Conhecimento popular sobre plantas medicinais em comunidades rurais de mata atlântica - Itacaré, BA, Brasil

This study's goal was to caryy out an ethnobotanical survey focusing on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants within two rural communities (Marambaia and Camboinha), which are situated in an Environmental Protection Area in Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia, Brazil. These communities use medicinal plants as an important therapeutic activity, which permits the rural inhabitants to be self-sufficient regarding health care. Data were collected through interviews with 26 families (24% of the total). The medicinal plants collected (98 species) were catalogued, identified and deposited at the Herbarium Rio Clarense (HRCB). They belong to 40 families so that Lamiaceae was the most cited. The majority of these species (78%) are cultivated, usually in backyards by local inhabitants. The leaf is the most common part of the plant used in medicinal preparations. The species with the greatest number of citations were Chenopodium ambrosioides L. and Lippia alba (Mill) N.E. Br. These species are also associated with the highest number of therapeutic uses. Use agreement and diversity index from this survey were compared to other surveys conducted in Brazilian Tropical Forests.

Uso da fitossociologia na avaliação da efetividade da restauração florestal em uma várzea degradada do rio Mogi Cuaçu, SP

This study objective was to evaluate the effective revegetation in a Mogi Guaçu River degraded floodplain area, located at Luiz Antonio municipality (21° 31' S e 47° 55' W), São Paulo State, Brazil. Two native riparian forest remnants (RIP1 and RIP2) and three 10-year-old reforested areas, planted of native species (R1, R2 and R3), were analyzed by using phytosociological describers of the arboreal stratum (trees with DBH ≥ 5 cm) as indicators. The arboreal stratum inventory was accomplished by 180 plots (10 × 10 m each), 60 representing every native forest and 20 for every reforested area. A total of 60 arboreal species was recorded, only six species (Cecropia hololeuca, Crotón urucurana, Genipa americana, Inga striata, Nectandra megapotamica e Peltophorum dubium) occurring in all the five studied areas. Seventeen species were common to both native forests, and nine species were recorded in all the reforested areas. Sebastlania commersonlana and Guarea macrophyllawere recorded in the native forests (RlP1 and RIP2), and Cecropia hololeuca, Croton urucurana and Inga striata occurring in all the reforested areas, were the species that best characterize the physiognomy of local diversity and were the most important among the studied species. The results showed that the rehabilitation of the areas made by the reforestation created conditions to implant forests with similar structures of the adjacent natural remainders. The reforestation with native species performed in the degraded floodplain of Mogi Guaçu River, initially with the predomination of invasive grasses, has been effective at the first stage of the ecological restoration process. The reforestation is making possible the natural regeneration of species from the adjacent remnants, what indicates that the similarity between planted forests and the native ones are rising through the time. The phytosociology, accomplished ten years after the planting date, is adequate to evaluate the effectiveness of the reforestation during the restoration process of degradated areas in the Mogi Guaçu floodplain.

Tree species composition and environmental relationships in a Neotropical swamp forest in Southeastern Brazil

We examined the relationships between topography, soil properties and tree species composition in a Neotropical swamp forest in southeastern Brazil. Plots were sampled in the forest, encompassing three different soil ground water regimes along the topographical declivity. All non-climbing plant individuals with trunk height >1.3 m were sampled. A canonical correspondence analysis-CCA-of the species-environmental relationships grouped tree species according to drainage and chemical soil conditions. A total of 86 species were found, being 77 species in the inferior, 40 species in the intermediate and 35 species in the superior topographic section. Some species were among the 10 most abundant ones, both in the overall sampled area and in each topographical section, with alternation events occurring only with their abundance position. However, substantial differences in floristic composition between sections were detected in a fine spatial scale, due to higher number of species, diversity index (H′) and species unique (exclusives) in the inferior topographic section. These higher values can be attributed to its higher spatial heterogeneity that included better drained and seasonally waterlogged soils, higher soil fertility and lower acidity. The increase of the soil water saturation and the uniform conditions derived from the superficial water layer has led to a lower number of species and an increase on the palm trees abundance in the intermediate and superior sections. Our results showed that at a small spatial scale niche differentiation must be an important factor related to the increase of the local diversity. The wide distribution of the most abundant species in the studied area and the increase of local diversity corroborate the pattern of distribution of species in larger scales of swamp forests, in which the most abundant species repeat themselves in high densities in different remnants. However, the floristic composition of each remnant is strongly variable, contributing to the increase of regional diversity. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

O conhecimento sobre os recursos vegetais alimentares em bairros rurais no Vale do Paraíba, SP, Brasil

The objective of this study was to conduct an inventory of food plants cultivated and collected from the native and ruderal vegetation in the Atlantic Forest region by the rural population residing in the Santa Virginia Nucleus of the Serra do Mar State Park (Puruba and Guaricanga neighborhoods) and surroundings (Vargem Grande neighborhood). The 23 interviewees were sampled to meet the following criteria: originating from the rural area of the municipalities where the Nucleus is located; more than 45 years old; close familiarity with working the land. A total of 146 botanical species were identified, distributed among 43 botanical families, with the families Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae being the most represented and basically horticultural. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou evenness were 1.90 (base 10) and 0.95, respectively, for the group residing in the Nucleus and 1.97 and 0.92 for the population located in the area surrounding the Nucleus. The two groups of neighborhoods presented similarity regarding the food plants cited (75%), and about 17% of the plants cited are native to the Atlantic Forest. We found significant richness and variety of species cultivated in the yards and fields which serve to complement the diet, which is composed mainly of items purchased at local businesses. The rural communities studied revealed themselves to be an important germplasm conservation system for cultivated plants, with 96 ethnovarieties identified for 12 botanical species, most of which are kept in the communities.

Efeito da biomassa de espécie exótica (Brachiaria subquadripara (Trin.) Hitchc.) e nativa (Eichhornia azurea (SW. Kunth) sobre a estrutura da comunidade de macrófitas aquáticas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Florística e fitossociologia das espécies arbóreas de ocorrência e mata ciliar no Alto Rio Pardo, na estância climática de Caconde - SP

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Biologia Vegetal) - IBRC

Identificação de comunidades bacterianas de solo por seqüenciamento do gene 16S rRNA

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise florística, fitossociológica e qualitativa da arborização na Praça XV de Novembro em Ribeirão Preto, SP

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Levantamento da entomofauna em sítios florestais em recuperação e em um fragmento de floresta natural em Botucatu, SP

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Proteção de Plantas) - FCA

Estrutura da comunidade de aves em dois fragmentos florestais no interior do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBB

Diversidade de helmintos de Notothenia coriiceps Richardson, 1844 da Baía do Almirantado, Ilha do Rei George, Antártica

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Estrutura da comunidade de aves em um fragmento florestal no interior do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBB

Biodiversidade de caranguejos Branquiúros (Crustacea, Decapoda) associada a bancos da alga Sargassum cymosum (C. Agardh, 1820) na região da Ubatuba, Litoral Norte Paulista

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo comparativo da diversidade de vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) em mata ciliar e cultura de cana-de-açúcar na região de Ipeúna - SP

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Diversidade de vespas sociais (Hymenoptera, vespidae) na Mata Atlântica do litoral norte do estado de São Paulo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)