Luciana Da Silva Menezes

• PhD in Botany
• PostDoc Position at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

In subtropical grasslands, characterized by the coexistence of species with different physiology, for example C3 and C4 grasses, studies on the reproductive patterns of plants at the community level are scarce. Most available studies are limited to plant-pollinator interactions, and do not include grasses, even though knowledge on phenology of this...

Campos Sulinos grasslands have a long evolutionary history intertwined with fire and grazing: they are disturbance-dependent ecosystems. Disturbance, in this context, refers to events that remove plant biomass. In this chapter we explore the main types of disturbance, namely fire, grazing, and animal disturbance, and their influence on the vegetati...

Afforestation of subtropical grasslands increased during the last decade and their impacts on soil biota and functions are not well known. Here we investigated the effects of grassland afforestation with Eucalyptus on soil Collembola communities in southern Brazil. By using paired transects (native grassland vs. plantation), we assessed Collembola...

For subtropical Brazilian grasslands, few restoration techniques are established, and seeds of native grassland species are not available on the market. Here, we evaluated the effect of physical barriers (PB) on vegetation recovery in a degraded grassland. We considered species that exhibit attributes in their diaspores that facilitate dispersal as...

The effects of climate changes on the stability of plant communities is a major concern, especially for the maintenance of ecosystem processes and services. Biodiversity may buffer communities from the effects of these disturbances, providing resistance and resilience. Here we assess the interplay between biodiversity facets on resistance and resil...

The effects of climate changes on the stability of plant communities is a major concern, especially for the maintenance of ecosystem processes and services. Biodiversity may buffer communities from the effects of these disturbances, providing resistance and resilience. Here we assess the interplay between biodiversity facets on resistance and resil...

The effects of climate changes on the stability of plant communities is a major concern, especially for the maintenance of ecosystem processes and services. Biodiversity may buffer communities from the effects of these disturbances, providing resistance and resilience. Here we assess the interplay between biodiversity facets on resistance and resil...

Aim: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β-diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance...

The Brazilian Pampa is a rich domain mainly represented by grasslands. Conversion of native vegetation into Eucalyptus plantation leads to soil degradation and losses on local fauna and flora. The objectives of this study were to compare the taxonomic structure and abundance of epigeic springtails (Collembola) in two different types of land-use in...

In Brazil, the country with the highest plant species richness in the world, biodiverse savannas and grasslands – i.e., grassy ecosystems, which occupy 27% of the country – have historically been neglected in conservation and scientific treatments. Reasons for this neglect include misconceptions about the characteristics and dynamics of these ecosy...

Small-scale biotic and abiotic variables can influence species composition at a given location, and environmental heterogeneity across sites can lead to the development of vegetation mosaics. Understanding how plant communities are influenced by these variables is fundamental to devise adequate management strategies for biodiversity conservation an...

The South Brazilian grasslands (Campos Sulinos) form the dominant vegetation in southern Brazil. They are species-rich ecosystems that occur under distinct geomorphological and climatic conditions but spatial variation of plant species diversity remains understudied. Here, we present a detailed description of plant communities across the region. Ou...

Question Grazing is an important disturbance for maintenance of structure and functioning of the plant communities in grassy ecosystems. Functional characteristics of plants, which are responsible for their response to grazing, vary at inter‐ and intraspecific levels. Here, we assessed: (1) the extent of intraspecific trait variation when compared...

Brazil has experienced unprecedented wildfires in the last decade. Images of immense burnt areas or deadanimals that failed to escape the 2020 wildfires have shocked the world. To prevent or minimize furthersimilar disasters we must understand the factors that have led to these catastrophic events. The causes andconsequences of wildfires entail com...

Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances, i.e., β-diversity, is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β-diversity is to evaluate directional turnover in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distances. We p...

Species richness remains one of the most valuable type of information for biodiversity conservation. Here, we report a plant richness record in the Brazilian Pampa. We found 56 vascular plant species in a single plot of 1 × 1 m in a privately owned grazed grassland in a region with shallow soils. This number is considerably higher than common speci...

We compared two methods routinely used to conduct bird community surveys: point counts and transects. Our aim was to look for differences between these two methods regarding detection of bird richness and abundances. Additionally, we analyzed if one of the methods provided higher correlation of bird data with vegetation structure as an important ha...

Subterranean rodents are characterized by limited individual mobility and patchy distribution of local populations. Habitat patches where the species is absent may either be unoccupied, but suitable patches, or in fact unsuitable as habitat due to specific habitat features. In the coastal plain of southern Brazil, Ctenomys minutus (Ctenomyidae) inh...

The natural vegetation of Southern Brazil's coastal region includes grasslands formations that are poorly considered in conservation policy, due to the lack of knowledge about these systems. This study reports results from a regional-scale survey of coastal grasslands vegetation along a 536 km gradient on southern Brazil. We sampled 16 sites along...

Processes responsible for shaping community patterns act at specific spatial scales. In this study, we aimed at disentangling the effects of climate, soil and space as drivers of variation in a coastal grassland plant community. We were specifically interested in evaluating the relative influence of those processes at broad and fine spatial scales...

The Coastal Plain of Rio Grande do Sul is covered by vegetation formation called Restinga. The present work aimed the taxonomic recognition of Angiosperms species that occur in a fragment of restinga in the city of Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul. Samples were collected in one year using the methodology of the pathway. The plants were identified and classi...

RESUMO: O objetivo do presente estudo foi quantificar o grau de percepção ambiental de alunos de diferentes faixas etárias e de diferentes níveis de escolaridade em relação à sua inserção na Natureza. Um questionário estruturado foi aplicado em uma amostra de 20% do total de alunos visitantes do Museu de Ciências Naturais do CECLIMAR, totalizando 6...