Successful carnivore identification with faecal DNA across a fragmented Amazonian landscape

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

Priority areas for the conservation of Atlantic forest large mammals

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Associations of Forest Cover, Fragment Area, and Connectivity with Neotropical Understory Bird Species Richness and Abundance

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The fish zonation of the Itanha,m river basin in the Atlantic Forest of southeast Brazil

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

Biodiversity conservation in human-modified Amazonian forest landscapes

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

How to not inflate population estimates? Spatial density distribution of white-lipped peccaries in a continuous Atlantic forest

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

Structure and dynamics of a Cariniana estrellensis (Lecythidaceae) population in a fragment of Atlantic Forest in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

From Amazonia to the Atlantic forest: Molecular phylogeny of Phyzelaphryninae frogs reveals unexpected diversity and a striking biogeographic pattern emphasizing conservation challenges

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Seasonal variation in body size of tropical anuran amphibians.

Most anurans are considered short lived reproducing only once, with adult size being an important factor contributing to mating success. We sampled anurans with 30 pitfall traps in three forest patches of the northwestern São Paulo State, Brazil, throughout one year. Our objective was to analyze the variation in anuran body size between the dry and rainy season. Our hypothesis is that anurans registered during the rainy season will be larger than conspecifics registered during dry season, since there is a selective advantage in having a larger body size during reproduction activity. The most abundant species registered in the patches were Eupemphix nattereri, Physalaemus cuvieri and Leptodactylus podicipinus. Males and females of E. nattereri and P. cuvieri recorded in the rainy season were larger than of those captured in the dry one. In contrast, males of L. podicipinus were larger in the dry season than in the rainy season. Besides, the operational sex ratio (OSR) in the breeding season was biased towards males in these three species with, respectively, 4.66, 3.2 and 1.87 males per female. Our results suggest that probably body size variation between different seasons is a consequence of individuals' turnover between rainy seasons. Lower individuals captured in the dry season, would be reproductively active adults in the next breeding season.

An experimental assessment of landscape configuration effects on frog and toad abundance and diversity in tropical agro-savannah landscapes of southeastern Brazil

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

Breeding Habitat and Landscape Correlates of Frog Diversity and Abundance in a Tropical Agricultural Landscape

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

Water deficit affects photosynthetic induction in Bauhinia forficata Link (Fabaceae) and Esenbeckia leiocarpa Engl. (Rutaceae) growing in understorey and gap conditions

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

Birds from cerradão woodland, an overlooked forest of the Cerrado region, Brazil

O Cerrado ainda recebe pouca atenção no que diz respeito à ornitologia embora seja a única savana tropical do mundo considerada um hotspot de biodiversidade. O cerradão é uma das fisionomias menos conhecidas e mais desmatadas do bioma e poucos levantamentos avifaunísticos foram realizados nessas florestas. Para revisar os estudos sobre aves de cerradão e complementar os poucos inventários já existentes realizados nesse tipo florestal no estado de São Paulo, foi realizado um levantamento bibliográfico dos estudos publicados sobre aves de cerradão. Adicionalmente foi conduzido um levantamento das aves de um fragmento de cerradão de 314 ha localizado na região central do estado de São Paulo, Brasil, entre setembro de 2005 e dezembro de 2006 com a utilização de transecções lineares com raio ilimitado de detecção. de 95 estudos envolvendo aves de cerradão, apenas 17 (18%) discriminaram espécies registradas dentro desta fisionomia daquelas que obtiveram registros em outros ambientes de Cerrado. Exceto por um estudo, nenhuma outra investigação encontrou mais de 64 espécies de aves neste ambiente, resultado compartilhado com diversas regiões do Brasil e também da Bolívia. Diferenças no número de espécies entre cerradões não puderam ser atribuídas à degradação dos ambientes estudados ou tamanho de fragmento. Considerando os registros de cerradões no Brasil e na Bolívia, a compilação de dados acumulou 250 espécies distribuídas em 36 famílias e 15 ordens. Durante nossos trabalhos de campo em localidade do interior paulista foram registradas 48 espécies distribuídas em 20 famílias, incluindo o fruxu-do-cerradão (Neopelma pallescens), ameaçada em São Paulo, e o soldadinho (Antilophia galeata), quase ameaçada no estado e endêmica do Cerrado. Dentre as espécies mais abundantes no fragmento, nenhuma delas é ameaçada ou endêmica do bioma.

Size, taxonomic and biomass distributions of flying insects in Central Amazonia: Forest edge vs. understory

Significantly more individuals and biomass of flying insects were present at the forest edge than in the understory throughout the year, as monitored by flight interception traps, in Central Amazonia. Numbers and biomass of flying insects increased at higher rates at the edge with rainfall, associated with termite swarming behavior and increased Homopteran density. The most abundant insects were Diptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Isoptera, whose ranked abundances varied with respect to forest edge and understory, as well as with season.

Different responses in bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity to soil deformation by logging machinery on a Ferralsol under native forest

Ferralsols have high structural stability, although structural degradation has been observed to result from forest to tillage or pasture conversion. An experimental series of forest skidder passes in an east Amazonian natural forest was performed for testing the effects of mechanical stress during selective logging operations on a clay-rich Ferralsol under both dry and wet soil conditions. Distinct ruts formed up to 25 cm depth only under wet conditions. After nine passes the initially very low surface bulk density of between 0.69 and 0.80 g cm(-3) increased to 1.05 g cm(-3) in the wet soil and 0.92 g cm(-3) in the dry soil. Saturated hydraulic conductivities, initially > 250 mm h(-1), declined to a minimum of around 10 mm h(-1) in the wet soil after the first pass, and in the dry soil more gradually after nine passes. The contrasting response of bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity is explained by exposure of subsoil material at the base of the ruts where macrostructure rapidly deteriorated under wet conditions. We attribute the resultant moderately high hydraulic conductivities to the formation of stable microaggregates with fine sand to coarse silt textures. We conclude that the topsoil macrostructure of Ferralsols is subject to similar deterioration to that of Luvisols in temperate zones. The stable microstructure prevents marked compaction and decrease in hydraulic conductivity under wetter and more plastic soil conditions. However, typical tropical storms may regularly exceed the infiltration capacity of the deformed soils. In the deeper ruts water may concentrate and cause surface run-off, even in gently sloping areas. To avoid soil erosion, logging operations in sloping areas should therefore be restricted to dry soil conditions when rut formation is minimal.