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.

Tropical and temperate differences in the trophic structure and aquatic prey use of riparian predators.

The influence of aquatic resource-inputs on terrestrial communities is poorly understood, particularly in the tropics. We used stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen to trace aquatic prey use and quantify the impact on trophic structure in 240 riparian arthropod communities in tropical and temperate forests. Riparian predators consumed more aquatic prey and were more trophically diverse in the tropics than temperate regions, indicating tropical riparian communities are both more reliant on and impacted by aquatic resources than temperate communities.

Change in the faunal composition of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) along a heterogeneous landscape gradient in the Brazilian Amazon.

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different anthropic landscape profiles on the diversity and distribution of mosquito species in a rural settlement of the Brazilian Amazon. Eight field collections were conducted at 18 sampling points interspersed throughout 2020-2021. Plastic containers, bamboo internodes, and tires were used as traps to capture immature mosquitoes in three distinct habitats: forest, forest edge, and peridomicile.

The role of morphological traits in predicting the functional ecology of arboreal and ground ants in the Cerrado-Amazon transition.

There is often a vertical stratification of the vegetation in tropical forests, where each forest stratum has a unique set of environmental conditions, including marked differences in habitat heterogeneity, physical complexity, and microclimate. Additionally, many tropical forests are highly seasonal, and we need to consider the temporal variation in environmental conditions when assessing the functional aspects of their organisms. Here, we tested the hypothesis that vertical stratification and seasonality shape tropical ants' functional ecology and that there are differences in the functional trait diversity and composition between arboreal and ground-dwelling ant communities.

Climate variability and aridity modulate the role of leaf shelters for arthropods: A global experiment.

Current climate change is disrupting biotic interactions and eroding biodiversity worldwide. However, species sensitive to aridity, high temperatures, and climate variability might find shelter in microclimatic refuges, such as leaf rolls built by arthropods. To explore how the importance of leaf shelters for terrestrial arthropods changes with latitude, elevation, and climate, we conducted a distributed experiment comparing arthropods in leaf rolls versus control leaves across 52 sites along an 11,790 km latitudinal gradient.

Subtle structures with not-so-subtle functions: A data set of arthropod constructs and their host plants.

The construction of shelters on plants by arthropods might influence other organisms via changes in colonization, community richness, species composition, and functionality. Arthropods, including beetles, caterpillars, sawflies, spiders, and wasps often interact with host plants via the construction of shelters, building a variety of structures such as leaf ties, tents, rolls, and bags; leaf and stem galls, and hollowed out stems. Such constructs might have both an adaptive value in terms of protection (i.

Reconciling biome-wide conservation of an apex carnivore with land-use economics in the increasingly threatened Pantanal wetlands.

Conservation of carnivores involves finding solutions to minimize habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict. Understanding the nature of land-use economics can allow us to mitigate both threats. In the Pantanal, the two main economic activities are cattle ranching and ecotourism, each of which directly and indirectly affect the persistence of jaguars (Panthera onca).

Re-establishment of cavity-nesting bee and wasp communities along a reforestation gradient in southern Amazonia.

Global initiatives to reforest degraded areas have intensified in recent years, in an attempt to reverse the environmental impacts of habitat loss on species and ecosystem provided by them. However, the effectiveness of such reforestation initiatives in re-establishing biodiversity is still poorly understood. Here, we test how reforestation type and intensity applied to deforested areas affect the reestablishment of communities of cavity-nesting bees and wasps.

Species-level drivers of mammalian ectoparasite faunas.

Traditionally, most studies have described the organization of host-parasite interaction networks by considering only few host groups at limited geographical extents. However, host-parasite relationships are merged within different taxonomic groups and factors shaping these interactions likely differ between host and parasite groups, making group-level differences important to better understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of these interactive communities. Here we used a dataset of 629 ectoparasite species and 251 species of terrestrial mammals, comprising 10 orders distributed across the Nearctic and Neotropical regions of Mexico to assess the species-level drivers of mammalian ectoparasite faunas.

The influence of spatial sampling scales on ant-plant interaction network architecture.

Despite great interest in metrics to quantify the structure of ecological networks, the effects of sampling and scale remain poorly understood. In fact, one of the most challenging issues in ecology is how to define suitable scales (i.e.

Postponing the production of ant domatia as a strategy promoting an escape from flooding in an Amazonian myrmecophyte.

