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SECO Project
We are very proud to be a part of this bold project!!! SECO is a research project funded by NERC that will generate the first ever estimates of key carbon fluxes across the dry tropics. Collaborators from more than 20 countries will use data from over 600 forest and savanna plot, radar remote sensing and modelling to understand how the vegetation of the dry tropics is changing. Outputs from this project will inform the global carbon budget and global vegetation modeling, which are crucial to better understanding climate change.
The effects of desertification on the biodiversity of plants bearing extrafloral nectaries and their interactions with nectarivorous ants.
The Caatinga covers ~730 thousand km2 of Brazilian territory and currently has 80% of its vegetation impacted by extractivism and agriculture Such activities have been generating changes in the Caatinga that lead to areas experiencing desertification which reduces the abundance, number of species and diversity of plants, modifying the animal communities that depend on these primary producers. Ant communities are an example, as they maintain associations with plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFNs). NEFs comprise an indirect defense for plants, they secrete nectar (sugar solution), which is the main reward for the services provided by ants that interact with the plant, providing protection against herbivores. As desertification reduces the diversity of plant species, there may be a reduction in the diversity of extrafloral nectar offered to ants. Thus, our hypothesis is that desertification reduces the diversity of nectar (types of nectar with different compounds) being offered to ants, which directly impacts the diversity of nectarivorous ants visiting species with NEFs.
"O efeito da desertificação na biodiversidade de plantas portadoras de nectários extraflorais e suas interações com formigas nectarívoras" (Chamada CNPq/MCTI No 10/2023 - Faixa A - Grupos EmergentesProcesso: 407358/2023-4.)
Morphoanatomical contributions on the resolution of taxonomic issues in Senegalia Raf.
Senegalia Raf. is a genus of the “Clade Mimosoideae” (Leguminosae) with ~200 species out of which ~100 species occurrs in the Americas, especially Brazil. Certain species of this genus are difficult to be recognized, mainly due to the overlapping of morphological characteristics, such as: number of pairs of pinnae, leaflet shape and morphology of extrafloral nectaries. The consequence of this overlapping of characters is the occurrence of species complexes.
The taxonomic delimitation of species complexes is still difficult due to the lack of phylogenetic and biogeographic data on these species. In cases where external morphology presents overlapping patterns of variation, morphoanatomical characteristics have been used as additional tools useful in the segregation of closely related species. Thus, this project aims to carry out the leaf morphoanatomical description of species from different complexes, emphasizing the distinctive characters of these species, thus adding data that assist in the delimitation of these species.
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