Professor Leopoldo Magno Coutinho: a visão de uma discípula

Homenagem ao professor Leopoldo Magno Coutinho, pioneiro nos estudos sobre ecologia do fogo no Cerrado, falecido em 2016

Estratégias competitivas entre uma gramínea nativa do cerrado e uma gramínea invasora do cerrado

Várias espécies de gramíneas africanas introduzidas no Brasil se tornaram\ud importantes invasoras dos cerrados e constituem uma das principais ameaças para a\ud sua conservação. Comparações envolvendo características entre espécies exóticas e\ud nativas podem levar a uma melhor compreensão sobre o processo da invasão. Neste\ud estudo, semeamos Echinolaena inflexa, uma gramínea nativa do cerrado, e Urochloa\ud decumbens, uma gramínea africana invasora do cerrado, em diferentes proporções\ud relativas uma à outra (100%-0%, 70%-30%, 50%-50%, 30%-70%, 0%-100%).\ud Avaliamos a sobrevivência, crescimento, fecundidade e capacidade fotossintética\ud das espécies nos diferentes tratamentos (puros e mistos). Para avaliar sobrevivência,\ud crescimento e fecundidade foram realizados três censos durante o período de um\ud ano. A medição da capacidade fotossintética foi efetuada por meio de um\ud fluorômetro portátil, onde se considerou os parâmetros de eficiência do fotossistema\ud II, da taxa de transporte de elétrons e do potencial máximo aparente de uso da luz. \ud Sempre que sementes de ambas as espécies foram colocadas juntas, a espécie nativa\ud teve seu crescimento suprimido pela invasora. Nos tratamentos puros, os indivíduos\ud da espécie nativa cresceram em tamanho, mas somente três indivíduos se tornaram\ud reprodutivos. No entanto, muitos indivíduos da espécie invasora cresceram em\ud tamanho e se reproduziram em todos os tratamentos, mostrando sempre uma\ud alocação de recursos tanto para crescimento quanto para reprodução. Ambas as\ud espécies tiveram sua capacidade fotossintética reduzida nos tratamentos mistos,\ud porém, os valores da espécie invasora se mantiveram mais constantes. Portanto,\ud concluímos que a espécie invasora é possivelmente mais tolerante a situações de\ud estresse e utiliza os recursos de maneira mais eficiente, o que poderia explicar o seu\ud sucesso na invasão.1 – Financiamento FAPESP 2 - Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências-USP, São Paulo, Brasil

Management Alternatives for Urochloa decumbens Stapf. (Poaceae) Biological Invasion in \ud Brazilian Savannas

Urochloa decumbens is an African grass, highly competitive and aggressive that was introduced in Brazil for \ud cattle feeding and became one of the most serious invasive species in Brazilian savannas - Cerrado -, threatening \ud the native biodiversity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of different management \ud techniques to control the invasive grass Urochloa decumbens. The study was conducted in two Cerrado reserves \ud in São Paulo State, Brazil, from July/2007 toJuly/2009. Six cerrado patches infested by U. decumbens were \ud selected, and a randomized block design was applied with the treatments: clipping once a year (CRI) and twice a \ud year (CRII), clipping and soil grubbing once a year (CRSI) and twice a year (CRSII), shading with nylon mesh \ud (SOM), and smothering by covering with canvas (ABF). After the treatments all biomass in the blocks was cut \ud and separated into categories (U. decumbens, native grasses, and dicotyledonous species), in July/2008 (first \ud year) and July/2009 (second year). The analyses followed permutation tests. In the first year the treatments ABF, \ud CRII and CRSII statistically differed from control, showing to be the most effective to manage U. decumbens, \ud however in the second year the treatments CRI and CRSI also showed to be effective. Therefore, in two years of \ud management U. decumbens can be controlled by smothering and grubbing once a year (with or without soil \ud digging) in areas where the invasion is not very extensive, as edges or small isolated patches inside the native \ud fragments

Padrões fenológicos de uma gramínea nativa do cerrado, Echinolaena inflexa (Poiret) chase, e de uma gramínea invasora do cerrado, Urochloa decumbens stapf

