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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (103)
Species variation in relation to habitat differences may offer valuable insights into understanding population divergence and speciation itself. In central Amazonia, phenotypic and phenological variation of four bryophytes - Octoblepharum albidum, Octoblepharum pulvinatum, Leucobryum martianum and Pilosium chlorophyllum - were investigated among wh...
Spirotropis (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) is a Neotropical genus of trees that has long remained circumscribed to just one species, S. longifolia. Evidence from previous molecular phylogenetic analyses of nuclear and plastid loci and morphological features supports expanding its circumscription to encompass species from the polyphyletic Clathrotrop...
Despite recent advances in revealing the evolutionary history of speciose tropical plant clades, many species radiations are still poorly understood phylogenetically. One of these is the species-rich neotropical genus Tachigali (~ 90 spp.), a caesalpinioid legume lineage of mostly ant-housing canopy trees that has diversified in the tropical rainfo...
Molecular phylogenetic studies focused on the early-branching papilionoid legumes have revealed many new clades and supported several generic realignments, yet the monophyly of some of the constituent genera has remained unassessed. This is the case for the Amazonian genus Clathrotropis of the tribe Ormosieae. The genus, as traditionally circumscri...
Monopteryx is a florally divergent genus of Dipterygeae, an early-branching papilionoid legume clade largely marked by winged papilionate floral architecture, expanded upper calyx lobes often assuming a wing-shaped orientation, and petals differentiated into standard, wings, and a keel enclosing the basally connate stamens. In contrast to the remai...
Premise
Bryophytes form a major component of terrestrial plant biomass, structuring ecological communities in all biomes. Our understanding of the evolutionary history of hornworts, liverworts and mosses has been significantly reshaped by inferences from molecular data, which have highlighted extensive homoplasy in various traits and repeated burst...
Bryophytes are emerging as the sister-group to extant vascular plants, and their current diversity highlights that their life cycle characterized by a dominating vegetative gametophyte and an unbranched sporophyte composes a successful alternative to that of vascular plants and their dominating sporophyte. The evolutionary history of hornworts, liv...
Schusterolejeunea inundata (Spruce) Grolle is a widespread, yet poorly known species restricted to riparian habitats of the Amazon Basin in northern South America. Since its original description by Richard Spruce in 1884, phenotypic differences among populations convinced the original author to split the taxon into two varieties. An extensive revie...
The early-branching clades of Fabaceae subfamily Papilionoideae are characterized by their remarkable lability in floral architecture. In contrast, more derived papilionoid lineages are marked by evolutionary conservatism towards strongly bilateral, papilionate flowers. Here, we show an unexpected example of conservatism of a unique floral architec...
The early-branching clades of Fabaceae subfamily Papilionoideae are characterized by their remarkable lability in floral architecture. In contrast, more derived papilionoid lineages are marked by evolutionary conservatism towards strongly bilateral, papilionate flowers. Here, we show an unexpected example of conservatism of a unique floral architec...
Patch size and connectivity are the main predictors of population demographic and genetic stability. Habitat fragmentation continues at unprecedented rates justly affecting plant functional connectivity worldwide. However, few terrestrial plant groups have sufficiently foreshortened generation times in which to empirically disentangle the demograph...
Many Neotropical tree species are widespread at continental and even inter-continental scales, but phenotypic variation across their respective ranges has rarely been quantified. We measured traits in the widespread, unisexual Neotropical tree Virola sebifera (Myristicaceae) across its continental-scale range, and predicted that, given its hyperdom...
Tropical non‐self‐supporting plants such as hemiepiphytes and nomadic vines are model organisms for disentangling biotic and environmental correlates which influence their occupancy patterns. We inventoried >4000 individuals from >3000 trees ranging from 1 to 200 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) in a northeastern Amazonian upland forest to addres...
We present a taxonomic synopsis of Aldina (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae), a poorly known Neotropical genus of predominantly Amazonian trees with unusual, non-papilionate flowers. Aldina is characterized by the combination of odd-foliolate leaves and flowers with radial symmetry, free and undifferentiated petals, an entire calyx, and free, numerous s...
Plutella xylostella (L.) is responsible for considerable vegetable crop losses in the metropolitan region of Manaus, Brazil. In recent decades, essential oils have been investigated as an alternative to synthetic insecticides. The genusPiperis widely distributed in Amazonia and essential oils from these plants have insecticidal properties. This stu...
Nitrogen‐fixing symbiosis is globally important in ecosystem functioning and agriculture, yet the evolutionary history of nodulation remains the focus of considerable debate. Recent evidence suggesting a single origin of nodulation followed by massive parallel evolutionary losses raises questions about why a few lineages in the N2‐fixing clade reta...
