Physiological behavior of Genipa americana L. seeds regarding the capacity for desiccation and storage tolerance 1

ABSTRACT -Knowledge of the capacity of desiccation and storage tolerance of seeds is essential to provide adequate conditions necessary to maintain viability after seed collection. Drying rate is one of the factors which have been described as affecting the physiological response of seeds of various species. Literature reports that Genipa americana seeds exhibit an intermediate behavior, quickly losing viability if stored at negative temperatures. Thus, this work aimed to verify the effect of slow drying over the capacity of desiccation and storage tolerance of Genipa americana seeds. Seeds with 47% of water content (recently harvested) were dried over salt solutions until reaching 30%, 20%, 15%, 10% and 5% of water content. After drying to 10% and 5% of water content a reduction in seed viability was observed after 30 days of storage without the total loss of germination after three months in these conditions. The slow drying increased the capacity for desiccation and storage tolerance of the Genipa americana seeds if compared to the information described in literature. Index terms: physiological classification, brazilian forest species, genipapo plants. Comportamento fisiológico de sementes de Genipa americana L. quanto à tolerância à dessecação e ao armazenamento RESUMO -Conhecer a capacidade de tolerância à dessecação e ao armazenamento das sementes tem sido imprescindível para disponibilizar condições adequadas para a manutenção da viabilidade após a coleta. A velocidade de secagem é um dos fatores que tem influenciado na resposta fisiológica das sementes de diversas espécies. Deste modo, buscou-se verificar o efeito da secagem lenta na capacidade de tolerância à dessecação e ao armazenamento das sementes de Genipa americana L. Sementes com 47% de umidade (recém-colhidas) foram secas em soluções salinas até 30, 20, 15, 10 e 5% de umidade, testando-se a viabilidade. Ao atingir 10 e 5% de umidade as sementes foram armazenadas a -20 ºC, avaliando-se a viabilidade a cada 30 dias durante três meses. Sementes recém-colhidas apresentaram 98% de germinação sem perda de viabilidade até 10% de umidade. Sementes secas a 10 e 5% de umidade apresentaram redução na viabilidade após 30 dias de armazenamento, porém não houve a perda total de germinação após este período. A secagem lenta aumentou a capacidade de tolerância à dessecação e ao armazenamento das sementes de Genipa americana se comparada às informações descritas na literatura. Termos para indexação: classificação fisiológica, espécie florestal brasileira, jenipapeiro

Uso de diferentes condicionantes e avaliação da qualidade de dois lotes de sementes urucum (Bixa orellana)

Due to the low germination of annatto seeds (Bixa orellana L.), it is necessary to test different techniques that facilitate and enable its production, such as the use of the physiological conditioning method. Here, we aimed to characterize the germination of two annatto seed lots under physiological conditioning. For this, two lots of seeds (newly-collected and stored) were submitted to physiological conditioning using an aerated solution of 1) deionized water; 2) cathodic water; 3) potassium nitrate 0.3%; 4) sodium nitroprusside 100 µM; for 24h and 48h, and an additional treatment (control) without conditioning. After the germination test, ungerminated seeds were submitted to a tetrazolium test at 0.075% at 30 °C, in the dark for 24 h. We used a completely randomized factorial design (4 x 2 + 1) with four replications of 25 seeds per treatment. Despite the low germination already mentioned in the literature for this species, we obtained high germination without any type of dormancy-break pretreatment, even in lots stored for over 10 years with a water content of 8%, characterizing this species as non-dormant. The germination and viability of Bixa orellana were influenced by seed water content decrease. The conditioning agents were not efficient to increase annatto seed germination. Further studies are needed to classify these seeds according to their storability.Devido à baixa germinação de sementes de Bixa orellana L., há a necessidade de se testar diferentes técnicas que viabilizem sua reprodução, como o condicionamento fisiológico. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi caracterizar a germinação de dois lotes de sementes de urucum sob efeito do condicionamento fisiológico. Para isso, sementes de dois lotes (recém-colhido e armazenado) foram submetidas ao condicionamento fisiológico em solução aerada de: 1) água deionizada; 2) água catódica; 3) nitrato de potássio a 0,3%; 4) nitroprussiato de sódio a 100 µM; por 24 e 48h, e um tratamento adicional (controle) sem condicionamento. Após o teste de germinação, as  sementes que não germinaram foram submetidas ao teste de tetrazólio a 0,075% a 30 °C, no escuro, durante 24 h. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado, em esquema fatorial (4 x 2 + 1) com quatro repetições de 25 sementes por tratamento. Apesar da baixa germinação já relatada para a espécie, foi possível obter germinação sem nenhum tipo de pré-tratamento como quebra de dormência, mesmo em lote armazenado por 10 anos e com teor de água de 8%. Os agentes condicionantes não foram eficientes no aumento da germinação de sementes de urucum. São necessários novos trabalhos para classificação da espécie quanto ao seu armazenamento

Pátio cercado por árvores de espinho e outras frutas, sem ordem e sem simetria: O quintal em vilas e arraiais de Minas Gerais (séculos XVIII e XIX)

This article analyses urban and rural backyards in Minas Gerais, in the late18th and early 19th centuries. Sources include probate records, foreign travelers accounts, administrative documents and iconography. These spaces are interpreted as a part of material culture, as provisioning grounds, and places of sociability and family intimacy. The connections of yards within households and the surrounding streetscapes are examined, revealing that they can be viewed as instruments of balance in the overall urban landscape.O texto objetiva analisar os quintais urbanos e rurais em Minas Gerais, ao final do século XVIII e início do século XIX. Interpreta evidências documentais de inventários post mortem, narrativas de viajantes estrangeiros, documentos administrativos e iconográficos, interpretando esses espaços, na perspectiva da cultura material, como lugares de abastecimento alimentar, sociabilidades e da intimidade familiar. Considera a ligação dos quintais com a casa e as ruas e os vê como espaços de equilibrio da paisagem urbana

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-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1–6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data. © 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 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

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