
Pia ParolinMax Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Pia Parolin
Dr. rer. nat. Habil.
About
234
Publications
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Introduction
I hold a PhD in biology and am a tropical ecologist working in wetlands: plant ecology, adaptations to flood, drought and fire, conservation and restoration of wetlands.
Since 2017, I am also an artistic photographer and I aim at combining science and photography to increase awareness and conservation of wetlands and (tropical) ecosystems.
Since 2020, I am a book author for dpunkt Verlag and Maison Editrice Baie des Anges.
Additional affiliations
April 2009 - present
January 2000 - December 2005
April 2009 - December 2012
Publications
Publications (234)
The Amazon basin is undergoing an unprecedented transformation during recent decades driven by anthropogenic-dominated disturbance regimes and increasing hydroclimatic extremes. This affects the large Amazonian river-floodplains influenced by annual, regular and predictable flood pulses with high amplitudes, the várzeas and igapós, which cover an a...
Introduction
Trees from flooded forests have to adjust their xylem hydraulic structure to face the annual flooding and the climatic conditions of the atmosphere. Usually, this adjustment of anatomical tissues in the tropics is driven by drought events inducing conservative behavior and can be recorded annually in tree rings. However, how the flood...
Amazonia’s floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree...
Several hypotheses try to explain the factors that limit the distribution of tree species in wetlands. Among them, the stress-gradient hypothesis states that interspecific ecological interactions (facilitation and competition) vary inversely across abiotic stress gradients, with facilitation being more common under conditions of high abiotic stress...
Tropical wetlands vegetation is highly diverse and fundamental for ecosystem functioning supporting a huge associated biota including human populations. Wetland vegetation developed specific adaptations to cope with the reduction or absence of oxygen when flooded by freshwater. Over time, the riverine human populations on all continents have develo...
CHAPTER IN GERMAN - Wetlands occur all over the world. In the tropical regions, depending on the level and regularity of the flooding and the type of soil, they are pronounced as dense forests, open savannahs or as swamps and extensive moors. The duration of the moisture phase is of decisive importance for soil formation and for the prevailing vege...
Key message
Tree growth of Nectandra amazonum (Lauraceae) in the Central Amazonian floodplains does not respond to the annual long-term flooding but responds to variation of minimum temperature and potential evapotranspiration.
Abstract
During the last two decades, the Central Amazon region has been impacted by increasingly frequent and more sever...
Flood and fire act as ecological filters which can interact to shape forest structure and species composition. Our objective was to investigate how the interaction between fire and flood influences richness, abundance, basal area and species composition of the tree community and the monodominant belts of Attalea phalerata Mart. in forest islets of...
The large flood pulse of the Amazon basin is a principal driver of environmental heterogeneity with important implications for ecosystem function and the assembly of natural communities. Understanding species ecological response to the flood pulse is thus a key question with implications for theories of species coexistence, resource management, and...
We present an overview of wetland plants in freshwater environments. We describe which major plant groups can be encountered and which are their adaptations, classification, ecology, and distribution. Some main concepts are covered, such as the flood pulse concept, the intermediate hypothesis, and the point of non-return hypothesis, which we apply...
Fire in seasonally inundated floodplains sounds like a contradictory issue. Nevertheless, many tropical and subtropical wetlands in the world, such as Pantanal, are fire-prone. Fire can interact with inundation in these systems determining variation in their vegetation structure, functioning, and composition. This chapter aims to describe the fire...
Plant species are valuable indicators of habitat conditions under seasonal and decadal climatic fluctuations. Here we compile data on the distribution of 492 tree, shrub, and palm species across the Pantanal wetland, describe the occurrence and distribution of vegetation types in biogeographic provinces (or subregions), and explore and discuss the...
Research Highlights: Our study establishes the biennial nature of flowering intensity as a life-time energy-conserving strategy; we show unexpectedly high flower:fruit ratios despite extensive predation of buds and flowers by insect larvae; ‘selective’ bud abortion may be a key annual energy-saving strategy. Background and Objectives: We aim to exp...
In order to test the effect of the lower availability of water for vegetation in a tropical Amazonian forest, a long-term research project was created in 2001 called Projeto Seca Floresta (ESECAFLOR). The main objective of the project is to determine how a significant reduction of the available water in the soil, in the long term, can affect the bi...
ATBC conference Declarations are useful tools for conveying pressing tropical conservation issues with a global audience. We surveyed media and social media posts for the 16 ATBC Declarations and found that there is considerable scope to increase social media coverage of Declarations via mainstream platforms. We present five case study Declarations...
