Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 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 or ganism 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 ne glected 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 lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 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,18,19 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

Small distances, great differences: a case study involving the biomass of reef seaweeds and fishes on the coast of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil

Shallow reefs on the coast of Paraíba state are poorly known. An analysis at three stations (Prot = protected; SP = semi-protected; Exp = exposed) with different gradients of wave exposure revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences related to the biomass of seaweed (Prot = SP ≠ Exp). Station Exp with 9.97g (23%) presented the lowest value followed by SP with 10.93 (25%) and Prot with 22.55g (52%). The values suggest that the biomass of seaweeds is inversely related to the gradative higher exposure to waves. Additionally, a first record of Wrangelia argus (Montagne) Montagne was made for the coast of Paraíba

Bioguided Purification of Active Compounds from Leaves of Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil (Griseb.) Altschul

Anadenanthera colubrina var cebil (Griseb.) Altschul is a medicinal plant found throughout the Brazilian semi-arid area. This work performed a bioguided purification of active substances present in ethyl acetate extract from A. colubrina leaves. The anti-Staphylococcus aureus and antioxidant actions were used as markers of bioactivity. The extract was subjected to flash chromatography resulting in five fractions (F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5). The fractions F2 and F4 presented the highest antimicrobial action, with a dose able to inhibit 50% of bacteria growth (IN50) of 19.53 &mu;g/mL for S. aureus UFPEDA 02; whereas F4 showed higher inhibitory action towards DPPH radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) [dose able to inhibit 50% of the radical (IC50) = 133 &plusmn; 9 &mu;g/mL]. F2 and F4 were then subjected to preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), resulting in the identification of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and hyperoside as the major compounds in F2 and F4, respectively. Hyperoside and p-hydroxybenzoic acid presented IN50 values of 250 &mu;g/mL and 500 &mu;g/mL against S. aureus UFPEDA 02, respectively. However, the hyperoside had an IN50 of 62.5 &mu;g/mL against S. aureus UFPEDA 705, a clinical isolate with multidrug resistant phenotype. Among the purified compounds, the proanthocyanidins obtained from F2 exhibited the higher antioxidant potentials. Taken together, these results highlight the potential of A. colubrina leaves as an alternative source of biomolecules of interest for the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe 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 a working 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 highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of 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