The program for biodiversity research in Brazil: The role of regional networks for biodiversity knowledge, dissemination, and conservation

The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all biodiversity research stakeholders. Operating since 2004, it has installed long-term ecological research sites throughout Brazil and its logic has been applied in some other southern-hemisphere countries. The program supports all aspects of research necessary to understand biodiversity and the processes that affect it. There are presently 161 sampling sites (see some of them at Supplementary Appendix), most of which use a standardized methodology that allows comparisons across biomes and through time. To date, there are about 1200 publications associated with PPBio that cover topics ranging from natural history to genetics and species distributions. Most of the field data and metadata are available through PPBio web sites or DataONE. Metadata is available for researchers that intend to explore the different faces of Brazilian biodiversity spatio-temporal variation, as well as for managers intending to improve conservation strategies. The Program also fostered, directly and indirectly, local technical capacity building, and supported the training of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. The main challenge is maintaining the long-term funding necessary to understand biodiversity patterns and processes under pressure from global environmental changes

Early Devonian (Late Emsian) shark fin remains (Chondrichthyes) from the Paraná Basin, southern Brazil

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)]. The attached file is the published version of the article

Small mammal populations of an agroecosystem in the Atlantic Forest domain, southeastern Brazil

This study reports 2 years of the population dynamics and reproduction of a small mammal community using the removal method. The study was conducted in a rural area of the Atlantic Forest, in Sumidouro, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The population sizes, age structure and reproduction were studied for the four most common species in the study area. The overall diversity was 1.67 and ranged between 0.8 to 1.67. The species richness was 13 considering the whole study. The most abundant species were the rodents Nectomys squamipes (n = 133), Akodon cursor (n = 74), Oligoryzomys nigripes (n = 25) and the marsupials Didelphis aurita (n = 58) and Philander frenatus (n = 50). Seven other rodents were captured once: Necromys lasiurus, Akodon montensis, Sooretamys angouya, Oecomys catherine, Oxymycterus judex, Euryzygomatomys spinosus and Trinomys iheringi. There were higher peaks for diversity and species richness during the winter (dry) months, probably due to higher food availability. The marsupials had a seasonal reproduction with highest population sizes at the end of the rainy seasons. Nectomys squamipes reproduced mostly during rainy periods. Akodon cursor reproduced predominantly in the winter with the highest population peaks occurring during this season. The analysis of the population dynamics of the rodent species indicated that no species behaved as an agricultural pest, probably due to the heterogeneous landscape of high rotativity of vegetable cultivation. Rodent populations were more susceptible to the removal procedure than marsupial ones