Background And Aims: Even when adapted to flooding environments, the spatial distribution, growing strategies and anti-herbivore defences of plants face stressful conditions. Here we describe the effects of flooding on carbon allocation on growth, domatia and leaf production, and the herbivory on the myrmecophyte domatia-bearing Tococa coronata Benth. (Melastomataceae) growing along river banks in the Amazon region.

Why be red listed? Threatened Myriapoda species in Brazil with implications for their conservation.

The biodiversity crisis we live in, marked by high extinction rates, requires well-planned conservation efforts. To overcome this issue, red lists of threatened species are recognized as the main objective approach for evaluating the conservation status of species and therefore guiding conservation priorities. This work focuses on the Myriapoda (Chilopoda and Diplopoda) species listed in the Brazilian red list of fauna to enable discussion of the practical implications of red lists for conservation.

Assemblage and functional categorization of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) from the Pantanal.

The Pantanal is one of the world's largest tropical wetland areas and harbors high mammal biomass. There is no formal list of dung beetle species, and studies on their functional roles have never being carried out in Pantanal. In this study, we identified dung beetle species occurring in the north Pantanal region (Poconé sub-region, Brazil) and studied their functional organization, by measuring morphological, behavioral and phenological traits.

Individual-based ant-plant networks: diurnal-nocturnal structure and species-area relationship.

Despite the importance and increasing knowledge of ecological networks, sampling effort and intrapopulation variation has been widely overlooked. Using continuous daily sampling of ants visiting three plant species in the Brazilian Neotropical savanna, we evaluated for the first time the topological structure over 24 h and species-area relationships (based on the number of extrafloral nectaries available) in individual-based ant-plant networks. We observed that diurnal and nocturnal ant-plant networks exhibited the same pattern of interactions: a nested and non-modular pattern and an average level of network specialization.

The structure of ant-plant ecological networks: is abundance enough?

Knowledge of the mechanisms that shape biodiversity is essential to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of interacting species. Recent studies posit that most of the organization of mutualistic networks is shaped by differences in species abundance among interacting species. In this study, we examined the mutualism involving plants with extrafloral nectaries and their associated ants.

Experimental Plasmodium vivax infection of key Anopheles species from the Brazilian Amazon.

Background: Anopheles darlingi is the major malaria vector in countries located in the Amazon region. Anopheles aquasalis and Anopheles albitarsis s.l.

The geographic distribution of parasite-induced fruit mimicry in Cephalotes atratus (Formicidae: Myrmicinae).

Parasite distributions fundamentally depend on the distributions of their hosts but may be more restricted than their hosts. Host-parasite symbioses tend to be spatially aggregated, and widely distributed host-parasite relationships are rare. Here, we combine field observations with published collection data to document the current known distribution of the nematode, Myrmeconema neotropicum, which infects the Neotropical canopy ant Cephalotes atratus.

Asymmetric dispersal and colonization success of Amazonian plant-ants queens.

Background: The dispersal ability of queens is central to understanding ant life-history evolution, and plays a fundamental role in ant population and community dynamics, the maintenance of genetic diversity, and the spread of invasive ants. In tropical ecosystems, species from over 40 genera of ants establish colonies in the stems, hollow thorns, or leaf pouches of specialized plants. However, little is known about the relative dispersal ability of queens competing for access to the same host plants.

Mansonella ozzardi in Brazil: prevalence of infection in riverine communities in the Purus region, in the state of Amazonas.

This study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of Mansonella ozzardi infection and to estimate the parasitic infection rate (PIR) in simuliid black flies in the municipality of Pauini, Amazonas, Brazil. We used thick blood films to examine 921 individuals in 35 riverine communities along the Pauini and Purus Rivers. Simuliids were caught in several communities.

Interaction intimacy affects structure and coevolutionary dynamics in mutualistic networks.

The structure of mutualistic networks provides clues to processes shaping biodiversity [1-10]. Among them, interaction intimacy, the degree of biological association between partners, leads to differences in specialization patterns [4, 11] and might affect network organization [12]. Here, we investigated potential consequences of interaction intimacy for the structure and coevolution of mutualistic networks.

Cheating the cheater: domatia loss minimizes the effects of ant castration in an Amazonian ant-plant.

We studied the relationship between Hirtella myrmecophila (Chrysobalanaceae), a common but little-studied Amazonian ant-plant that produces leaf-pouches as domatia, and its obligate ant partner, Allomerus octoarticulatus. Field observations revealed that H. myrmecophila drops domatia from older leaves, a characteristic that is unique among myrmecophytes.