Marcelo Tabarelli

Federal University of Pernambuco | UFPE · Department of Botany

Tropical forests worldwide have succumbed to rapid conversion into agricultural landscapes, but the local- and landscape-scale drivers of functional diversity and consequently ecosystem functioning remain poorly known, which limits management and conservation strategies. Here, we quantitatively assess how biofuel croplands affect taxonomic and func...

Disruption of ecosystem services associated with climate change may affect human well-being in different ways. Medicinal plants provide extremely relevant ecosystem services. Here, we tested the hypothesis that highly suitable habitats (i.e., suitability ≥ 0.8) for medicinal plants in Caatinga dry forest may be potentially contracted under scenario...

Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristi...

Aim Locally abundant species are typically widespread, while locally scarce species are geographically restricted—the so‐called abundance‐occupancy relationships (AORs). AORs help explain the drivers of species rarity and community assembly, but little is known about how variation around such relationship is driven by species traits and niche‐based...

Chronic anthropogenic disturbances and climate change are the main threats to biodiversity, acting as potential drivers of assembly reorganization in human-modified tropical landscapes. We aimed to understand how the reproductive traits of edible fruit plant assemblages respond to chronic disturbances and aridity in the Caatinga, a dry forest in no...

[PT-BR] Este livro originou-se de todo o esforço teórico e prático resultante do XII Curso de Campo Ecologia e Conservação da Caatinga (ECCA), realizado em 2019 pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. O Curso de Campo da Caatinga tem como objetivo a formação de recursos humanos de alta qualidade através do treinamento científico de alunos de pós-g...

Forest ecosystems are increasingly threatened by unsustainable agricultural practices, especially by those that damage their regenerative potential. This can be the case of slash-and-burn agriculture – a farming method that can negatively impact the soil seed bank, potentially limiting the resilience of forest ecosystems. To test this hypothesis, a...

Seedling recruitment, community assembly, and forest regeneration, while receiving substantial attention in tropical rain forests, have received little attention in tropical dry forests. Here, we examine the structure, composition, and diversity of woody seedling assemblages across 19 forest stands in a human-modified landscape of Caatinga dry fore...

Flowering plant species and their nectar-feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats, and non-flying mammals, as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often act as pollinators and contribute to seed output of...

Although the herbaceous plants concentrate the diversity of vascular plants in the largest dry forest of South America, the Brazilian Caatinga, their responses to environmental modifications are poorly known. We assessed the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional responses of herb communities to independent gradients of annual rainfall (510−940 mm)...

Tropical forests disappear rapidly because of deforestation, yet they have the potential to regrow naturally on abandoned lands. We analyze how 12 forest attributes recover during secondary succession and how their recovery is interrelated using 77 sites across the tropics. Tropical forests are highly resilient to low-intensity land use; after 20 y...

Animal pollination services provide multiple benefits to humanity as they contribute to 35% of global food production and directly account for up to 40% of the dietary nutrient supply to humanity worldwide. Population declines of vertebrate and invertebrate pollination vectors may threaten human nutrition and well-being, particularly where agricult...

1. Despite evidence about the contribution of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) to conservation, prevailing strategies still seek their separation from nature, often triggering conflicts. Current pledges to expand global protected area coverage suggest a need for critical analysis of governance quality and the way conservation intera...

Flowering plant species and their nectar‐feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats and non‐flying mammals as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often acting as pollinators and contributing to seed output...

We draw attention to potential pollinator species that have not yet been reported as crop pollinators but could likely contribute to agricultural productivity. We refer to this as the neglected diversity of crop pollinators, which we argue should not be excluded from conservation strategies and land-use planning. We used Brazil as case study for at...

Understanding patterns of tropical forest resilience is a central challenge in conservation ecology particularly in seasonally-dry tropical forests, where anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are pervasive threats. Here, we investigate the recovery rate and community organization of dung beetles along a Caatinga dry forest regeneration clin...

The exploitation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has been encouraged in order to reconcile economic uses, biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services. In this paper we investigate how increments on the açaí palm density (Euterpe oleracea) via forest management change tree assemblages across 47 plots in the Amazon estuari...

Seasonally dry tropical forests are characterized by several months of drought. Cenostigma microphyllum is a native woody species widely found in a seasonally dry tropical forest. These forests are in need of restoration and C. microphyllum is a species that can be used to this end. We studied, 1) acute water deficiency using plant in pot, and 2) c...