Epiphytes are still an understudied plant group in Amazonia. The aim of this study was to identify distributional patterns and conservation priorities for vascular epiphyte assemblages (VEA) across Amazonia. We compiled the largest Amazonian epiphyte plot database to date, through a multinational collaborative effort of 22 researchers and 32 field...
Humiria balsamifera is an infraspecific complex of high phenotypic variation and widely distributed in northern South America. Leaf traits are traditionally considered the most relevant taxonomic characters for varietal level delimitation in the group. However, substantial phenotypic overlap among vegetative characters complicates taxonomic diagnos...
The Brazilian state of Amazonas harbors an exceptionally high number of bryophyte species for its size, yet many taxa remain to be discovered. Herein, we continue by further describing and illustrating two new species, as well as by providing evidence for substantial geographical extensions of another five taxa. Two new species, Ceratolejeunea ocir...
Synopsis of the genus Pycnolejeunea (Spruce) Schiffn. (Lejeuneaceae, Marchantiophyta) in Brazil). Pycnolejeunea is a pantropical genus represented in Brazil by nine species, according to the present treatment. Pycnolejeunea chocoensis M.E. Reiner & Gradst., recently described for Colombia, is being cited for the first time for Brazil. Descriptions...
Lowland tropical bryophytes have been perceived as excellent dispersers. In such groups, the inverse isolation hypothesis proposes that spatial genetic structure is erased beyond the limits of short‐distance dispersal. Here, we determine the influence of environmental variation and geographic barriers on the spatial genetic structure of a widely di...
Essential oils from the leaves of four species of Piper obtained through hydrodistillation were analyzed using GC-MS andmultivariate data analysis. The chemical analysis enabled the identification of qualitative and quantitative differences among the oils. β-selinene (32.44 ± 1.14%), (E)-nerolidol (44.23 ± 2.23%), β-caryophyllene (19.11 ± 0.40%) an...
Tetrapyrgos is characterized by small basidiomata which have a mostly whitish pileus, a well-defined central or eccentric, mostly dark greyish stipe, a non-or very weakly gelatinous pileipellis and pileus tramal tissues; the pileipellis is composed of Rameales-like structures, and the basidiospores are distinctly tetrahedral. Members of this genus...
Here, we examine the influence of the spatial distribution of open white‐sand campina (WSC) in the Amazon on the species richness and beta diversity of their vascular plants. It is well known that beta diversity tends to increase with geographical distance, but the influence of habitat insularity on floristic composition and endemism is still uncle...
Forest fragmentation impacts community structure at both local and regional scales over time. Understanding the resilience of tropical forests to anthropogenic impacts and the period for communities to recover are critical steps for conservation policy implementation. We took advantage of a dynamic group of land plants to study temporal changes in...
Calymperaceae is a large moss family well represented in lowland tropical rain forests
worldwide. To date, both infra- and extra-familial relationships in Calymperaceae remain largely unresolved. Here, we present a multi-locus phylogenetic hypothesis based on one ribosomal, one mitochondrial and four plastid markers from 61 taxa with the aim to: 1)...
Drepanolejeunea robinsonii C.E.Zartman & A.M.Sierra is described and illustrated herein as a new species from the Amazon basin. The type collections are from lowland rainforest habitat in the central Amazon of Brazil. Morphological characters which distinguish the new species from the phenotypically similar Drepanolejeunea polyrhiza (Nees) Grolle &...
Results from recent botanical excursions in northern Brazil include 38 new state and country records. In summary, seven (five liverworts and two mosses) taxa are newly confirmed for Brazil, 18 (10 liverworts and eight mosses) new to Amazonas state and 20 (16 liverworts and four mosses) new to Roraima state.
Bryophytes are a group of land plants wherein the role of hybridization has long been challenged. Using Genotyping by Sequencing to circumvent the lack of molecular variation at selected loci previously used for phylogeny and morphology, we determine the level of genetic and morphological divergence and reproductive isolation between the sibling Sy...
The recent rediscovery of the rheophytic endemic Ceratolejeunea temnantha ~130 years after its original description, on the upper Rio Negro in the Brazilian Amazon, has enabled the assessment of its enigmatic phylogenetic position, estimates of its divergence time, and updates on its distribution and potential habitat threats. Phylogenetic analyses...
Piper bellidifolium, Piper durilignum, Piper acutilimbum and Piper consanguineum are bushes that occur in the Amazon and are morphologically similar. With the aim of analyzing the chemical profile of the volatile constituents of these species, essential oils from the leaves were obtained through steam distillation and analyzed using gas chromatogra...
