Laboratory (LASAF), located in Alta Floresta in Unit I.The determination of the chemical and physical properties of the soil are described below in Table 1.For the analysis of the results, we calculated the indices of diversity and fairness of each area.Subsequently, the similarity between the environments studied was evaluated.The correlation index was also applied to investigate the interaction of the soil fauna with the chemical properties of the soil.The indices and other analyzes were calculated in the statistical software PAST VERSION 3.16 (Hammer, 2017), and the indices applied in the research are described and expressed below, as information obtained from the DivEs (Species Diversity) Software Guide.
The Shannon index evaluates diversity and is appropriate for random samples of species from a community or sub-community, and is estimated by Equation 1 (Rodrigues, 2022a): Where: S = number of species; pi: relative abundance of each species, calculated by the proportion of individuals of a species and total number of individuals in the community:

𝑛 𝑖 𝑁
Where: : number of individuals in each species; N: total number of all subjects.
The Margalef index considers only the number of species (s-1) and the logarithm (base 10 or natural) of the total number of individuals, and is also used to estimate diversity, expressed by Equation 2 (Rodrigues, 2022b): Where: I = diversity; n: number of species present; N: total number of individuals found.
J (Pielou) is an index that describes the distribution of individuals among species, being proportional to diversity and inversely proportional to dominance, i.e. the more uniform the number of individuals per species, the greater the equitable.This index is obtained from Equation 3 (Rodrigues, 2022c): Where: H' = Shannon-Wiener index;  ′  is given by the expression: Where: S = number of species sampled; log  = log base b (2 or 2,718282 or 10).
The Jaccard coefficient of similarity indicates the proportion of species shared between two samples in relation to the total of species, that is, it estimates the similarity and diversity between two areas.This index is obtained from Equation 4 (Rodrigues, 2022d): Where: J = similarity; Scom: number of common species in the two samples; s1 and s2: total number of species in each sample.
Pearson's correlation coefficient measures the degree of correlation between two metric scale variables, ranging from -1 to 1, with the closer to 1/-1 the more perfect the correlation.The direction of this correlation can be positive, which means that when the variable X increases the Y also grows, and the negative is when X increases the Y always decreases.The Pearson correlation coefficient formula is expressed by Equation 5 (Rodrigues, 2022e): (5) Where: and  ̅ = The diversity indices were used to evaluate the soil fauna sampled in the three environments, in order to determine which houses the greatest diversity and which resemble.The level of equality was used to assess the uniformity, or otherwise, of the distribution of individuals among the species for each area under study.And the similarity coefficient was applied to assess the similarity of the environments with each other.Finally, the analysis of the correlation between the chemical composition of the soil and the orders and/or families of the soil fauna was carried out to evaluate if both have a correlation, that is, if the chemical composition of the soil influences the incidence of certain groups of soil fauna, and if this relationship is in a positive or negative way.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In Table 2 below, we present the data of the soil fauna collected in the three study environments.The incidence of soil orders and families was carried out from the data of four collections carried out in different periods, generating results of the frequency (%) of occurrence of each group and in each study environment.The family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera were dominant in the three environments A2, A1 and A3, representing 84.78% of the individuals collected.The Termitoidea Superfamily of the order Blattodea was the second with the most individuals collected, with a frequency of 7.17%, focusing on A1 and A2 in extremely close proportions (≠ 1), in contrast the incidence on A3 was zero.The sequence at the frequency level is the orders Coleoptera and Orthoptera with 2.11 and 2.06% in the following areas: A1 and A2; and A1 and A3, respectively.Subsequently, the Araneae and Hemiptera groups focused on the right order, 1.22 and 1.20%, both most frequently on A1 and A3.The other orders found had incidence below 1%.In the environments, the forest fragment had a higher frequency of the edaphic fauna, with 42.46%, followed by the restored APP with 35.44% and the degraded APP with 22.09%.
Table 3 shows the indexes for each environment.Shannon and Margalef estimate the diversity of soil fauna in the environment, and fairness evaluates the distribution of individuals among species.The restored area showed greater diversity and fairness, followed by the forest fragment and degraded area.In Figure 1, one can observe graphically the results of the indices obtained in the three environments in the four collections carried out.It can be observed that greater indices of diversity and fairness were obtained in the initial period of the rains (collections 1 and 2).The samples collected during the dry season (collections 3 and 4) were smaller, showing the influence of the seasons.
Table 4 shows the correlation data between the chemical properties of the soil and the orders and families of the soil fauna.Values closer to -1 and 1, characterize a very strong correlation.The correlation was calculated only for the chemical characteristics of the soil that most influence the occurrence of soil organisms (Melo et al., 2009;Dunxiao et al., 1999;Nascimentoet al., 2008).It was also considered only the fauna that commonly walks on the ground.9 Soil pH and the orders Hymenoptera (Formicidae) and Blattodea (Blattaria) showed negative correlation with moderate to very strong force, i.e. as the soil becomes alkaline (increase in pH) the incidence of these soil groups decreases.For the orders Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Araneae and Hemiptera (Cimicidae and Cicadellidae), it presented a correlation in the positive direction from moderate to very strong, therefore, when the pH increases the incidence of these orders also increases.
