Soil profile, relief features and their relation to structure and distribution of Brazilian Atlantic rain forest trees

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

Distribuição e abundância de espécies arbóreas em cerradões no Pantanal, Estado do Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

Os cerradões no Pantanal ocorrem em áreas não inundáveis da planície e são importantes para a economia regional. Das áreas de cerradão são retiradas madeiras para construção de cercas, currais e galpões. Apesar da grande importância dos recursos vegetais do cerradão, existem poucas informações para embasar sua conservação e uso sustentável. Este trabalho teve como objetivos estudar a abundância, a distribuição das espécies arbóreas e correlações com a fertilidade do solo em áreas de cerradão (savana florestada) do Pantanal Sul Mato-grossense. Foram estudadas seis áreas de cerradão na sub-região da Nhecolândia, por meio de 30 pontos quadrantes, totalizando 120 árvores amostradas, com circunferência a altura do peito (CAP) > 15 cm, em cada área. As comparações florísticas, de abundância das espécies e de fertilidade do solo, foram efetuadas por análises de componentes principais (PCA). As áreas mostraram-se heterogêneas, apresentando diferentes níveis de fertilidade do solo, estrutura e composição da vegetação. Dois cerradões foram agrupados em termos de fertilidade do solo e de estrutura da vegetação, apresentando muitas árvores de Qualea grandiflora Mart., espécie que ocorreu associada a solos com maiores teores de fósforo. Outros dois cerradões apresentaram composição florística mais semelhante que os demais, apesar de ocorrerem em solos com diferentes níveis de fertilidade, indicando perturbação antrópica.

Psychotria hoffmansegiana (Willd ex Roem. & Schult.) Mull. Arg. and Palicourea marcagravii st. Hil. (Rubiaceae): potential for forming soil seed banks in a brazilian Cerrado

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Seed biometry and the effect of pre germinative treatments, temperature, and light on seed germination and subsequent growth of three Stryphnodendron species

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Germination performance of congeneric Styrax species from the Cerrado sensu lato areas and their distribution pattern in different physiognomies

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Reproductive phenology of a northeast Brazilian mangrove community: Environmental and biotic constraints

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Root, shoot and leaf traits of the congeneric Styrax species may explain their distribution patterns in the cerrado sensu lato areas in Brazil

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

Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of ethanolic extracts of Lychnophora species

Extracts from Lychnophora species are traditionally used in Brazil as anti-inflammatory, and to treat bruise, pain and rheumatism. The ethanolic extract of aerial parts of five species of Lychnophoras and one specie of Lychnophoriopsis were examined for the antinociceptive (hot-plate and writhing tests) and anti-inflammatory (carrageenan-induced paw oedema test) activity in mice, by oral and topical routes, respectively. In the hot-plate test, the Lychnophora pinaster (0.75 g/kg) and Lychnophora ericoides (1.50 g/kg) extracts significantly increased the time for licking of the paws. The species Lychnophora passerina, Lychnophoriopsis candelabrum and Lychnophora pinaster, using the dose of 0.75 g/kg, and Lychnophora ericoides and Lychnophora trichocarpha in both doses evaluated (0.75 and 1.50 g/kg) significantly reduced the number of writhes induced by acetic acid. The administration of Lychnophora pinaster and Lychnophora trichocarpha ointments, in both concentrations evaluated (5 and 10%, w/w), and Lychnophora passerina and Lychnophoriopsis candelabrum, in the concentration of 10%, significantly reduced the paw oedema measured 3 h after carrageenan administration, suggesting, for the first time, an anti-inflammatory activity upon topical administration of these species. The present work comparatively demonstrated the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of some Brazilian Lychnophoras. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Leaf structure of the cerrado (Brazilian savanna) woody plants

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

A New Species of Meliosma (Sabiaceae) from Southeastern Brazil and Notes on the Genus

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Contribution to the discussions on the origin of the cerrado biome: Brazilian savanna

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Genetic structure in a tropical lek-breeding bird, the blue manakin (Chiroxiphia caudata) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Determining the genetic structure of tropical bird populations is important for assessing potential genetic effects of future habitat fragmentation and for testing hypotheses about evolutionary mechanisms promoting diversification. Here we used 10 microsatellite DNA loci to describe levels of genetic differentiation for five populations of the lek-mating blue manakin (Chiroxiphia caudata), sampled along a 414-km transect within the largest remaining continuous tract of the highly endangered Atlantic Forest habitat in southeast Brazil. We found small but significant levels of differentiation between most populations. F-ST values varied from 0.0 to 0.023 (overall F-ST = 0.012) that conformed to a strong isolation by distance relationship, suggesting that observed levels of differentiation are a result of migration-drift equilibrium. N(e)m values estimated using a coalescent-based method were small (<= 2 migrants per generation) and close to the minimum level required to maintain genetic similarity between populations. An implication of these results is that if future habitat fragmentation reduces dispersal between populations to even a small extent, then individual populations may undergo a loss of genetic diversity due to an increase in the relative importance of drift, since inbreeding effective population sizes are relatively small (N-e similar to 1000). Our findings also demonstrate that population structuring can occur in a tropical bird in continuous habitat in the absence of geographical barriers possibly due to behavioural features of the species.

Activity pattern of Cuniculus paca (Rodentia: Cuniculidae) in relation to lunar illumination and other abiotic variables in the southern Brazilian Amazon

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

Modeling the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of deforestation-driven carbon emissions: the INPE-EM framework applied to the Brazilian Amazon

We present a generic spatially explicit modeling framework to estimate carbon emissions from deforestation (INPE-EM). The framework incorporates the temporal dynamics related to the deforestation process and accounts for the biophysical and socioeconomic heterogeneity of the region under study. We build an emission model for the Brazilian Amazon combining annual maps of new clearings, four maps of biomass, and a set of alternative parameters based on the recent literature. The most important results are as follows: (a) Using different biomass maps leads to large differences in estimates of emission; for the entire region of the Brazilian Amazon in the last decade, emission estimates of primary forest deforestation range from 0.21 to 0.26 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1. (b) Secondary vegetation growth presents a small impact on emission balance because of the short duration of secondary vegetation. In average, the balance is only 5% smaller than the primary forest deforestation emissions. (c) Deforestation rates decreased significantly in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years, from 27 similar to Mkm2 in 2004 to 7 similar to Mkm2 in 2010. INPE-EM process-based estimates reflect this decrease even though the agricultural frontier is moving to areas of higher biomass. The decrease is slower than a non-process instantaneous model would estimate as it considers residual emissions (slash, wood products, and secondary vegetation). The average balance, considering all biomass, decreases from 0.28 in 2004 to 0.15 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1 in 2009; the non-process model estimates a decrease from 0.33 to 0.10 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1. We conclude that the INPE-EM is a powerful tool for representing deforestation-driven carbon emissions. Biomass estimates are still the largest source of uncertainty in the effective use of this type of model for informing mechanisms such as REDD+. The results also indicate that efforts to reduce emissions should focus not only on controlling primary forest deforestation but also on creating incentives for the restoration of secondary forests.

Comments about some species abundance patterns: classic, neutral, and niche partitioning models

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)