On the rocks: Biogeography and floristic identity of rocky ecosystems in eastern South America Luísa Azevedo, Daniela Cristina Zappi, Daniela Melo Garcia de Oliveira, Leila Meyer, Eimear Nic Lughadha, et al. Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 2024 The geodiversity of rocky ecosystems includes diverse plant communities with specific names, but their continental‐scale floristic identity and the knowledge on the role of macroclimate remain patchy. Here, we assessed the identity of plant communities in eastern Brazil across multiple types of rocky landscapes and evaluated the relative importance of climatic variables in constraining floristic differentiation. We provided lists of diagnostic species and an assessment of the conservation status of the identified floristic groups. We compiled a data set of 151 sites (4498 species) from rocky ecosystems, including campos rupestres, campos de altitude, granitic‐gneiss lowland inselbergs, and limestone outcrops. We used unsupervised clustering analysis followed by ANOSIM to assess floristic groups among sites. We performed a random forest variable selection to test whether the identified floristic groups occupy distinct climatic spaces. Six groups (lithobiomes) segregated floristically according to lithology and climate. Alongside campos de altitude and limestone outcrops, inselbergs were divided according to the biome in which they occur (Atlantic Forest or Caatinga), and campos rupestres were largely segregated according to their lithological matrix (ironstone or quartzitic). Plant communities of Caatinga inselbergs were more similar to limestone outcrops, while Atlantic Forest inselbergs communities resembled campos de altitude. The composition of plant communities on outcrops seems to be largely constrained by lithology, but climatic factors are also meaningful for sites with similar lithology. The current network of protected areas does not cover these unique ecosystems and their floristic heterogeneity, with Caatinga inselbergs and limestone outcrops being the least protected.
Anthropic impacts on the floristic and functional composition of regeneration mechanisms in an urban forest fragment of the São Paulo Atlantic Plateau, Southeastern Brazil Pedro Rufino Martins, Daniella Vinha, Leonardo Dias Meireles Hoehnea, 2024 RESUMO Fragmentos florestais urbanos estão submetidos a pressões antrópicas que podem afetar sua regeneração secundária. Analisamos a composição florística e funcional dos mecanismos de regeneração de um fragmento florestal com 2 ha no Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, para avaliar a resiliência funcional dos mecanismos de regeneração diante de perturbações antrópicas. A vegetação arbórea apresentou elevada riqueza, com o predomínio de espécies zoocóricas e tolerantes à sombra. Os mecanismos de regeneração foram compostos por espécies nativas, mas apresentaram impactos antrópicos e ambos estão susceptíveis à invasão biológica. A maior abundância de espécies de crescimento rápido nos mecanismos de regeneração demonstra que o processo de secundarização florestal encontra-se estabelecido no fragmento, o que pode ocasionar uma sucessão retrogressiva a estádios pioneiros, alterando sua composição florística e funcional.
Potential of floral and fruit resources for wildlife of tree species suitable for urban afforestation in São Paulo: in search of a biodiverse city Daniele do Prado Figueiredo, Tamiris de Oliveira, Leonardo Dias Meireles Hoehnea, 2024 RESUMO Árvores fornecem habitat e recursos para a fauna residente e transiente nas cidades. A escolha de espécies arbóreas para plantio urbano segue critérios multifatoriais, mas pouco considera os recursos que elas disponibilizam para a fauna. Objetivamos identificar grupos funcionais de 154 espécies arbóreas nativas indicadas para plantio urbano do município de São Paulo a partir dos recursos florais e frutíferos disponibilizados para visitantes florais e frutíferos potenciais. Observamos um número proporcional de espécies com dispersão abiótica e biótica e um predomínio de espécies de arbóreas polinizadas por abelhas ou com frutos carnosos consumidos por aves. Propusemos oito grupos funcionais caracterizados pelo compartilhamento de visitantes florais e frugívoros potenciais que apresentaram uma riqueza desigual. Uma escolha focada na identificação taxonômica e porte das espécies pode promover uma alta redundância funcional e impactar a riqueza de interações planta-animal e diminuir a permeabilidade das cidades para fauna.
Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network Janaína Gomes‐da‐Silva, Fabiana L.R. Filardi, Maria Regina V. Barbosa, José Fernando A. Baumgratz, Carlos E.M. Bicudo, et al. Taxon, 2022 The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of aworking list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world ’ s known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis , concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highlycollaborativeproject that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overviewof the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world ’ s most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “ scientific reductionism ” , with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora. Supporting Information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.
Floristic survey of vascular plants of a poorly known area in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Flona do Rio Preto, Espírito Santo) Anderson Alves-Araújo, Marina Moreira, Tatiana Carrijo, Lúcia Lohmann, Adriana Lobão, et al. Biodiversity Data Journal, 2022 The Atlantic Forest is one of the most threatened biomes in the world. Despite that, this biome still includes many areas that are poorly known floristically, including several protected areas, such as the "Floresta Nacional do Rio Preto" ("Flona do Rio Preto"), located in the Brazilian State of Espírito Santo. This study used a published vascular plant species list for this protected area from the "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil" as the basis to synthesise the species richness, endemism, conservation and new species occurrences found in the "Flona do Rio Preto". The published list of vascular plants was based on field expeditions conducted between 2018 and 2020 and data obtained from herbarium collections available in online databases. Overall, 722 species were documented for the "Flona do Rio Preto", 711 of which are native to Brazil and 349 are endemic to the Atlantic Forest. In addition, 60 species are geographically disjunct between the Atlantic and the Amazon Forests. Most of the documented species are woody and more than 50% of these are trees. Twenty-three species are threatened (CR, EN and VU), while five are Data Deficient (DD). Thirty-two species are new records for the State of Espírito Santo. Our results expand the knowledge of the flora of the Atlantic Forest and provide support for the development of new conservation policies for this protected area.
Using online databases to produce comprehensive accounts of the vascular plants from the Brazilian protected areas: The parque nacional do Itatiaia as a case study Marina Moreira, Tatiana Carrijo, Anderson Alves-Araújo, André Amorim, Alessandro Rapini, et al. Biodiversity Data Journal, 2020 Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with about 37,000 species of land plants. Part of this biodiversity is within protected areas. The development of online databases in the last years greatly improved the available biodiversity data. However, the existing databases do not provide information about the protected areas in which individual plant species occur. The lack of such information is a crucial gap for conservation actions. This study aimed to show how the information captured from online databases, cleaned by a protocol and verified by taxonomists allowed us to obtain a comprehensive list of the vascular plant species from the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia", the first national park founded in Brazil. All existing records in the online database JABOT (15,100 vouchers) were downloaded, resulting in 11,783 vouchers identified at the species level. Overall, we documented 2,316 species belonging to 176 families and 837 genera of vascular plants in the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia". Considering the whole vascular flora, 2,238 species are native and 78 are non-native. The "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia" houses 13% of the angiosperm and 37% of the fern species known from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Amongst these species, 82 have been cited as threatened, following IUCN categories (CR, EN or VU), seven are data deficient (DD) and 15 have been classified as a conservation priority, because they are only known from a single specimen collected before 1969.
Variations in floristic and phytosociological structure of an upper montane forest in Mantiqueira Range, Monte Verde, MG Revista Brasileira De Botanica, 2008
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