The most significant correlation in the negative direction with respect to phosphorus (P) was with the order Hemiptera, family Cimicidae.The most significant in the positive direction were Hymenoptera (Formicidae), Coleoptera, Blattodea (Termitoidea) and Hemiptera (Cicadellidae).
Potassium (K) and the orders Hymenoptera (Formicidae) and Blattodea (Termitoidea and Blattaria) showed strong positive to very strong correlation.The negative correlation was with the orders Orthoptera, Araneae, and Hemiptera, with moderate to very strong force.
Figure 2 expresses the similarity between the study environments.The proportion of individuals shared between restored APP, forest fragment and degraded APP in relation to the total soil fauna sampled is measured, and the closer to 1, the more similar the environments.It is observed that the restored APP and forest fragment were more similar, with 0.775 degree of similarity.The degraded APP showed 0.66 similarities with environments 1 and 2.
The results observed in this study confirm the findings of Lavelle and Pashanasi (1989), that the incidence of soil fauna is linked to the inherent environmental conditions, such as climate, soil type and vegetation.Table 2 exemplifies this through the frequency data, where the forest fragment stood out positively, followed by the restored area with more similar results, and finally the degraded area that had the lowest frequency of the soil fauna, justified by the fact that it is an environment with little supply of resources, since the vegetation is composed, in its majority, of grasses of the Brachiaria genus.Baretta et al. (2011) consider that the greatest limitation for the survival of these organisms refers to the food source, besides the biological, chemical and physical changes that interfere in the population dynamics of the fauna.
Considering the frequency of orders and families of the edaphic fauna, ants were dominant in all three environments.In the research by Castro, Melo and Garlet (2022) that analyzed the edaphic fauna associated with forest fragments in the South Amazon, the Formicidae family also stood out in relation to the other sampled edaphic groups, representing 60%.Melo et al. (2009) state that this group is dominant in tropical forests, and that they are characterized by being the invertebrates most capable of colonizing hostile environment, i.e. that they have few resources for their development.
Analyzing the incidence of this group in each environment, we found more individuals collected in the restored APP and in the forest fragment, with 1159 and 1550, respectively, differing considerably from the degraded APP, with 829.Spiller (2018) also found the same result when evaluating the total frequency of species of the family Formicidae in the environments of recovered area, forest fragment and pasture, such research carried out in the same location of this study.
Another relevant group was the Termitoidea Superfamily of the order Blattodea, being the second with more incidence, recorded only in the restored environment and in the forest fragment.Lavelle et al. (2006) cite that there are limitations to the establishment of termite colonies in the environments, and there is a need for food availability and physical soil attributes that contribute to nest building.The soil of the degraded area had the least clay (176 g/kg), and according to Valerius (2006) termites use clay particles or fecal and salival material to feed the nest.Therefore, the non-incidence of this group in the degraded area starts from the presupposition that in this environment it does not have the conditions for its development.It is worth highlighting the importance of the presence of this soil group, especially in areas that are in the process of recovery, as these accelerate the decomposition and recycling of the nutrients retained in the plant material, are symbionts with nitrogen fixing bacteria (N) and increase the porosity, aeration and infiltration of the soil (Melo et al., 2009).
The Coleoptera and Orthoptera orders were the third most frequent, both with equivalent frequency, focusing more, respectively, on the following areas: restored and forest fragment; and restored and degraded environment.Similar result in these aspects above considering the order Coleoptera that was found in Spiller's research (2018), whose place of study was the same and the similar analysis environments.According to Petroni (2008), certain species of beetles have requirements as to the ecological niche they occupy.Therefore, it is believed that the restored area and forest fragment share more similar ecological niches.
The explanation for the greater incidence of the Orthoptera order in environments adjacent to water bodies, in the case of restored (51 ind.) and degraded (29 ind.)APP, to the detriment of the forest fragment (6 ind.) can be explained by Vargas (2013), who validated the Bottom-Upin three study environments with distinct characteristics within the Amazon Forest, assuming that the abundance of crickets is determined by the conditions of the environment, finding that soil humidity was the most significant constraint in favoring the abundance of these insects.
The groups Araneae and Hemiptera represented the fourth group with the most incidence.Spiders are considered important for contributing to the reduction of predatory pressure, besides being sensitive to anthropic action, reducing the population with the intensity of the use of the soil (Baretta et al., 2007;Baretta et al., 2011), however, this group focused more on the restored (23) and degraded ( 19) area, such result was unusual considering what expected by the higher incidence in the forest fragment to the detriment of the degraded area, since it has more resources.Alves et al. (2005) also obtained an unexpected result when they found greater diversity of species of spiders on the edge of the fragment of the Atlantic Rain Forest when compared with the region of the center.