Nas fisionomias abertas do cerrado brasileiro, como os campos cerrados e campos\ud sujos, as gramíneas perenes constituem o grupo de espécies mais freqüente e as principais\ud contribuintes para a biomassa total. Várias espécies de gramíneas africanas foram\ud introduzidas no Brasil e se tornaram importantes invasoras dos cerrados. Essas invasoras\ud podem alterar os processos do ecossistema, além de afetar diretamente as populações\ud nativas por competição, podendo causar extinções locais. A separação temporal da época\ud reprodutiva é um dos fatores que permitem a coexistência de espécies em uma\ud comunidade e, por outro lado, a sobreposição nos ciclos aumenta a competição pelos\ud recursos limitantes, especialmente em climas sazonais. Assim, o conhecimento de\ud aspectos reprodutivos das plantas nativas e exóticas se torna necessário na recuperação e\ud conservação destes ecossistemas. Este trabalho se propõe a detectar os padrões\ud fenológicos de uma gramínea nativa do cerrado, Echinolaena inflexa, e de uma gramínea\ud invasora, Urochloa decumbens. Cinqüenta indivíduos de ambas as espécies foram\ud marcados e acompanhados durante um ano, no Parque Estadual do Juquery (Franco da\ud Rocha, SP). As fenofases detectadas foram: florescimento, frutificação, dispersão das\ud cariopses e ramos vegetativos. Os indivíduos de U. decumbens iniciaram a floração em\ud janeiro, frutificando e dispersando sementes até o final da seca. Entre outubro e dezembro,\ud os indivíduos desta espécie apresentavam somente ramos vegetativos. Os indivíduos de E.\ud inflexa iniciaram a floração em novembro, com pico em fevereiro, e também frutificou e\ud dispersou sementes até o final da época seca; apresentando somente ramos vegetativos\ud apenas em setembro e outubro. Ambas as espécies podem ser consideradas gramíneas\ud precoces de ciclo longo, onde o ciclo reprodutivo pode durar de cinco a dez meses,\ud iniciando a floração no início do período de chuvas e dispersando propágulos até agosto.\ud A sobreposição de seus nichos reprodutivos pode ser uma pressão competitiva sobre a\ud espécie nativa.1 – Financiamento FAPESP 2 - Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências-USP, São Paulo, Brasil

Review of the underpass alocation on the highway SP-225, Brotas-SP, Brazil, and the relationship with wild animals roadkills and landscape structure

The Road Ecology theme is new in Brazil and in Latin America in \ud general. Few studies and scientific publications were made in this area \ud with specific and replicable methodology. Underpasses were allocated on \ud the highway SP- 225, in the year of 2008, according to previous studies of \ud hotspots of roadkills made by IBAMA (Environmental Brazilian Institute), \ud but none of them considered the influence of the landscape structure on \ud the surrounding habitat. So, we aimed to analyze and understand which \ud component of the landscape structure can influence the roadkills in a \ud Brazilian highway and analyze if these underpasses was located in areas \ud of hotspots roadkills. Medium and large mammals carcasses were \ud collected by Centrovias (a private enterprise that managed the road) from \ud May 2005 to June 2006 in 56 km stretch on the highway SP- 225 in the \ud 110 \ud city of Brotas, São Paulo, Brazil. Were created occurrences reports for \ud each roadkilled animal containing: date, time, local on the highway (km + \ud m), geographic coordinate and the specie affected. Forest-patch metrics \ud (number of fragments, proportion of forest and size of the largest pacth) \ud were extracted from a 2008 CBERS 2B-CCD image using Fragstats \ud (version 3.3) to examine the best predictor to medium and large \ud mammals roadkills. Following a visual classification three land cover \ud classes were mapped (forest, non-forest and water) and 13 buffers zones \ud with 5 km were selected around the highway SP-225. An exploratory data \ud analysis was conducted through the Pearson‟s correlation and 6 models (1 \ud null model) were built to conduct a model selection procedure based on \ud the AICc value. There were 48 medium and large mammals roadkills on \ud the 56 stretch sampled between May 2005 and June 2006. The best model \ud selected to predict medium and large mammals roadkills on the SP- 225, \ud was the proportion of forest (wAICc = 0.97) on the 5 km surrounding \ud habitat. From 13 buffer zones analyzed, 4 presented the highest number \ud of roadkills (mean = 21.75, sd = 2.21) and the highest proportion of \ud forest (mean = 24.17, sd = 2.34), so the higher the proportion of forest, \ud higher will be the number of roadkills. In two of these buffer zones were \ud allocated an appropriate number of underpasses. In all the buffer zones \ud we had roadkills occurrence, but in three of them none underpass was \ud allocated. Despite the fact that there is a low number of roadkills in these \ud buffers (range: 2-4) the presence of at least one underpass will be \ud necessary to avoid these roadkills. The others buffers also had a low \ud number of roadkills (range: 4-6) but there are almost the same number of \ud underpasses allocated in the buffers zones with the higher number of \ud roadkills. The number of roadkills is strictly related to the proportion of \ud forest in the surrounding habitat, so we highlight the importance of the \ud landscape structure to predict the occurrence of medium size and large \ud bodied mammals roadkills and the use of this tool to allocate underpasses \ud in future road ecology studies

Invasive plants: representativeness of research from tropical countries in the global context