Aim Here we examine the functional profile of regional tree species pools across the latitudinal distribution of Neotropical moist forests, and test trait–climate relationships among local communities. We expected opportunistic strategies (acquisitive traits, small seeds) to be overrepresented in species pools further from the equator, but also in...

Woody plant resprouting has received considerable attention in the last two decades as human disturbances continue to encroach on terrestrial ecosystems globally. We examined the regeneration mechanisms of a Caatinga dry forest in the context of slash-and-burn agriculture and resprouting ability of the local flora. We excavated two old fields (from...

Banks-Leite et al. (2021) claim that our suggestion of preserving ≥40% forest cover lacks evidence and can be problematic. We find these claims unfounded, and discuss why conservation planning urgently requires valuable, well-supported, and feasible general guidelines like the 40% criterion. Using region-specific thresholds worldwide is unfeasible...

Community assembly arguably drives the provision of ecosystem services because they critically depend on which and how species coexist. We examine conspicuous cases of 'winner and loser' replacements (WLRs) in tropical forests to provide a framework integrating drivers, impacts on ecological organization, and reconfiguration of ecosystem service pr...

Biodiversity maintenance in human-modified landscapes largely depends on spatial variations in species composition (β-diversity), but the impact of human disturbance on β-diversity remains poorly understood. We examined how taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity of woody plant communities in the Brazilian Caatinga dry forest respond to two emerging...

Tropical forest regeneration has gained renewed interest in recent years as secondary forests have being considered biodiversity repositories and a key source for globally relevant ecosystem services as climate regulation and carbon sequestration and storage. Here, we address the regeneration of a Caatinga dry forest in the context of slash-and-bur...

Banks-Leite et al. (2021) claim that our suggestion of preserving ≥40% forest cover lacks evidence and can be problematic. We find these claims unfounded, and discuss why conservation planning urgently requires valuable, well-supported, and feasible general guidelines like the 40% criterion. Using region-specific thresholds worldwide is unfeasible...

Assim como os frutos de algumas plantas, o Curso de Campo Ecologia e Conservação da Caatinga - que gerou o livro Ecologia e Conservação da Caatinga - também veio de uma semente, uma concepção inicial. A tradição de realizar cursos de imersão em campo não é nova. Ela surge como uma necessidade de treinar/aperfeiçoar e repetir técnicas/etapas do méto...

Urbanization has rapidly increased in recent decades and the negative effects on biodiversity have been widely reported. Urban green areas can contribute to improving human well-being, maintaining biodiversity, and ecosystem services (e.g. pollination). Here we examine the evolution of studies on plant–pollinator interactions in urban ecosystems wo...

Global sustainability rests on a myriad of benefits provided by natural ecosystems that support human livelihoods and well-being, from biodiversity persistence to climate regulation. The undeniable importance of conserving tropical forests has drawn most of the conservation spotlight towards it. However, open ecosystems such as the Brazilian Campo...

Background: Biological invasion is one of the main threats to tropical biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Prosopis juliflora (Sw) DC. (Fabales: Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae) was introduced in the Caatinga dry forest of Northeast Brazil at early 1940s and successfully spread across the region. As other invasive species, it may benefit from the s...

Agriculture and development transform forest ecosystems to human-modified landscapes. Decades of research in ecology have generated myriad concepts for the appropriate management of these landscapes. Yet, these concepts are often contradictory and apply at different spatial scales, making the design of biodiversity-friendly landscapes challenging....

Habitat fragmentation and forest management have been considered to drastically alter the nature of forest ecosystems globally. However, much uncertainty remains regarding the causative mechanisms mediating temperate forest responses, such as forest physical environment and the structure of woody plant assemblages, regardless of the role these fore...

The proliferation of disturbance-adapted species in human-modified landscapes may change the structure of plant communities, but the response of biodiversity to human disturbances remains poorly understood. We examine the proliferation of the palm, Syagrus coronata , in disturbed forest stands and its impacts on the structure of vascular epiphyte a...

Herbivores are considered important drivers of vegetation shifts in rangelands worldwide. In the Brazilian Caatinga, goats feeding mostly on natural vegetation account for 90% of the country's goat herds and play a vital role for rural livelihoods in this region. We used exclosure experiments aiming to assess the impact of goats on herbaceous commu...