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The fauna of the order Hemiptera was distributed with a greater incidence in the degraded environment, which shows dominance of forage grasses.This is due to the fact that some individuals of this group, such as the sharpshooter, are commonly associated with this type of vegetation (Spiller, 2018).
The ecological indices indicated positive results for the restored area (Table 3), indicating that this environment houses more diversity of soil groups and the distribution of these is homogeneous.Then there is the forest fragment and the degraded area, such sequence was also obtained by the study carried out by Spiller (2018) on the same property in the years 2016 to 2018.In the case of the forest fragment, diversity, wealth and fairness were compromised due to the greater abundance of a given soil group to the detriment of the others.As for the degraded area, besides showing the same characteristic of abundance, its vegetal composition with a predominance of forage also implies the results of ecological indices.
The index values differed in relation to the collection seasons, presenting more diversity and fairness in all environments in the rainy period.The same was observed in research by Silva et al. (2017) that analyzed arthropods in areas under different agricultural uses in the southwest Amazon.According to Vargas et al. (2013), the variation arising from different environments and collecting periods (rainy and dry) is due to environmental changes, such as: humidity, changes in the structure of the soil, besides including the concentration of nutrients, and may benefit certain soil groups to the detriment of others.
Soil chemical attributes are another variable that influence population dynamics of soil fauna, showing positive correlation, when a chemical element is in abundance the incidence of a given group increases, or negative, which refers to the decrease of the group when an element increases.Because some organisms show this correlation, they can be used as indicators of soil quality.
The leaf-cutting ants are excellent indicators of calcium-poor soils, since the acidity of the soil favors its symbiotic fungus (Melo et al., 2009), such fact found in this research through the results of a moderate correlation between pH and the Formicidae family, that is, the increase in pH (+ alkaline) decreases the population of this group.These organisms also showed strong to very strong positive correlation with the elements P (phosphorus) and K (potassium), as stated by Dunxiao et al. (1999), that the high concentration of P and K favors the appearance of this group.
Certain families of the Coleoptera order may be indicators of heavy metals in the soil and of environmental alterations, mainly anthropic, others have a positive correlation with elements P and K, and some are favored by soil fertilization (Büchs, 2003;Kromp, 1999;Paoletti, 1999;Wink et al., 2005).This research indicated a moderate positive correlation of this group with pH and a strong correlation with P (phosphorus).Therefore, more alkaline soils with a high concentration of phosphorus favor the appearance of beetles, a result that coincides with some research mentioned above.
Termites of the order Blattodea, Superfamily Termitoidea, influence the fertility of the soil, besides showing reactions as to agro-toxins and the decrease in organic matter (Stork;Eggleton, 1992;Büchs, 2003).The most significant correlation was found with P and K in the positive direction.In short, termites improve soil fertility and higher concentrations of P and K favor the appearance of this group.However, Loranger et al. (1998) point out that termites are also present in poor soils, justified by the absence of competition.
The order Blattodea, Blattaria family, decreases with the increase in soil pH, representing a very strong correlation, pointing to the preference for more acidic soils, already in function of element K the incidence of these individuals increases.In the literature, there is not much research about the correlation of this group with the chemical and physical aspects of the soil as a function of its ecology, although it is extremely important in the decomposition process.
The Orthoptera group has a very strong positive correlation with pH, that is, alkaline soils favor its appearance, and it can be hypothesized that this is related to the plant species that develop in this condition (alkaline pH), since they are mostly phytophagous.Another significant correlation was with element K in the negative direction with moderate force, meaning that the increase in potassium in the soil may influence the decrease of this group.Nascimento et al. (2008) also pointed out a significant correlation between Orthoptera and K when they evaluated the chemical attributes of the soil and the soil macrofauna in different environments of the Bay of Malheiros, in Cáceres, Mato Grosso.
Spiders (Araneae) are present in more balanced environments, characterized by being sensitive indicators of soil pollution by heavy metals (Büchs, 2003).This shown by the very strong positive correlation with pH, which favors alkaline soils rather than aluminum saturates.
There are few studies on the correlation of the order Hemiptera with the chemical attributes of the soil, but it is known that they are sensitive to chemicals and that indicate disturbances in the area of cultivation (Fauvel, 1999).In this research it was found that the Family Cimicidae (bedbugs) and Cicadellidae (cigarrinhas) showed a strong positive correlation with the pH and also found a correlation between P (phosphorus) and K (potassium) in both directions (positive and negative) and each family responded in a way as to the elements of phosphorus and potassium.
Finally, the similarity between the environments was evaluated by the Jaccard index, which indicated the proportion of edaphic groups shared between two areas in relation to the total of groups, resulting with more similarity between the restored area and the forest fragment, and less similar to the degraded area with the others.Moraes, Campello and Franco (2010) cite that the best way to evaluate the environmental condition of the area in the process of restoration is by choosing parameters that are based on the comparison of areas where there have been disturbances and other conserved areas that may work as a reference for the studies.Therefore, for the parameter of edaphic fauna, the similarity index between the environments indicates an environmental condition in the restored area similar to that of the preserved forest fragment, and that this will guarantee its condition of self-perpetuation, since the functions performed by the edaphic groups are part of the ecological processes that sustain the forest.