In the past decade, floristic studies have rebounded as checklists are fundamental for executing meta-analyses which address ecological, biogeographic and evolutionary questions of broad geographic scope. Despite the importance of checklists as baseline records of local diversity and distributions, few attempts have been made to quantify sampling e...
Understanding the mechanisms underlying species assembly is a central focus of plant ecology and is crucial to revealing how plant communities are structured. However, the temporal limitations of most terrestrial plant communities preclude collection of species assembly data in a tractable time‐frame.
The aim of this study is to investigate the imp...
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatially biased which may generate inaccuracies in SDMs. Here, we test how the distribution of NHCs and Ma...
Belongs to paper Species Distribution Modelling: Contrasting presence-only models with plot abundance data by Gomes et al.
Comparing the results of modelling the area of occupancy with MaxEnt and with inverse distance weighting (IDW).
Analysis results for the predicted area of occupancy as calculated by Maxent and IDW methods. The analyses were conducted for 170 of all 227 hyperdominant species that had MaxEnt’s predicted environmental suitability significantly differ...
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatially biased which may generate inaccuracies in SDMs. Here, we test how the distribution of NHCs and Ma...
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatially biased which may generate inaccuracies in SDMs. Here, we test how the distribution of NHCs and Ma...
Significance
Large floristic datasets that purportedly represent the diversity and composition of the Amazon tree flora are being widely used to draw conclusions about the patterns and evolution of Amazon plant diversity, but these datasets are fundamentally flawed in both their methodology and the resulting content. We have assembled a comprehensi...
A new species of Philodendron in central Amazonia, Manaus-AM, Brazil, is described and illustrated. Philodendron melloi belongs to the subgenus Philodendron and is possibly a representative of the section Tritomophyllum. This newly described species is similar to P. barrosoanum and P. hyleae, but differs Its preference for terrestrial habitats, per...
Xylopia Linnaeus (1759: 1250) is a monophyletic and widely distributed pantropical genus of Annonaceae (Kessler 1993, Dias & Kinoshita 1998, Lopes & Mello-Silva 2014, Stull et al. 2017). Stull et al. (2017) recently revised the infrageneric classification of the genus on the basis of combined data from seed characters and four plastid markers. Thre...
The influence of habitat connectivity on dispersal limitation and genetic structure in bryophytes is relatively well researched; however, little is known as to how habitat insularity may impact phenotypic divergences on a continental scale. Here we conduct a morphometric analysis of five quantitative gametophytic traits from two Amazonian Calympera...
Worldwide, fungal richness peaks in tropical forest biomes where they are the primary drivers of decomposition. Understanding how environmental and anthropogenic factors influence tropical macrofungal fruiting patterns should provide insight as to how, for example, climate change and deforestation may impact their long-term demographic stability an...
Within the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation. Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water‐stress on the physiological processes of most tree species. This implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by their...
Past human influences on Amazonian forest
The marks of prehistoric human societies on tropical forests can still be detected today. Levis et al. performed a basin-wide comparison of plant distributions, archaeological sites, and environmental data. Plants domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples are much more likely to be dominant in Amazonian forests...
The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions and abundances of 85 woody species domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples. Domesticated species are fiv...
The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions and abundances of 85 woody species domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples. Domesticated species are fiv...
Two taxa of Marasmius sect. Marasmius are herein (re)described, reported from the Amazon forest. Marasmius calvocystidiatus is proposed as a new species on account of its glabrous (bald) pileus with smooth cystidia, some of them lobed or with coarse excrescences in the pileipellis. On the other hand, the only taxon of sect. Marasmius subsect. Horri...
Premise of the study:
Resource allocation is difficult to characterize in plants because of the challenges of quantifying gametes and propagules. We surveyed six sympatric, unisexual species in the family Calymperaceae (Bryophyta) to test for trade-offs in prezygotic sexual and asexual expression and density-dependent survivorship of female gameta...
Cheilolejeunea aracaensis sp. nov., Cheilolejeunea caracariense sp. nov., and Cheilolejeunea cuspidifera sp. nov. are described from Amazonas and Roraima states in northern Brazil. C. aracaensis differs from the other neotropical species in the genus by having the second and first lobule teeth elongated and paired, lacking subgynoecial innovations,...
Cheilolejeunea amazonica, a new species currently known only from one outlying sandstone tepui of the Guiana Highlands in northern Brazil, Serra Aracá, is described and illustrated. This new taxon is phenotypically aligned with Cheilolejeunea Sect. Strepsilejeunea due to its sharply pointed leaf apex. Locally, the plant is abundant growing in large...
