Forest fragmentation and impacts of intensive agriculture: Responses from different tree functional groups.

Agricultural landscapes are seen as areas of extreme importance for studying and developing strategies which integrate biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services with food production. The main strategies for intensifying agriculture are based on conventional agricultural practices of frequently using inputs for fertilization and correcting soil pH. Some studies show that these practices generate impacts on nearby forest fragments through soil contamination and increasing nutrient content. The objective of this study was to identify the impacts on the functional groups of sciophilous (late successional/shade-tolerant species) and heliophilous (pioneer/sun-loving) species of a tree community of 14 forest fragments near pasture areas and agricultural areas under conventional practices, raising the hypothesis that higher-fertility forest fragments adjacent to intensive agriculture modify the floristic composition of the tree community. Consequently, this study is based on the following questions: i) Do forest fragments within intensive farming environments present differences in floristic composition of species?; ii) Does the soil fertility influence the tree species composition?; iii) Which variables influence species abundance and richness in the forest fragments with different types of use around their environment? The floristic composition of fragments close to agricultural areas are more similar to each other than the composition of fragments close to pasture areas. Furthermore, the General Linear Model (GLM) results show a clear influence of the intensive farming environment on the richness and abundance of the two functional groups in the forest fragments, directly benefiting the abundance of heliophilous species, which are also benefited by the greater declivity and smaller fragment area, while the abundance of sciophytes is negatively correlated with these last two variables. The increase of calcium content is beneficial for the richness of heliophilous species, while the increase in phosphorus content influences a reduction in the richness of sciophyte species, which also strongly respond to the isolation between fragments. The results indicate a dominance trend of pioneer species in fragments with nutritionally enriched soils, providing evidence that the intense adoption of inputs in cultivated areas causes concrete impacts on the diversity of the tree community.

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest.

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events.

Bromeliaceae da Ilha Grande, RJ: revisão da lista de espécies / Bromeliaceae of Ilha Grande: species checklist review

A Ilha Grande, localizada no sul do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, vem se destacando como importante área para fins conservacionistas, especialmente por ser um fragmento representativo de Floresta Atlântica e por apresentar um elevado número de estudos sobre a flora e a fauna local. Este estudo visa analisar o atual status do conhecimento sobre a família Bromeliaceae nesta localidade e analisar o incremento da lista de espécies desta família ao longo do tempo de estudo e do esforço amostral. Foram registradas 58 espécies de Bromeliaceae para a Ilha Grande, das quais 47 foram amostradas apenas com a metodologia empregada neste estudo e constituem registros novos para a Ilha Grande.

Ilha Grande, located at the Southern coast of Rio de Janeiro State, is constantly punctuated as an important area for conservational purposes, specially because it is a representative fragment of Atlantic forest and presents a high number of studies about the local fauna and flora. The aim of this study is to analyze the current knowledge of Bromeliaceae family at this island, and understand how the increase of the family's species list occurred through out the amount of time and sampling effort of this study. A total of 58 species of Bromeliaceae were listed for Ilha Grande, and 47 of them were sampled using only the methodology adopted at this study and, therefore, constitute new records for Ilha Grande.