Economic valuation of crop pollination services, including potential monetary losses in agricultural production induced by insufficient pollination, is a strategy to quantify the impacts of this critical ecosystem service on food production, food security and the global economy, and to drive policy actions. We examined how the economic valuation of...

Questions Community assembly in regenerating forests is a key topic in ecology. Most studies examine the assembly process assessing adult individuals along the forest succession. Although the adult stage is the final outcome of the assembly process, both abiotic and biotic filters can affect community assembly during early ontogenetic stages. Here...

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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) symbioses are thought to help plants to cope with harsh environments and to affect not only plant fitness, but also ecological organization from population to ecosystem level. Here, we investigated to what extent this association was present, and what the major environmental drivers were in a human-modified landsc...

The mechanisms affecting forest regeneration in human‐modified landscapes are attracting increasing attention as tropical forests have been recognized as key habitats for biodiversity conservation, provision of ecosystem services, and human well‐being. Here we investigate the effect of the leaf‐cutting ants (LCA) Atta opaciceps on regenerating plan...

Very large tropical forest trees (‘mega-trees’) represent an irreplaceable habitat associated with large benefits in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Here we provide a comprehensive overview of the importance of tropical mega-trees relative to biodiversity persistence, ecosystem services, and sociocultural value. We describe all contem...

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research sp...

Visando a formação de mestres e doutores críticos e treinados na elaboração de projetos de pesquisa, os cursos de campo têm sido bastante fomentados por vários programas de pós-graduação e instituições de ensino em várias partes do mundo. No Brasil, essa tradição surgiu no final dos anos 70 com a realização de um curso de campo na Amazônia, a parti...

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have been recognized as key ecological players in arid and semiarid regions at both local and global scales. They are important biodiversity components, provide critical ecosystem services, and strongly influence soil-plant relationships, and successional trajectories via facilitative, competitive, and edaphic eng...

Chronic anthropogenic disturbances (CAD) and rainfall are important drivers of plant community assembly, but little is known about the role played by inter‐ and intraspecific trait variation as communities respond to these pervasive forces. Here, we examined the hypothesis that lower precipitation and higher CAD reduce both intra‐ and interspecific...

Anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are major threats to biodiversity persistence and functioning of many tropical ecosystems. Although increases in the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are associated with reduced taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversities of several organisms, little is known about how suc...

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-i...

Understanding how species assembly is influenced by the interplay of climate, local environmental conditions and human-caused disturbances remains a central question in ecology and conservation. Here, we assess how plant species abundance is determined by combinations of functional traits (ecological strategies) and interacting gradients of rainfal...

Global climate change alters the dynamic of natural ecosystems and directly affects species distributions, persistence and diversity. The impacts of climate change may lead to dramatic changes in biotic interactions, such as pollination and seed dispersal. Life history traits are extremely important to consider the vulnerability of a species to cli...

1. Tropical plant assemblages can be taxonomically and phylogenetically impoverished by chronic anthropogenic disturbance (CAD), such as firewood collection and extensive grazing. However, to what extent the functional dimension responds to CAD is still unclear. Such knowledge is urgently required for predicting, preventing or even reversing the im...

Leaf-cutting ants are dominant herbivores in Neotropical rain forests, and their colony densities increase in disturbed habitats such as forest edges. However, while it is well-established that leaf-cutting ants profit from changes to the food-plant community, the phylogenetic dimension of this ant-plant interaction remains poorly understood in fra...

Aboveground biomass is an important predictor of net primary productivity and provision of ecosystem services such as carbon storage and food supply. However, biomass can be a complex and multi-driven ecosystem feature, particularly in tropical forests experiencing human disturbances. Here we examine the potential effects of forest successional sta...

Protected areas are an important strategy to safeguard biodiversity. However, if social development is not considered, biological conservation targets may not be achieved. In this empirical study, we assess the relationship between poverty and conservation goals in dry forests within a 62,000-ha Brazilian National Park (Caatinga biome). We conducte...

Anthropogenic disturbance causes many impacts across multiple levels of biological organization from populations to ecosystems. However, the extent of cross-taxon congruence in biotic responses to disturbance, and therefore the utility of using particular taxa as indicators of broader biotic responses, is poorly known. In this study, we examine the...