Ant Fauna in Megadiverse Mountains: a Checklist for the Rocky Grasslands

The rocky grasslands, environments locally known as campos rupestres, occur mainly along the Espinhaço Mountains and are considered local centers of biodiversity and endemism in Brazil. However, knowledge of ant species richness (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in this kind of environment is still poor. Aiming at filling this gap, we compiled information from empirical studies and literature records. We found a total of 288 species of 53 genera and eight subfamilies recorded in rocky grasslands. Myrmicinae and Formicinae were the most representative subfamilies, with 53% and 18% of the total species richness, respectively. The genera with the largest number of species were Pheidole (41) and Camponotus (40). This large number of ant species recorded for the rocky grasslands surpasses those found in other studies conducted in several different places. Ant species richness decreased with altitude; most species occur below 800 m a.s.l. (171), and only a few species occur above1600 m a.s.l. (17). Some genera occur only at a specific altitude (e.g., Azteca and Dolichoderus at 800/900 m a.s.l.; Leptogenys and Labidus at 1400 m a.s.l.), which points out to the potential use of ants as biological indicators. Our results suggest that the rocky grasslands favor high ant diversity. The patterns of ant richness associated with the altitude gradient reinforce the idea of considering the rocky grasslands as priority areas for biological conservation. Moreover, we observed a lack of records on the occurrence of most ant species considered in the present study (93%), which shows that Brazilian myrmecologists need to invest more in taxonomy, management, and data sharing

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

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

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

Structure habitat effects of canopy insects herbivorous

O dossel de florestas tropicais oferece uma grande diversidade de recursos que são essenciais para a manutenção da biodiversidade. Entretanto, poucos estudos verificaram os efeitos da estrutura do dossel sobre comunidades de insetos herbívoros em regiões tropicais. O objetivo deste estudo foi responder por que a diversidade de insetos herbívoros varia no dossel de uma floresta. Para isso foi testada a hipótese de que a abundancia e riqueza de insetos herbívoros são afetadas pela estrutura do dossel em duas escalas espaciais distintas, verificando estes efeitos em duas guildas alimentares: insetos herbívoros sugadores e mastigadores. Foram amostrados 314 insetos herbívoros. A guilda de insetos herbívoros mastigadores foi mais rica e abundante, apresentando 91 morfoespecies e 235 indivíduos. Foi verificado que a estrutura do dossel influencia a abundancia e riqueza de insetos herbívoros em diferentes escalas espaciais, de acordo com a guilda alimentar. Insetos herbívoros sugadores respondem aos efeitos da arquitetura da árvore hospedeira na escala local (arquitetura da árvore), aumentando a abundancia e riqueza de espécies com o aumento do tamanho da árvore hospedeira. Já insetos herbívoros mastigadores aumentam sua abundancia com o tamanho da árvore hospederia, na escala local, e aumentam a sua abundancia e a riqueza de espécies com a densidade foliar do dossel, na escala regiões do dossel. Ambas as guildas não são afetadas pela complexidade das copas das árvores ou pela riqueza de espécies de árvores.The canopy of tropical forests offers a large diversity of resources that are essential for the maintenance of the biodiversity. There is a lack of studies on the effects of canopy habitat structure upon herbivorous communities, mainly at tropical regions. The aim of this study was to answer why herbivorous insect diversity varies within the forest canopy. We tested the hypothesis that herbivores abundance and species richness are affected by canopy structure, comparing two distinct spatial scales and two different feeding guilds: sap-sucking and chewing herbivores. We collected 314 herbivorous insect individuals. Herbivorous chewers was the richest and most abundant guild, with 91 morphospecies and 235 individuals. Canopy structure influences insect herbivore s abundance and species richness in different spatial scales, according to the herbivore s guild. Sap-sucking herbivores respond to plant architecture on a local spatial scale (tree architecture), increase their abundance and species richness with tree size. While chewing herbivores increase their abundance with tree size, and increase their abundance and species richness with leaf density within the canopy, on a larger spatial scale. Neither of the herbivorous guilds species richness were affected by tree crown complexity nor tree species richness.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológic

Tri-trophic level interactions affect host plant development and abundance of insect herbivores

Understanding the interactions among plants, hemipterans, and ants has provided numerous insights into a range of ecological and evolutionary processes. In these systems, however, studies concerning the isolated direct and indirect effects of aphid colonies on host plant and other herbivores remain rare at best. The aphid Uroleucon erigeronensis forms dense colonies on the apical shoots of the host plant Baccharis dracunculilfolia (Asteraceae). The honeydew produced by these aphids attracts several species of ants that might interfere with other herbivores. Four hypotheses were tested in this system: (1) ants tending aphids reduce the abundance of other herbivores; (2) the effects of ants and aphids upon herbivores differ between chewing and fluid-sucking herbivores; (3) aphids alone reduce the abundance of other herbivores; and (4), the aphid presence negatively affects B. dracunculifolia shoot growth. The hypotheses were evaluated with ant and aphid exclusion experiments, on isolated plant shoots, along six consecutive months. We adjusted linear mixed-effects models for longitudinal data (repeated measures), with nested spatial random effect. The results showed that: (1) herbivore abundance was lower on shoots with aphids than on shoots without aphids, and even lower on shoots with aphids and ants; (2) both chewing and fluid-sucking insects responded similarly to the treatment, and (3) aphid presence affected negatively B. dracunculifolia shoot growth. Thus, since aphids alone changed plant growth and the abundance of insect herbivores, we suggest that the ant–aphid association is important to the organization of the system B. dracunculifolia-herbivorous insects