Tracking climatically suitable areas for an endemic Cerrado snake under climate change

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

Dinâmica da produção de serapilheira em diferentes sistemas de restauração florestal

The ecological restoration is an alternative to increasingly important for biodiversity conservation. However, actions need indicators to evaluate its effectiveness in restablishment ecological processes, including nutrient cycling. The objective of this study was to compare the annual litterfall from five different treatments for forest restoration, compared with a neighboring fragment of Seasonal Semideciduous Forest, in order to subsidize their management plans for ecological restoration. Litter traps of 0.25m² were used, and a total production was: 1700.6 Kg. ha-1.year-1(treatment 1), 7748.1 Kg. ha-1.year-1(treatment 2), 7120.8 Kg. ha-1.year-1 (treatment 3), 9254.5 Kg. ha- 1.year-1 (treatment 4), 7130.2 Kg. ha-1.year-1 (treatment 5) and 8876 Kg. ha-1.year-1 (fragment of Seasonal Semideciduous Forest - treatment 6). The leaf fraction was the largest contributor to the deposition of litter in all treatments. Litter served as a good environmental indicator that can be used as a tool to support management plans. Key words: Litterfall, forest restoration and Seasonal Semideciduous Forest

Regeneração natural de mata ciliar em ecossistema de floresta estacional semidecidual: chuva de sementes e banco de sementes do solo

The knowledge of the dynamics of soil seed bank and seed rain is fundamental to understand the forest succession process, as well as for its conservation and restoration. This paper aimed at studying the role of the soil seed bank and seed rain in the dynamics of a riparian tropical seasonal forest fragment located on the hinterland of São Paulo State. The seed rain was studied by 30 litter traps installed at 50 cm from the floor, with an area of 50 cm x 50 cm. Between November of 2008 and October of 2009, 11364 seeds of 82 species belonging to 33 different families were collected. The deposition density of seeds was 126.27 individuals.m². With the data obtained from this research, the two seasons couldn’t be differed from each other hence 2009 was an atypical year considering the precipitation, which was constantly elevated. For the soil seed bank, fifty superficial soil samples will be taken at the end of both the rainy and dry seasons. The germination method was applied for the data analysis. It was observed a predominance of herbaceous habit species, with an average of 71% of the germinations in both seasons. The Sφrensen similarity index between the seasons was low (0,27). The density and species diversity were higher after the rainy season, unlike other published researches

Regeneração natural em ecounidades maduras e em reorganização de fragmentos de Floresta Estacional Semidecídua

The Atlantic Rainforest biome has been going through fragmentation processes caused by agriculture and urbanization in green areas. Structural studies associated with the silvigenetic approach allow the understanding of what the past has caused in the present structure and predict future conditions of disturbed fragments. The objective of this study was to compare the composition and diversity of arboreous natural regeneration of steady-state and reorganization ecounits in two Seasonal Semideciduous Forest fragments. The hypothesis was that specific composition varies in these two different ecounits due to differential adaptation of species in canopy gaps and closed canopy. The survey was made in three areas with different perturbation backgrounds of 0,5 ha each. 60 permanent plots of 4m² each (2m x 2m) were stablished along the studied fragments following the proportion of ecounits presented in a previous mapping. Each plot was divided in 4 sub-plots of 1m² and arboreous individuals between 0,20m and 1,30m height were sampled and posteriorly separated in two height classes: I) individuals between 0,20m and 0,50m height (2m² sampling) and II) individuals between 0,51m and 1,30m height (4m² sampling). It was sampled 338 individuals from 53 families and 23 species. The Shannon index was 3,26 (Area A), 2,27 (Area B) and 2,42 (Area C) whereas Areas B and C values are considered low in our state Semidecidous Forests. Steady-state ecounits presented the highest values for abundance and species richness. Chi-square test pointed out species’ selection for determined ecounits in the studied community. Rarefaction method analysis showed diversity increase in steady-state ecounits and a stablishment in species richness curves for reorganization ecounits

Relação entre os atributos funcionais e características do habitat em comunidades de girinos

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

Relações entre tamanho populacional, uso do habitat, dieta e predação de ninhos por Nasua nasua (Carnivora, Procyonidae) em remanescentes florestais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Equações alométricas em plantios mistos visando à restauração da floresta estacional semidecidual

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Frugivores at higher risk of extinction are the key elements of a mutualistic network

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

Estruturação de metacomunidades de girinos em diferentes fitofisionomias da Mata Atlântica: uma análise em diferentes escalas espaciais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Influência da paisagem sobre a persistência de mamíferos terrestres em fragmentos de Mata Atlântica

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

Efeito da topografia e da precipitação na florística e na produção de liteira em Caxiuanã, Pará

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da topografia e da precipitação pluviométrica na composição arbórea e na produção de liteira em uma floresta ombrófila densa na Floresta Nacional de Caxiuanã. Foram demarcadas três parcelas de 1.000 m² em cada nível topográfico, caracterizado como baixio, intermediário e platô, bem como identificados os indivíduos arbóreos e coletadas amostras da liteira. Nos três níveis, foram registradas 124 espécies em 33 famílias, sendo estas Sapotaceae, Lecythidaceae e Chrysobalanaceae, que apresentaram o maior índice de valor de importância. Lecythis idatimon Aubl., Rinorea guianensis Aubl. e Eschweilera coriacea (DC.) S.A. Mori. A sazonalidade interferiu expressivamente na produção da liteira, revelando a maior produção no final da estação chuvosa e no início da estação seca. O estímulo ambiental para a queda das folhas é, principalmente, devido à diminuição da umidade relativa do ar, justificada pela necessidade das plantas em aumentar a eficiência fotossintética. A diferença na estrutura da população revela estratégias distintas para a produção de flores e, consequentemente, na dispersão de frutos e sementes.

