Diversity of the ichthyofauna in the Serra do Mar State Park- Núcleo Santa Virgínia, Sáo Paulo State, Brazil

The aim of this work was to assess and compare the diversity of the ichthyofauna in three headwater rivers of Paraíba-do-Sul basin in the Serra do Mar State Park, Núcleo Santa Virgínia. A total of 1,774 specimens of 16 species of fishes belonging to 6 families were caught. Characiforms were the most abundant fish at all three sites, followed by Cyprinodontiformes, Siluriformes, and Perciformes. The Shannon index (H′), evenness (E), and the Jaccard and Morisita-Horn similarity indexes were low, indicating both low diversity and low similarity of species among the three streams. The values of these indexes should be evaluated according to the biotic and abiotic conditions in each environment. It is clear that in mountain streams of the Atlantic Forest, these low values occur because of the presence of a few abundant and many rare species.

Focando na variação: Métodos e aplicações do conceito de diversidade beta em ecossistemas aquáticos

Ecologists usually estimate means, but devote much less attention to variation. The study of variation is a key aspect to understand natural systems and to make predictions regarding them. In community ecology, most studies focus on local species diversity (alpha diversity), but only in recent decades have ecologists devoted proper attention to variation in community composition among sites (beta diversity). This is in spite of the fact that the first attempts to estimate beta diversity date back to the pioneering work by Koch and Whittaker in the 1950s. Progress in the last decade has been made in the development both of methods and of hypotheses about the origin and maintenance of variation in community composition. For instance, methods are available to partition total diversity in a region (gamma diversity), in a local component (alpha), and several beta diversities, each corresponding to one scale in a hierarchy. The popularization of the so-called raw-data approach (based on partial constrained ordination techniques) and the distance-based approach (based on correlation of dissimilarity/distance matrices) have allowed many ecologists to address current hypotheses about beta diversity patterns. Overall, these hypotheses are based on niche and neutral theory, accounting for the relative roles of environmental and spatial processes (or a combination of them) in shaping metacommunities. Recent studies have addressed these issues on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, habitats and taxonomic groups. Moreover, life history and functional traits of species such as dispersal abilities and rarity have begun to be considered in studies of beta diversity. In this article we briefly review some of these new tools and approaches developed in recent years, and illustrate them by using case studies in aquatic ecosystems.

Rastreabilidade no comércio de espécies ornamentais marinhas

Pós-graduação em Aquicultura - FCAV

Leguminosas arbustivas e arbóreas de fragmentos florestais remanescentes no noroeste paulista, Brasil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Modelagem de nicho ecológico de anuros da Mata Atlântica

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Viabilidade de embriões de piracanjuba (Brycon orbignyanus) submetidos a diferentes protocolos de resfriamento

Pós-graduação em Aquicultura - FCAV

Copépodes planctônicos (Crustacea, Calanoida e Cyclopoida) em reservatórios e trechos lóticos da bacia do Rio da Prata (Brasil, Paraguai, Argentina e Uruguai): taxonomia, distribuição geográfica e alguns atributos ecológicos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Spermatogenesis in Triatoma melanocephala (Hemiptera: Triatominae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Caracterização da vegetação secundária do bioma mata atlântica com base em sua posição na paisagem

This study characterized the Atlantic Forest vegetation and compared the structure of the native tree community occurring along a toposequence at watershed D of the Serra do Mar State Park, municipality of Cunha, SP - Brazil. The study was conducted in 64 plots, of 10 x 10 m, distributed in sites downstream (T1), intermediate (T2) and upstream (T3) of the toposequence, recording all individuals with DBH (Diameter at Breast Height) >= 0.5 cm. Altogether 1.093 individuals were sampled, and 89 species were identified, belonging to 61 genders and 31 families. At T1 site there was a greater abundance and density of individuals; T2 had the highest diversity index and basal area; while in T3 it was observed highest species richness and greater percentage of rare species. The specie Cyathea delgadii in the lower third of toposequence, and the Alchornea triplinervea in the intermediate and upper third were the most important. The sites downstream and upstream of the toposequence showed the largest differences in structure. In the middle portion of the watershed and there was a greater difference between the similarity between species.

Rarity as an indicator of endangerment in neotropical frogs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Biogeografia histórica das jararacas do grupo Bothrops alternatus (Serpentes, Viperidae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Distribution, composition and seasonality of aquatic birds in the Nhecolandia sub-region of South Pantanal, Brazil

Despite remarkable significance of Pantanal for the conservation of aquatic birds, the status of their populations, the spatiotemporal patterns of distribution and habitat use and structure of communities are little known. Thus, we studied three aquatic environments (Negro river, bays and salines) from 2007 to 2009 in the Nhecolandia Pantanal to verify the distribution and composition of aquatic birds and also if there is significant seasonal influence on these aspects. We adopted the transect method (288 hours of sampling) and recorded 135 species (7.834 individuals). The Negro river showed the highest diversity, while the salines the lowest. The similarity of aquatic bird communities was higher between bays and salines, followed by Negro river and bays and lower between salines and Negro river. The equidistribution is more variable in the salines and more stable in the Negro river. The environments strongly differ from each other in aquatic bird composition in space (habitat use and distribution) and time (seasonal water fluctuations). The diversity of bird community in the dry season varies significantly in the salines, followed by the bays and more stable in the Negro river. The Negro river, regardless of large annual amplitude of flow, is more seasonally stable since its riparian vegetation is continuous (not isolated) and constant. These aspects provide better conditions to stay all year, contributing to decrease the seasonal nomadic tendencies of aquatic birds. Finally, all these data provide strong arguments to the preservation of all phytophysiognomies in the Nhecolandia sub-region of Pantanal, but with special attention to the salines widely used by many flocks of aquatic birds (mainly in the dry season) and migrant and/or rare species restricted to this habitat.

Identification of species of the Euterpe genus by rare earth elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and linear discriminant analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A new species and a new record of Pyxine (Physciaceae) with norstictic acid from São Paulo State, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Cytogenetics of four species of Spirostreptidae (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida)

Considering an estimated number of millipedes of approximately 80,000, cytogenetic studies on these animals are rare, as only a total of 70 species have their karyotypes described. The present study reports on the chromosomal number of four Brazilian diplopods of the family Spirostreptidae: Urostreptus atrobrunneus with 2n = 24, XY; Gymnostreptus olivaceus 2n = 12, XY and Alloporus araraquarensis and A. principes, 2n = 18, XY. The C-banding pattern and NOR staining of U. atrobrunneus, G. olivaceus and A. araraquarensis are described. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.