The distribution and conservation of areas with microendemic species in a biodiversity hotspot: a multi-taxa approach.

Background: Microendemic species are species with very small geographic distributions (ranges). Their presence delimitates areas with microendemic species (AMs), denoting a spatial unit comprising at least one population of at least one microendemic species. AMs are assumed to be distributed distinctively and associated with specific ecological, historical, and anthropogenic attributes.

Human disturbance is the major driver of vegetation changes in the Caatinga dry forest region.

Drastic changes in vegetation structure caused by exceeding ecological thresholds have fueled the interest in tropical forest responses to climate and land-use changes. Here, we examine the potential successional trajectories experienced by the largest dry tropical forest region in South America, driven by climate conditions and human disturbance. We built potential distribution models for vertebrate taxa associated with forest or shrub habitats to estimate natural vegetation cover.

Data of plant diversity, spectral reflectance at specie level and satellite spectral variables from the largest dry forest nucleus in South America.

The use of satellite remote sensing makes it possible to acquire useful information about the environment, since it presents tools capable of assisting the practical search of information related to species richness. Here we present data on richness and Shannon index from phytosociological researches, vegetation indices and individual bands spectral reflectance from satellite images and leaf-level spectral reflectance from eight Caatinga species. For further interpretation of the data presented in this article, please see the research article "Predicting plant species richness with satellite images in the largest dry forest nucleus in South America" [1].

Bird distributional patterns support biogeographical histories and are associated with bioclimatic units in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil.

Rivers as barriers to dispersal and past forest refugia are two of the hypotheses proposed to explain the patterns of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest. It has recently been shown that possible past refugia correspond to bioclimatically different regions, so we tested whether patterns of shared distribution of bird taxa in the Atlantic Forest are 1) limited by the Doce and São Francisco rivers or 2) associated with the bioclimatically different southern and northeastern regions. We catalogued lists of forest birds from 45 locations, 36 in the Atlantic forest and nine in Amazon, and used parsimony analysis of endemicity to identify groups of shared taxa.

Climatic Variables Do Not Directly Predict Spider Richness and Abundance in Semiarid Caatinga Vegetation, Brazil.

Spiders are abundant in tropical ecosystems and exert predatory pressure on a wide variety of invertebrate populations and also serve as prey for many others organisms, being part of complex interrelationships influenced directly and indirectly by a myriad of factors. We examined the influence of biotic (i.e.

Birds and people in semiarid northeastern Brazil: symbolic and medicinal relationships.

Background: At least 511 species of birds occur in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil and many of them interact with human populations in a number of different ways, including their use in zootherapeutics and their links with local beliefs.

Objective: The present work examined these types of birds/human interactions (use in zootherapeutics and their links with local beliefs) in the semiarid region of Rio Grande do Norte State in northeastern Brazil.

Methods: Information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 120 local residents.

Ethnotaxonomy of mastofauna as practised by hunters of the municipality of Paulista, state of Paraíba-Brazil.

It was aimed in the present work to report aspects related to identification, naming and categorization of the mastofauna species of the caatinga biome, according to hunters' knowledge of Northeast Brazil. The methods of free and semi-structured interviews and guided tours were applied here. The data obtained were analyzed under the emic/etic point of view by comparing the local people's knowledge to those reported in the literature.