Habitat Structural Effect on Squamata Fauna of the Restinga Ecosystem in Northeastern Brazil

In this work, we surveyed data on richness and composition of squamatan reptiles and habitat structural effect in nine areas of restinga ecosystem in the State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. The “restinga” ecosystems are coastal sand dune habitats on the coast of Brazil. Our main hypothesis is that the Squamata fauna composition along these restinga areas would be modulated by habitat structural. After 90 days of field sampling we recorded approximately 5% of reptile species known in Brazil. The composition of Squamata assemblages varied mainly based on the presence or absence of lizards of the genera Ameivula and Tropidurus. Our data showed that habitat structure consistently affected the composition of local Squamata fauna, especially lizards

Genetic differentiation among three neighboring Brazil-cherry (Eugenia uniflora L.) populations within the Brazilian Atlantic rain forest

Eugenia uniflora L. (pitanga) is widely distributed in tropical areas. It is present in coastal vegetation from Ceara, in northeastern Brazil, to Rio Grande do Sul, at the southern tip of the country. Eugenia uniflora is of ecological importance, both as colonizing species on disturbed land and as food supplier for a wide variety of insects, birds and mammals. Pitanga plays a role in the maintenance of shrubby coastal ecosystems, especially at disturbed sites, and in 'restinga' ecosystems, at the interface between low forest and strand vegetation. To investigate the genetic diversity residing within the species, three neighboring populations at a distance of less than 24 km from each other, with varying degrees of human impact, were studied. The level of genetic diversity within and between populations was assessed with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) methodology. A total of 532 AFLP markers were analyzed in 66 individual trees. The polymorphism level varied from 61.2 to 96% depending on the primer combination used. Intra- and inter-population genetic diversity analysis showed that more than 88% of the variation resided within the populations, with a G(st) of 0.123. Nevertheless, using neighbor joining (NJ) and principal component analysis (PCA), on the genetic distance (GD) data, permitted the three analyzed populations to be differentiated