Monographing in the 1980s

The production of taxonomic monographs is discussed in light of the modern tools that are available for their preparation. There is a great need for more monographs since much of the world\u27s flora is not treated in contemporary revisions. These should be a balance between the traditional aspects that must still be employed such as the nomenclatural framework and the consultation of type specimens, and the use of modem techniques, computer data analysis and field work. The importance of field studies in association with monographic studies is stressed both to give a better understanding of traditional morphological features and to collect material for such aspects as cytology, anatomy, and pollen studies. Techniques that are particularly helpful include chemosystematics, SEM work, anatomy, embryology, palynology, and chloroplast DNA. The availability of computers has come at a good time when there are many more data to analyze. Monographers should use computers both for word processing and data analysis. It is hoped that the new methods and tools will not become an end in themselves since there are still many large plant groups in urgent need of monographs

Etnobotánica de las especies de Solanum, subgénero Bassovia, sección Pachyphylla (Solanaceae) de Misiones, Argentina

Se informa sobre los nombres y la utilidad de tres especies de Solanum L. (Solanaceae) de Misiones, Argentina que pertenecen al subgénero Bassovia, sección Pachyphylla. Dos de ellas, S. corymbiflorum y S. sciadostylis, crecen espontáneamente en la provincia y son ampliamente conocidas y utilizadas por los guaraníes para fines medicinales, mágicos y alimenticios. Solanum betaceumes una especie del centro y nordeste de Argentina que ha sido incorporada como incipiente cultivo en Misione

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

Selaginella applanata

Pteridophyte