The relationship between seed germination and ecological niche is determined by matching germination characteristics with environmental features. In this study, we selected tree species occurring in the largest savanna wetland in South America – the Pantanal. Very few species are endemic or exclusively found in savanna wetlands, and the majority of...
Southeast (SE) Asia holds high regional biodiversity and endemism levels but is also one of the world's most threatened regions. Local, regional and global threats could have severe consequences for the future survival of many species and the provision of ecosystem services.
In the face of myriad pressing environmental problems, we carried out a r...
Banker plants can enhance biological pest control by providing both floral resources and appropriate oviposition sites, e.g. through acarodomatia, to predator species. The use of materials mimicking domatia i.e. artificial domatia may be an economically favourable alternative to the use of banker plants bearing domatia. The aim of the present study...
IPCC predictions indicate an increase in temperatures by 1.5–7°C in some Amazonian regions during the twenty-first century. These changes could disrupt the present distribution patterns of organisms, including wetland plant species. In this work, we determined in microcosms the effects of scenarios combining elevated temperature and atmospheric CO2...
Understanding and predicting vegetation patterns in floodplains is essential for
conservation and/or restoration of river floodplains subject to hydrological alterations.
We propose a conceptual hydroecological model to explain the disturbance
mechanisms driving species diversity across large river floodplains. These ecosystems
harbour a unique set...
Significance
Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, diversity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification tha...
Wetlands harbor an important compliment of regional plant diversity, but in many regions data on wetland diversity and composition is still lacking, thus hindering our understanding of the processes that control it. While patterns of broad-scale terrestrial diversity and composition typically correlate with contemporary climate it is not clear to w...
Distribution of Fisher’s alpha values in the investigated biomes, sensu Veloso [38].
Median values are indicated with a thick vertical line. Note that median values are relatively similar for the three best-sampled biomes (Amazon, Atlantic Forest, and Cerrado).
(TIFF)
Coverage-based species accumulation curves for each biome seperately and the combined dataset.
We used the function iNEXT from the ‘iNEXT’ package [56] with the settings iNEXT(x, q = 0, datatype = “incidence_freq”, conf = 0.95).
(TIFF)
Species checklist for wetland trees in Brazil.
Author names and synonymies were checked using the taxonomic name resolution service. Species frequencies are given for each biome.
(XLSX)
Non-metric multidimensional scaling of wetland vegetation communities.
The solution was optimized for two dimensions and rotated to principal components (see Fig 2). The main distinction with the principal components configuration is the relative position of Caatinga sites, which are more outlying in the NMDS. Fitted vectors are of WorldClim climat...
Quantile regression coefficients, intercepts, and 95% confidence intervals for all quantiles.
Generally, coefficients are nearly zero for the lower to mid quantiles of the distribution, but rapidly increase at the highest quantiles. The pattern indicates strong climate association only at maximal wetland tree diversity, driven by relatively few sit...
List of 196 freshwater wetland tree inventories collated for this study.
Biome sensu Veloso [38] is indicated by code (AM = Amazon, AF = Atlantic Forest, CERR = Cerrado, CAAT = Caatinga, PM = Pampas). The number of individuals and species were taken directly from each publication and used to calculate Fisher’s Alpha.
(DOCX)
Species x site data in three-column format.
(XLSX)
Density functions of diversity at opposite climate extremes.
Estimated density functions are based on the corresponding quantile regression solutions (see Fig 4) for all values of tau in 0 to 1. Estimates are presented for the 10th and 90th quantiles of each climate variable, as specified in the legend insets. Mean annual temperature is multiplied...
The spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch and the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer) both infest a number of economically significant crops, including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Although used for decades to control pests, the impact of green lacewing larvae Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) on plant biochemistry was not investigated. Here, we used profil...
C. carnea larva on a leaf of tomato S. lycopersicum “Ailsa Craig.”.
Mean (±SD) peak area of the most abundant volatiles emitted by tomato S. lycopersicum “Ailsa Craig” leaves after four weeks of treatment with spider mites T. urticae and/or aphids M. persicae in the presence/absence of predaceous C. carnea larvae.
Targeted-analysis of free amino acids. (A) Mean (±SD) concentration of free amino acids in the leaves of tomato S. lycopersicum “Ailsa Craig” after 4 weeks of treatment with spider mites T. urticae and/or aphids M. persicae in the presence/absence of predaceous C. carnea larvae (ng/g dry weight). (B) Mean (±SD) concentration of free amino acids in...
Tentative identification (±10 ppm) of tomato metabolites (S. lycopersicum “Ailsa Craig”) significantly impacted after four weeks of treatment with spider mites T. urticae and/or aphids M. persicae in the presence/absence of predaceous C. carnea larvae (p ≤ 0.01, one-way ANOVA, fold change ≥ 2, N = 7).
