39 research outputs found

    Environmental policy at a critical junction in the Brazilian Amazon

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    Wholesale conversion of natural Amazonian ecosystems has been encouraged by Brazil’s extreme antienvironmental government, and historical forest loss explains municipal-scale voting prevalence. Embracing a new administration would strengthen local-to-regional governance, suppress illegal land grabbing, deforestation, logging, and gold mining, thereby protecting the world’s most species-rich forest domain and ensuring global sustainability

    Potential mammalian species for investigating the past connections between Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest

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    Much evidence suggests that Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest were connected through at least three dispersion routes in the past: the Eastern route, the central route, and the Western route. However, few studies have assessed the use of these routes based on multiple species. Here we present a compilation of mammal species that potentially have dispersed between the two forest regions and which may serve to investigate these connections. We evaluate the present-day geographic distributions of mammals occurring in both Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest and the likely connective routes between these forests. We classified the species per habitat occupancy (strict forest specialists, species that prefer forest habitat, or generalists) and compiled the genetic data available for each species. We found 127 mammalian species presently occurring in both Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest for which, substantial genetic data was available. Hence, highlighting their potential for phylogeographic studies investigating the past connections between the two forests. Differently from what was previously proposed, the present-day geographic distribution of mammal species found in both Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest points to more species in the eastern portion of the dry diagonal (and adjoining forested habitats). The Central route was associated with the second most species. Although it remains to be seen how this present-day geography reflects the paleo dispersal routes, our results show the potential of using mammal species to investigate and bring new insights about the past connections between Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest

    Borboletas (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea e papilionoidea) de fragmentos de floresta ombrófila mista, rio grande do sul, Brazil

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    The landscape of Campos de Cima da Serra region, at North of Rio Grande do Sul State, is fragmented and its biodiversity threatened due the impact of human activities. This study investigated the butterfly fauna in fragments of Mixed Ombrophilous Forest native vegetation (VN) and anthropic area (AA) at Soledade and Mormaço municipalities. 1,181 butterflies were registered and distributed in 125 species, after 108 net-hours through active search sampling with entomological net. VN registered 72 species and 470 individuals, while AA had 89 and 711, respectively. Heliconius erato phyllis (Fabricius, 1775), Biblis hyperia nectanabis (Fruhstorfer, 1909) and Dryas iulia alcionea (Cramer, 1779) were the three most abundant species in general and in AA, while Strephonota elika (Hewitson, 1867), H. erato phyllis and Morpho helenor achillides C. Felder & R. Felder, 1867 were the most abundant in VN. Thirty-three species are considered new records for Mixed Ombrophilous Forest in Rio Grande do Sul State. The results show the contribution of butterfly rapid inventories as source of subsidies to biodiversity conservation

    Environmental impact assessment in Brazilian Amazonia: Challenges and prospects to assess biodiversity

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    Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has the goal of providing decision makers with an indication of the likely environmental consequences of planned actions risking environmental changes and, when necessary, allowing revision of these actions to mitigate adverse impacts. Here we provide an overview of the efficiency of EIA with emphasis on Brazilian Amazonia and discuss the problems and challenges with this type of assessment in highly diverse ecosystems. We concentrate on the methodology and performance of EIAs for three of the most recent and largest infrastructure projects in Amazonia: the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, the BR-319 Highway, and the Juruti bauxite mine. We conclude that all of these EIAs fall short of properly assessing the expected impact of infrastructure development in situ, and that their results had little or no effect on policy decisions. To improve the reliability and usefulness of EIAs in biologically diverse ecosystems, we suggest three relatively fast and cost-effective complementary approaches for assessing biodiversity: remote sensing, reflectance spectroscopy, and DNA meta-barcoding. We discuss how these emerging cutting-edge techniques can help in identifying environmental threats and the consequences of different activities in Amazonia. The ability to monitor the state of the environment and the likely impacts of human activities on natural resources is fundamental to evidence-based decisions on development choices, to the design of appropriate management strategies, and to mitigate biological and ecological consequences. © 2017 The Author

    Monitoring fish communities through environmental DNA metabarcoding in the fish pass system of the second largest hydropower plant in the world

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    The Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant is the second largest in the world in power generation. The artificial barrier created by its dam imposes an obstacle for fish migration. Thus, in 2002, a fish pass system, named Piracema Channel, was built to allow fish to access areas upstream of the reservoir. We tested the potential of environmental DNA metabarcoding to monitor the impact of both the dam and associated fish pass system in the Paraná River fish communities and to compare it with traditional monitoring methods. Using a fragment of the 12S gene, we characterized richness and community composition based on amplicon sequence variants, operational taxonomic units, and zero-radius OTUs. We combined GenBank and in-house data for taxonomic assignment. We found that different bioinformatics approaches showed similar results. Also, we found a decrease in fish diversity from 2019 to 2020 probably due to the recent extreme drought experienced in southeastern Brazil. The highest alpha diversity was recorded in the mouth of the fish pass system, located in a protected valley with the highest environmental heterogeneity. Despite the clear indication that the reference databases need to be continuously improved, our results demonstrate the analytical efficiency of the metabarcoding to monitor fish species

    Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

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    Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms

    Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

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    Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms

    Borboletas (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea e papilionoidea) de val de serra, região central do rio grande do sul, Brasil

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    The butterfly fauna of the Atlantic Forest Biome is reasonably well-known up to the southern limit of its distribution. However, there are knowledge gaps nearby the central region of Rio Grande do Sul State, whose forest areas are considered priorities for biological conservation. This study investigated the butterfly assemblage of a riparian fragment in an ecotone area between Mixed Ombrophilous Forest and Seasonal Decidous Forest, in Itaara municipality. From September 2005 to September 2006, after 105 net-hours through active search sampling, 877 butterflies were registered representing 104 species. Three more species were registered posteriorly, increasing total richness to 107. The most abundant species were the Nymphalidae Hermeuptychia hermes (Fabricius, 1775), Yphthimoides celmis (Godart, [1824]), Agraulis vanillae maculosa (Stichel, [1908]), Tegosa claudina (Eschscholtz, 1821) and Vanessa braziliensis (Moore, 1883). One new record for the State and four new ones for the central region were registered besides the southern endemic Papilionidae Euryades corethrus (Boisduval, 1836) and the Lycaenidae Arcas ducalis (Westwood, 1852), considered indicator of Atlantic forest preserved areas. Due to the representativeness of the registered fauna, it is suggested the increase of conservation efforts in the area and stimulation of new ecological studies with the local biodiversity
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