Within the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation.Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water-stress on thephysiological processes of most tree species. This process implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by...
Aldina (Leguminosae) is among the very few ecologically successful ectomycorrhizal lineages in a family largely marked by the evolution of nodulating symbiosis. The genus comprises 20 species exclusively distributed in Amazonia and has been traditionally classified in the tribe Swartzieae because of its radial flowers with an entire calyx and numer...
Factors controlling holoepiphyte (plants which start and complete their life cycle on a phorophyte) distributions may be wide and variable. They are determined either by spatial processes, as evidenced by dispersal limitation and/or historical factors, environmental filters, such as microsite variation within phorophytes, and/or biotic interactions...
The Amazon is renowned to hold an unprecedented, yet poorlyknown or unexplored plant diversity. This study aimed to report new collections on five rare or littleknown and phylogenetically enigmatic trees, Aguiaria excelsa (Malvaceae, Bombacoideae), Hylocarpa heterocarpa (Humiriaceae), and the papilionoid legumes Monopteryx uaucu , Petaladenium ur...
Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to
show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened...
Premise of the study:
Floral development can help to shed light on puzzling features across flowering plants. The enigmatic Amazonian monospecific genus Petaladenium of the legume family (Leguminosae) had rarely been collected and only recently became available for ontogenetic studies. The fimbriate-glandular wing petals of P. urceoliferum are uni...
Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened...
Biosystematic studies addressing mechanisms of speciation in widespread, phenotypically variable Neotropical plant taxa are scarce. In Viruá National Park, Roraima State, Brazil, we demonstrate that nine phenotypic variables measured from sympatric populations of two varieties within the Humiria balsamifera complex (Humiriaceae) are sharply discont...
Sarcodon atroviridis sensu lato has a rich no-menclatural history as a result of its variable morphology. Here we discuss the species most plastic morphological characters as well as its ecology and distribution, and we report it for the first time from the State of Ror-aima, Brazil. Color images of the basidiomata, complete descriptions and micros...
Understanding how changing precipitation patterns impact the population dynamics of Amazonian plants is necessary for predicting their long-term survival. Most terrestrial plants are characterized by life cycles intractably slow for evaluating such demographic consequences. Due to the demands of surviving on an ephemeral substrate such as a leaf su...
Recent deep-level phylogenies of the basal papilionoid legumes (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) have resolved many clades, yet left the phylogenetic placement of several genera unassessed. The phylogenetically enigmatic Amazonian monospecific genus Petaladenium had been believed to be close to the genera of the Genistoid Ormosieae clade. In this paper...
Schistostemon is recorded for the first time in the States of Roraima and Pará extending its distribution to a new northern limit within Brazilian territory.
Advances in forest carbon mapping have the potential to greatly reduce
uncertainties in the global carbon budget and to facilitate effective
emissions mitigation strategies such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Though broad-scale mapping
is based primarily on remote sensing data, the accuracy of resulting for...
Dichaea is the largest genus of the subtribe Zygopetalinae and holds it's the highest species diversity in South America. Therefore, this study aims to describe a new species of Dichaea, which occurs in northern Brazil, Dichaea bragae Valsko, Krahl & Holanda. The new species was collected in the north of Manaus in an area of ombrophilous forest and...
QuestionHow do soil fertility, neighbourhood host tree composition and bark characteristics influence community attributes of vascular epiphytes in a central Amazonian forest? LocationAdolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Amazonas, Brazil. Methods
The abundances of all species of vascular epiphytes were recorded from 300 host trees with DBH >30 cm. Phoroph...
Aim:
The accurate mapping of forest carbon stocks is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle, for assessing emissions from deforestation, and for rational land-use planning. Remote sensing (RS) is currently the key tool for this purpose, but RS does not estimate vegetation biomass directly, and thus may miss significant spatial variati...
Aim: The accurate mapping of forest carbon stocks is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle, for assessing emissions from deforestation, and for rational land-use planning. Remote sensing (RS) is currently the key tool for this purpose, but RS does not estimate vegetation biomass directly, and thus may miss significant spatial variatio...
Advances in forest carbon mapping have the potential to greatly reduce uncertainties in the global
carbon budget and to facilitate effective emissions mitigation strategies such as REDD+. Though
broad scale mapping is based primarily on remote sensing data, the accuracy of resulting forest
carbon stock estimates depends critically on the quality of...
