Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Emissão/abscisão de estruturas reprodutivas do algodoeiro herbáceo, cv. CNPA 7H: efeito do estresse hídrico Emission/abscission of reproductive structures of herbaceous cotton, cv. CNPA 7H: effect of the water stress

O presente estudo foi conduzido no período de julho a dezembro de 1998, em galpão coberto, no DSER/CCA/UFPB, município de Areia, PB, com o objetivo de se avaliar o efeito dos níveis de água disponível no solo (AD) (20, 40, 60 e 80%) sobre a emissão/abscisão de estruturas reprodutivas do algodoeiro herbáceo, cv. CNPA 7H; utilizou-se delineamento experimental inteiramente casualizado, com quatro tratamentos e três repetições, em três épocas de amostragem. O crescimento vegetativo e o reprodutivo, aumentaram com os níveis de AD no solo, sendo a menor média de altura de plantas (34,5 cm), área foliar (633,05 cm²), acumulação de fitomassa da parte aérea (9,04 g), botões florais (4,67), flores (3,50), maçãs (2,33) e capulhos (1,33) por planta, observada no tratamento com o nível de 20% da AD e a maior, 74,33 cm, 2.634,81cm², 24,86 g, 9,67, 7,0, 6,0 e 4,3 por planta, respectivamente, no tratamento com o nível de 60% da AD. Apesar do estresse hídrico ter afetado (p<0,05) quantitativamente o aumento da emissão e abscisão de estruturas reprodutivas do algodoeiro, existe uma inter-dependência entre essas estruturas, independente do nível de estresse hídrico a que foi submetido; assim, o aumento ou redução do número de botões florais retidos culmina com o de flores, maçãs e capulhos de forma sucessiva, mantendo uma proporcionalidade padrão.<br>The present study was conducted from July to December 1998, in a covered area at DSER/CCA/UFPB, Areia/PB with the objective of evaluating the effect of four levels of available water (AW - 20, 40, 60 and 80%) in soil on the emission/abscission of reproductive structures of herbaceous cotton plant, cv. CNPA 7H. A completely randomized experimental design was used, with four treatments replicated three times and sampled at three different dates. Vegetative and reproductive growth increased with AW levels in soil. Minimum mean values for plant height (34.5 cm), leaf area (633.05 cm²), biomass accumulation of aerial parts (9.04 g), number of flower buds (4.67), flowers (3.50), fruits (2.33) and bolls (1.33) per plant, were observed for the 20% AW treatment. In contrast, the highest mean values observed for the 60% AW treatment, respectively, were 74.33 cm, 2,634.8 cm², 24.86 g, 9.67, 7.0, 6.0 and 4.3. Water stress showed significant effect (p<0,05) on emission and abscission of reproductive structures of cotton plants in an independent way. Thus, an increase or a decrease in the number of retained flower buds precedes a similar pattern for the number of flowers, fruit and mature bolls, keeping a standard proportionality, regardless of the water stress level