Disentangling the veil line for Brazilian biodiversity: An overview from two long-term research programs reveals huge gaps in ecological data reporting.

The lack of synthesized information regarding biodiversity is a major problem among researchers, leading to a pervasive cycle where ecologists make field campaigns to collect information that already exists and yet has not been made available for a broader audience. This problem leads to long-lasting effects in public policies such as spending money multiple times to conduct similar studies in the same area. We aim to identify this knowledge gap by synthesizing information available regarding two Brazilian long-term biodiversity programs and the metadata generated by them.

Long-term female bias in sex ratios across life stages of Harpy Eagle, a large raptor exhibiting reverse sexual size dimorphism.

The primary (PSR), secondary (SSR) and adult (ASR) sex ratios of sexually reproducing organisms influence their life histories. Species exhibiting reversed sexual size dimorphism (RSD) may imply a higher cost of female production or lower female survival, thus generating biases in PSR, SSR and/or ASR towards males. The Harpy Eagle is the world's largest eagle exhibiting RSD.

The prey of the Harpy Eagle in its last reproductive refuges in the Atlantic Forest.

The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is threatened with extinction throughout its distribution in the neotropical forests. In the Atlantic Forest, deforestation has reduced the number of suitable habitats, with only a few remnant forest fragments hosting active nests; currently, the only known nests in this region are in the Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor (CAFEC), in Brazil. Little is known about Harpy Eagle diets in this region, despite this information being essential for developing effective conservation strategies.

Long-term Ecological Research: Chasing fashions or being prepared for fashion changes?

Long-term-ecological-research (LTER) faces many challenges, including the difficulty of obtaining long-term funding, changes in research questions and sampling designs, keeping researchers collecting standardized data for many years, impediments to interactions with local people, and the difficulty of integrating the needs of local decision makers with "big science". These issues result in a lack of universally accepted guidelines as to how research should be done and integrated among LTER sites. Here we discuss how the RAPELD (standardized field infrastructure system), can help deal with these issues as a complementary technique in LTER studies, allowing comparisons across landscapes and ecosystems and reducing sampling costs.

Ex situ population of the Harpy Eagle and its potential for integrated conservation.

A main priority in conservation is the protection of species in their natural habitat. However, ex situ management of threatened species is a recognised strategy of conservation. Harpy Eagles () are removed from the wild due to illegal capture, nest tree destruction, or other conflict sources.

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics.

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae.

Positive roadside edge effects on artificial nest survival in a lowland Atlantic Forest.

Road construction is considered to be one of the primary causes of forest fragmentation, and little is known about how roads affect bird reproductive success. The objective of this study was to assess the survival rate of artificial nests along an edge associated with a highway and in the interior of a tabuleiro forest. The study was performed at the Sooretama Biological Reserve, on the margins of federal highway BR-101, between September and October 2015.

BRAZIL ROAD-KILL: a data set of wildlife terrestrial vertebrate road-kills.

Mortality from collision with vehicles is the most visible impact of road traffic on wildlife. Mortality due to roads (hereafter road-kill) can affect the dynamic of populations of many species and can, therefore, increase the risk of local decline or extinction. This is especially true in Brazil, where plans for road network upgrading and expansion overlaps biodiversity hotspot areas, which are of high importance for global conservation.

GIS applied to location of fires detection towers in domain area of tropical forest.

In most countries, the loss of biodiversity caused by the fires is worrying. In this sense, the fires detection towers are crucial for rapid identification of fire outbreaks and can also be used in environmental inspection, biodiversity monitoring, telecommunications mechanisms, telemetry and others. Currently the methodologies for allocating fire detection towers over large areas are numerous, complex and non-standardized by government supervisory agencies.

Reduction of Genetic Diversity of the Harpy Eagle in Brazilian Tropical Forests.

Habitat loss and fragmentation intensify the effects of genetic drift and endogamy, reducing genetic variability of populations with serious consequences for wildlife conservation. The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a forest dwelling species that is considered near threatened and suffers from habitat loss in the forests of the Neotropical region. In this study, 72 historical and current samples were assessed using eight autosomal microsatellite markers to investigate the distribution of genetic diversity of the Harpy Eagle of the Amazonian and Atlantic forests in Brazil.

Using DNA Barcodes to Identify Road-Killed Animals in Two Atlantic Forest Nature Reserves, Brazil.

Road mortality is the leading source of biodiversity loss in the world, especially due to fragmentation of natural habitats and loss of wildlife. The survey of the main species victims of roadkill is of fundamental importance for the better understanding of the problem, being necessary, for this, the correct species identification. The aim of this study was to verify if DNA barcodes can be applied to identify road-killed samples that often cannot be determined morphologically.