Biological invasions threaten the native biota of several countries and this threat is even greater in the tropical regions that have the greatest biodiversity. In order to evaluate the representativeness of studies on invasive plants in tropical countries compared to the world, as well as the region of origin and habits of the most reported invasive plants in research, we analyzed the publications from eight of the most important international journals that address the theme, from January 1995 to December 2004. The articles on biological invasions were classified as theoretical or as case studies, and according to their approach, main question, where the study was conducted, region of origin and habit of the invasive plant. Case studies predominated, as did questions about the environment`s susceptibility to the invasion, the species` invasive power and the impacts it had. The most reported invasive species were herbaceous plants from Asia and Europe. Few articles address tropical environments and only one referred to Brazil. Most referred to North America and Europe. This small number of publications in the tropics indicates the need for a global projection on this subject and underscores the lack of consistent and organized data to understand the phenomenon and propose effective strategies to combat biological invasion.The Nature Conservancy (TNC)The Nature Conservancy (TNC)Council for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

PHENOLOGY AND FRUIT TRAITS OF ARCHONTOPHOENIX CUNNINGHAMIANA, AN INVASIVE PALM TREE IN THE ATLANTIC FOREST OF BRAZIL

The Australian palm Archontophoenix cunninghamiana was introduced into Brazil as an ornamental species, and became a dangerous invader of remnant Atlantic forest patches, demanding urgent management actions that require careful planning. Its fruits are greatly appreciated by generalist birds and its sudden eradication could be as harmful as its permanence in the native community. Our hypothesis was that A. cunninghamiana phenology and fruit traits would have facilitated the invasion process. Hence the aim of the study was to characterize the reproductive phenology of the palm by registering flowering and fruiting events, estimating fruit production, and evaluating fruit nutritional levels. Phenological observations were carried out over 12 months and analyzed statistically. Fruit traits and production were estimated. Pulp nutritional levels were determined by analyzing proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Results showed constant flowering and fruiting throughout the year with a weak reproductive seasonality. On average, 3651 fruits were produced per bunch mainly in the summer. Fruit analysis revealed low nutrient contents, especially of proteins and lipids compared with other Brazilian native palm species. We concluded that the abundant fruit production all year round, and fruit attractivity mainly due to size and color, :may act positively on the reproductive performance and effective dispersion of A. cunninghamiana. As a management procedure which would add quality to frugivore food resources we suggest the replacement of A. cunninghamiana by the native palm Euterpe edulis, especially in gardens and parks near to Atlantic forest fragments.Sao Paulo Research Foundation (Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo - FAPESP) [proc 2006/57507-6]Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP, Sao Paulo Research Foundation

Agribusiness Opportunity Costs and Environmental Legal Protection: Investigating Trade-Off on Hotspot Preservation in the State of So Paulo, Brazil

Prior to deforestation, So Paulo State had 79,000 km(2) covered by Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies, but today less than 8.5% of this biodiversity hotspot remains, mostly in private lands. The global demand for agricultural goods has imposed strong pressure on natural areas, and the economic decisions of agribusiness managers are crucial to the fate of Cerrado domain remaining areas (CDRA) in Brazil. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Brazilian private protected areas policy, and to propose a feasible alternative to promote CDRA protection. This article assessed the main agribusiness opportunity costs for natural areas preservation: the land use profitability and the arable land price. The CDRA percentage and the opportunity costs were estimated for 349 municipal districts of So Paulo State through secondary spatial data and profitability values of 38 main agricultural products. We found that Brazilian private protected areas policy fails to preserve CDRA, although the values of non-compliance fines were higher than average opportunity costs. The scenario with very restrictive laws on private protected areas and historical high interest rates allowed us to conceive a feasible cross compliance proposal to improve environmental and agricultural policies.CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnologicoConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Carnivore mammals in a fragmented landscape in northeast of Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Sao Paulo is the most developed state in Brazil and little of its native vegetation remains. In Luiz Antonio and Santa Rita do Passa Quatro municipalities, only small fragments of cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies (cerrado, cerrado sensu stricto) and of semideciduous forest have been left, surrounded by eucalyptus silviculture and sugar-cane agriculture. However, that vegetation mosaic still shelters large mammals, including several carnivore species. To detect the carnivores present in such a mosaic area (50,000 ha), and to find out how they use the landscape, we recorded them through 21 camera traps and 21 track plots, during 18 months. Species richness, diversity and relative frequency were evaluated according to the habitat. Ten species were recorded, some of them locally threatened to extinction (Puma concolor, Leopardus pardalis, Chrysocyon brachyurus). Species diversity did not significantly differ among fragments, and although most species preferred one or another habitat, the carnivore community as a whole explored all the study area regardless of the vegetation cover;eucalyptus plantations were as used by the carnivores as the native fragments. Therefore, it seems possible to maintain such animals in agricultural landscapes, where some large native fragments are left and the matrix is permeable to native fauna