CONCLUSION
The restored Permanent Preservation Area was the one that was most in line with the preserved forest fragment when assessing the soil fauna of the environments, also showing the highest indices of diversity and equitable.The groups of the order Hymenoptera, Blattodea, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Araneae, and Hemiptera were more prevalent, respectively.These organisms responded to the heterogeneity of the environments, since the degraded Permanent Preservation Area had less incidence of soil fauna.
means of both variables;   e   : individual number of variables.

Figure 2 -
Figure 2 -Index of similarity for soil fauna between the restored and degraded Permanent Preservation Area environments and a forest fragment.Similarity: similarity; 1: restored APP; 2: forest fragment; 3: degraded APP.Source: the author.

Table 1 -
Analysis of the chemical and physical attributes of soil in the 0-10 cm layer of the restored and degraded environment and a forest fragment.
Potassium; Ca: Calcium; Mg: Magnesium; Al: Aluminum; H+Al: Potential Acidity; CTC: Cationic Exchange Capacity at pH 7.0; SB: Sum of Interchangeable Bases; V: Saturation by Bases; m: Saturation by Aluminum; K, Ca and Mg (%): Saturation by element; Ca/Mg, Ca /K, Mg/K: relationship between elements that favors or inhibits absorption between them.Source: the author.

Table 2 -
Quantitative data on the incidence of soil fauna in the Restored Permanent Preservation Area and degraded and in a forest fragment.
Source: the author.

Table 3 -
Indices of diversity and equity of the soil fauna in the environments of restored and degraded Permanent Preservation Area and a forest fragment.
Source: the author.

Table 4 -
Correlation between the chemical composition of the soil and the incidence of meso groups and soil macrofauna.