Morphological patterns and community organization in leaf-litter ant assemblages

We present a new approach to determine the number and composition of guilds, using the hyperdiverse leaf-litter ant fauna as a model, based on appropriate morphological variables and species co-occurrence null models to describe the complex assemblages of interacting Species Community structure at the 1-m(2) scale. We obtained 18 linear morphometric measures from 949 workers of 171 leaf-litter ant species (18762 measurements) surveyed in four Atlantic Forest localities to test whether the assemblages are morphologically structured; the morphological characters were selected to indicate diet and foraging habits. Principal components analysis was used to characterize the morphospace and to describe the guild structure (number of species and composition). The guild proportionality assembly rule (significant tendency toward constant proportion of species in guilds) was assessed at the 1-m(2) scale. Our analysis indicates that the division of leaf-litter ants into guilds is based mainly on microhabitat distribution in the leaf-litter, body size and shape, eye size, and phylogeny. The same guild scheme applied to four more sites shows that different Atlantic Forest areas have the same leaf-fitter ant guilds. The guild proportionality assembly rule was confirmed for most guilds, Suggesting that there are guild-specific limitations on species coexistence within assemblages; on the other hand, in a few cases the variance in guild proportion was greater than expected under the null assumptions. Other studies on ant functional group classification are partially supported by our quantitative morphological analysis. Our results, however, imply that there are more compartments than indicated in previous models, particularly among cryptic species (confined to soil and litter) and tropical climate specialists. We argue that a general null model for the analysis of species association based oil morphology can reveal objectively defined groups and may thus contribute to a robust theory to explain community structure in general and have important consequences on studies of litter ant community ecology in particular.

Effects of RegCM3 parameterizations on simulated rainy season over South America

The impacts of change in the Grell convective scheme and biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS) in RegCM3 are described. Three numerical experiments (RegZhang, RegClaris and RegArain) are conducted to reduce the RegCM3-Grell rainfall underestimation over tropical South America. The simulation referred to as RegZhang follows modifications made by Zhang et al. (2008) in the BATS. The RegClaris combines the RegZhang BATS parameters with a reduction of water drainage at the bottom of the subsoil layer in the regions covered by the tropical rain forest and a shorter convective time period for the Grell scheme. The RegArain considers this same modification in the Grell scheme, but uses a deeper total soil column and a deeper root system in the BATS. After the first year of simulation, the soil water content in RegZhang is progressively drained out of the soil column resulting in a deficit of rainfall in the Amazon. The RegClaris and RegArain, on the other hand, simulate a similar rainfall annual cycle in the Amazon, showing substantial improvement not only in phase but also in intensity. This improvement is partially related to an increase in evapotranspiration due to a larger availability of water in the soil column. A remote effect is also noted over the La Plata Basin region, where the larger summer rainfall rate may be related to the increase in moisture transport from the Amazon. Wind- and rainfall-based indices are applied to identify South American monsoon (SAM) timing. The RegClaris rainfall rates are adequate to identify the onset and the demise of SAM according to the observed data, whereas the rainfall deficit in RegZhang is associated with a delay in the onset and an early demise of the SAM.

Population divergence of Melipona scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Meliponina) in two restricted areas in Bahia, Brazil

Melipona scutellaris Latreille has great economic and ecological importance, especially because it is a pollinator of native plant species. Despite the importance of this species, there is little information about the conservation status of their populations. The objective of this study was to assess the diversity in populations of M. scutellaris coming from a Semideciduous Forest Fragment and an Atlantic Forest Fragment in the Northeast Brazil, through geometric morphometric analysis of wings in worker bees. In each area, worker bees were collected from 10 colonies, 10 workers per colony. To assess the diversity on the right wings of worker bees, 15 landmarks were plotted and the measures were used in analysis of variance and multivariate analysis, principal component analysis, discriminant analysis and clustering analysis. There were significant differences in the shape of the wing venation patterns between colonies of two sites (Wilk's lambda = 0.000006; p < 0.000001), which is probably due to the geographical distance between places of origin which impedes the gene flow between them. It indicates that inter and intrapopulation morphometric variability exists (p < 0.000001) in M. scutellaris coming from two different biomes, revealing the existence of diversity in these populations, which is necessary for the conservation of this bee species.

Responses of transplanted native tree species to invasive alien grass removals in an abandoned cattle pasture in the Lacandon region, Mexico

We tested the early performance of 16 native early-, mid-, and late-successional tree species in response to four intensities of grass removal in an abandoned cattle pasture dominated by the introduced, invasive African grass, Cynodon plectostachyus, within the Lacandon rainforest region, southeast Mexico. The increase in grass removals significantly improved the performance of many species, especially of early-and mid-successional species, while performance of late-successional species was relatively poor and did not differ significantly among treatments. Good site preparation and at least one additional grass removal four months after seedling transplant were found to be essential; additional grass removals led to improved significantly performance of saplings in most cases. In order to evaluate the potential of transplanting tree seedlings successfully in abandoned tropical pastures, we developed a "planting risk index", combining field performance measurements and plantation cost estimations. Our results showed a great potential for establishing restoration plantings with many early-and mid-successional species. Although planting risk of late-successional species was considered high, certain species showed some possibilities of acclimation after 18 months and should be considered in future plantation arrangements in view of their long-term contributions to biodiversity maintenance and also to human welfare through delivery of ecosystem services. Conducting a planting risk analysis can help avoid failure of restoration strategies involving simultaneous planting of early-, mid-, and late-successional tree species. This in turn will improve cost-effectiveness of initial interventions in large-scale, long-term restoration programs.