The vast extent of the Amazon Basin has historically restricted the study of its tree communities to the local and regional scales. Here, we provide empirical data on the commonness, rarity, and richness of lowland tree species across the entire Amazon Basin and Guiana Shield (Amazonia), collected in 1170 tree plots in all major forest types. Extra...
The vast extent of the Amazon Basin has historically restricted the study of its tree communities to the local and regional
scales. Here, we provide empirical data on the commonness, rarity, and richness of lowland tree species across the entire
Amazon Basin and Guiana Shield (Amazonia), collected in 1170 tree plots in all major forest types. Extra...
In order to investigate which mechanisms the epiphyllous moss Crossomitrium patrisiae employs to overcome the typical constraints of dioicy in light of its spatially isolated habitat, we tested the predictions that high fertilization rates are achieved due to (1) high rates of sexual expression, (2) balanced sex ratios, and (3) high co-occurrence o...
This survey aimed to describe the floristic composition and structure of the epiphytic community occurring in a terra firme forest in the city of Coari, Brazil, in the Amazon region. Data collection was performed with a 1.5 ha plot method, with which upland, slope and lowland habitats were sampled. All angiosperm epiphytes and their host plants (di...
The neotropical primate family Pitheciidae consists of four genera Cacajao (uacaris), Callicebus (titis), Chiropotes (bearded sakis) and Pithecia (sakis), whose 40+ species display a range of sizes, social organisations, ecologies and habitats. Few are well known and the future survival of many is threatened, yet pitheciines have been little studie...
Infra-specific variation in phenotypes of bryophytes is rarely shown to be spatially or ecologically structured. By using a morphometrics approach based on more than 2,300 measurements of nine gametophyte characters taken from 63 specimens across the global range of Syrrhopodon leprieurii Mont. (Calymperaceae), we demonstrate through partial and to...
Forest fragmentation demonstrably alters plant species composition, distribution, and diversity, and, in turn, may affect the availability of food resources for primary consumers. We investigated to what extent fragmentation affected the diets of 6 groups of bearded saki monkeys (Chiropotes chiropotes) living in two 10-ha fragments, two 100-ha ''fr...
1. We test how fine‐scale (≤ 400 m ² ) connectivity to conspecifics influences metapopulation dynamics using a field experiment in central Amazonia with the epiphyllous (i.e. leaf‐inhabiting) bryophyte Radula flaccida Gott. (Radulaceae). This is a natural model system with spatially structured ephemeral patches at the leaf and phorophyte scale.
2....
A list of 37 species is reported here for the first time to the Brazilian side of Neblina Massif: one of the largest sandstone mountains of the western portion of the Guyana Shield along the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. Twenty seven species represent new additions to the Brazilian Fern Flora and ten species are the first record to the northwestern...
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest suffered a severe geographic contraction along the last five centuries that reduced drastically most vascular epiphyte populations. Among the range of man-made matrixes, tree monocultures have the potential to contribute positively to the maintenance of the regional epiphyte diversity. Here, we test the similarity in a...
We synthesize findings to date from the world’s largest and longest-running experimental study of habitat fragmentation, located in central Amazonia. Over the past 32 years, Amazonian forest fragments ranging from 1 to 100 ha have experienced a wide array of ecological changes. Edge effects have been a dominant driver of fragment dynamics, strongly...
A new species in the formerly monotypic genus Vitalianthus is described from Amazonas State, Brazil. Vitalianthus urubuensis sp. n. exhibits leaves with an unbroken chain of ocelli, upright orientation of the underleaf lobes, and a 4-keeled perianth lacking horn-like projections; all features that distinguish the only other known member of this gen...
Testing the myriad predictions associated with the community, demographic and genetic impacts of habitat fragmentation remains a high conservation priority. Many bryophyte taxa are ideal model systems for experimentally testing such metapopulation-based and population genetic predictions due to their relatively fast colonisation-extinction rates, h...
Habitat fragmentation increases the migration distances among remnant populations, and is predicted to play a significant role in altering both demographic and genetic processes. Nevertheless, few studies have evaluated the genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation in light of information about population dynamics in the same set of organisms....
Although habitat fragmentation is a major threat to global biodiversity, the demographic mechanisms underlying species loss from tropical forest remnants remain largely unexplored. In particular, no studies at the landscape scale have quantified fragmentation's impacts on colonization, extinction, and local population growth simultaneously. In cent...
In theory, habitat fragmentation alters plant community dynamics by influencing both local (within patch) and regional (among patch) processes. However, the lengthy generation times of plant taxa relative to the short duration of most experiments has precluded studies from assessing the impact of fragmentation at both local and regional scales. Due...