The introduction of exotic species is considered as one of the major causes of biodiversity loss. The National Forest of Carajás is one of the largest mineral provinces in the world. Mining activities caused changes of the natural habitats, leaving degraded areas after the mineral exploitation. One of the mining areas within FLONA Carajás was used...
Resumen
Amazonian várzea forests are characterized by a high diversity of species and adaptations against extended flooding. Waterlogging and submergence can last up to 210 days per year, with a water column of up to 6-7 m. The present paper gives an insight into the current knowledge of morpho-anatomical, phenological and physiological responses...
This chapter focuses on trees and their responses to flooding in large fresh water flood-pulsed ecosystems. The regularity and predictability of the flood pulse has allowed for the development of adaptations by which a large number of tree species are able to grow in ecosystems subjected to seasonally inundated sites. By comparing diversity and tre...
Question
The encroachment of woody species has been globally reported over much of arid and semi‐arid biomes, and has been associated with a decrease in cover and number of herbaceous species. How does the encroachment of a woody shrub affect herbaceous community structure and species composition in grasslands of a wetland ecosystem?
Location
Seas...
Species composition and occurrence of aquatic macrophytes in the Amazon Basin are associated
with the hydrology and geomorphology of the catchment area. Nonetheless, the distribution of the
Neotropical genus Montrichardia in the Amazon floodplains remains unclear. Three taxa of the genus
were described: Montrichardia linifera (Arr.) Schott (ML), as...
This chapter focuses on trees and their responses to flooding in large fresh water flood-pulsed ecosystems. The regularity and predictability of the flood pulse has allowed for the development of adaptations by which a large number of tree species are able to grow in ecosystems subjected to seasonally inundated sites. By comparing diversity and tre...
L’ajout d’une plante banque telle que Viburnum tinus (cf fg. 1) à une culture de rosiers, améliore le contrôle biologique de l’acarien ravageur Tetranychus urticae. En favorisant l’établissement de manière durable la présence de l’acarien prédateur Neoseiulus californicus, la plante banque favorise la productivité de la culture et augmente l’effica...
Species composition and occurrence of aquatic macrophytes in the Amazon Basin are associated with the hydrology and geomorphology of the catchment area. Nonetheless, the distribution of the Neotropical genus Montrichardia in the Amazon floodplains remains unclear. Three taxa of the genus were described: Montrichardia linifera (Arr.) Schott (ML), as...
The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher’s alpha and an approx...
In order to reduce the use of pesticides, banker plants may be added to crop systems. They can improve the presence of predatory arthropods by offering shelter or alternative food. In the present study, we analyzed basil as banker plant in a greenhouse Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tomato crop system testing different plant combinations in monoc...
The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approx...
Flowering and fruiting phenology of Bactris glaucescens (tTucum), its fruit consumption by Piaractus mesopotamicus (Ppacu), and the possible dispersal of its diaspores were observed in riparian forests and nearby places of a secondary channel of Rio Paraguai. Between February and October of 1998, 136 individuals of Piaractus P. mesopotamicus were c...
This review aims at better understanding the employment of biocontrol plants in order to enhance the stability of populations of predatory mites in crop systems, with the ultimate goal to reduce pesticide use and to control pest mites on roses. We analyzed if plant species used in a banker plant system influenced the success in terms of quality of...
Plants which are added to a crop system may enhance the stable presence of predators. Acarodomatia could be a valuable functional characteristic for biocontrol plants employed in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We tested the hypotheses that presence and availability of domatia on potential banker plants increases the stability of predatory mites´...
Successional sequences from open sites to closed forests may take different pathways depending on the initially established vegetation. In Amazonian whitewater floodplains, we analysed encroachment by a monodominant shrub, the native fast-growing woody Senna reticulata. We analysed the impact of S. reticulata on woody plant diversity and the develo...
The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher’s alpha and an approx...
Virola surinamensis is a dioecious timber species of Amazonian floodplain forests. It is threatened by extinction and a priority species in the conservation program of genetic resources with high economic value for Brazil. The present study was aimed to assess the population structure of Virola surinamensis and the impact of logging in the estuary...
The predatory mirid bug Macrolophus pygmaeus is employed to control the whitefly pest Trialeurodes vaporariorum in tomato crops. In our study we analyzed tobacco as biocontrol plant to maintain and multiply the population of predators and reduce pest presence. Over eight weeks, we assessed numbers of individuals of M. pygmaeus and T. vaporariorum o...