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

Composição tecidual e centesimal e teor de colesterol da carne de cordeiros terminados em confinamento com dietas contendo níveis crescentes de resíduo úmido de cervejaria Tissue and centesimal composition and cholesterol of the meat of lambs feedlot with diets with different levels of brewery's residue

Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a influência de diferentes níveis de substituição do alimento concentrado por resíduo úmido de cervejaria sobre a composição tecidual, a composição centesimal e o teor de colesterol da carne de cordeiros terminados em confinamento. Foram utilizados 25 cordeiros, machos, não-castrados, da raça Texel, distribuídos aleatoriamente em cinco tratamentos compostos por níveis de substituição do alimento concentrado por resíduo úmido de cervejaria, sendo: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% e 100% de substituição. Foram utilizadas uma dieta composta de feno de Tifton-85 e uma mistura concentrada em uma relação volumoso: concentrado de 40:60, com base na matéria seca (MS). O alimento concentrado foi constituído por milho desintegrado, farelo de soja, mistura mineral e resíduo úmido de cervejaria, sendo que suas proporções variaram de acordo com os tratamentos. As dietas foram formuladas para serem isoprotéicas, baseados no teor de proteína bruta (PB) do tratamento com maior nível de resíduo. Os cordeiros foram abatidos após um período experimental de 77 dias. Observou-se, na secção entre a 9&ordf; e a 11&ordf; costelas, que os pesos de osso, músculo e gordura diminuíram linearmente e a proporção de músculo aumentou linearmente com o incremento do nível de resíduo. Verificou-se aumento linear na proporção de umidade no músculo Longissimus dorsi com o aumento do resíduo úmido de cervejaria nas dietas dos cordeiros.<br>The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the influence of different levels of substitution of the concentrate by brewery's residue on the tissue composition, centesimal composition and cholesterol content in the meat of lambs finished in feedlot. Twenty-five male, non castrated Texel lambs were used, distributed in five treatments, which consisted in the levels of brewery's residue replacing concentrate, being 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of substitution. Diet's composition was Tifton-85 hay and concentrate mixture, in a relation roughage:concentrate of 40:60, on dry matter (DM). The concentrate was composed of corn ground grain, soybean meal, mineral mix and brewery's residue, and its proportion varied in accordance with the treatments. The diets were formulated to be isoproteics, based on the crude protein (CP) level of the treatment with the higher level of residue. The lambs were slaughtered after 77 days of experiment. It was observed, in the section between 9th and 11th ribs, that the weights of bone, muscle and fat had linearly decreased, and the proportion of muscle had linearly increased with the increase of the level of the residue. There was a linear increase in the proportion of humidity in the Longissimus dorsi muscle with the increase of the brewery's residue on the lamb's diets