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The restriction of access to natural resources by human populations due to the establishment and management of protected areas (PAs) can spark conservation conflicts (CCs) and undermine PA objectives. PAs have different management objectives and restriction levels; therefore, understanding the drivers, and the occurrence and importance of CCs in different groups of PAs is essential for conflict management. Herein, we built a conservation conflict hierarchical matrix (CCHM) using the information provided by the managers of 76 PAs in Brazil. We found that the restrictiveness of the PAs influenced the occurrence of CCs. We also found that the occurrence values of the CCs were lower in the Private Natural Heritage Reserves (PNHRs) compared to the values observed for the CCs in the full protection and sustainable use groups, which did not differ from each other. In addition, we noted that sustainable use PA managers indicated higher relative values of importance for most CCs compared to those indicated by full protection PA and private reserve managers. We also found that the drivers of the main conflicts depend on PA restrictiveness and that managers refer to environmental education as the main strategy to mitigate the conflicts. We concluded that different restriction levels in PAs promote different CC patterns and their respective drivers. Finally, given the different contexts and CCs experienced in different PAs, our results suggest that a collaborative approach between stakeholders using the CCHM can be beneficial to the management of local CCs.

Aims We aimed at disentangling the effects of spatial distance, current and past environmental dissimilarity, and their combinations on tree community taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover by addressing the following questions: (i) Is tree community taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover related to the indirect effects of spatial distance via environmental dissimilarity? (ii) Does tree community taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover respond to paleoclimate (Last Glacial Maximum and Mid-Holocene)? Methods The study was carried out in 14 Atlantic rainforest sites in Brazil (20.4 ha sampled) containing 615 tree species from 83 plant families. We obtained plot-level geographic coordinates and soil variables and site-level bioclimatic variables in the current, Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum. We used structural equation models with a distance-based approach to (i) test the direct effects of spatial distance and environmental dissimilarity and (ii) test the indirect effects of spatial distance via environmental dissimilarity on taxonomic (Bray–Curtis distance) and phylogenetic turnover (Comdist and Comdistnt distances). Important Findings Our results suggest a weak indirect effect of spatial distance via environmental dissimilarity on taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover. Tree community turnover was driven by the direct effects of neutral, niche-based and historical processes. Thus, we inferred that the paleoclimate (historical processes) promoted the selection of the clades that gave rise to the current flora, while spatial distances (neutral processes) limited the dispersal range of species from the regional pool and environmental conditions (niche-based processes) locally selected the taxa that are able to persist.

Aim of study: Aassessing the existence of consistent co-occurrence between tree species that characterize seasonal tropical forests, using the association rules analysis (ARA), that is a novel data mining methodology; and evaluate evaluating the taxonomic and functional similarities between associated species.Area of study: forty-four seasonal forest sites with permanent plots (40.2 ha of total sample) located in Southeast Brazil, from which we obtained species occurrences.Material and methods: we applied association rules analysis (ARA) to the dataset of species occurrence in sites considering the criteria of support equal to or greater than 0.63 and confidence equal to or greater than 0.8 to obtain the first set of associations rules between pairs of species. This set was then submitted to Fisher’s criteria exact p-value less than 0.05, lift equal to or greater than 1.1 and coverage equal to or greater than 0.63. We considered these criteria to be able to select non-random and consistent occurring associations.Main results: We obtained a final result of 238 rules for semideciduous forest and 11 rules for deciduous forests, composed of species characteristic of vegetation types. Co-occurrences are formed mainly by non-confamilial species, which have similar functional characteristics (potential size and wood density). There is a difference in the importance of co-occurrence between forest types, which tends to be less in deciduous forests.Research highlights: The results point to out the feasibility of applying ARA to ecological datasets as a tool for detecting ecological patterns of coexistence between species and the ecosystems functioning.Keywords: data mining; coexistence; semideciduous forests; deciduous forests; biotic interaction.

In the neotropical region, seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) are commonly associated with scatterly distributed limestone outcrops, known for harbouring high numbers of endemic species and genera. In the context of lacking knowledge on fine-scale vegetation and environmental heterogeneity of these geoecosystems and having a limestone outcrop in eastern Brazil as a case study, we address the question: how important are limestone outcrops for SDTF tree community composition, structure, function and evolution? We distinguished five habitats related to position and distance to the outcrop, and within each of 25 sampled plots (five per habitat), we identified and measured the diameter of all living tree individuals and collected soil samples for chemical and textural analyses. We investigated taxonomic and phylogenetic substitution across the habitats and fitted linear models to test the effects of habitat type, soil fertility and texture on taxonomic/structural, functional and phylogenetic parameters. We found striking taxonomic and phylogenetic differentiation among the habitats, especially related to recent diversification, with soil fertility and texture largely accounting for variations in all analysed parameters. Given the predominant roles of vicariance and in situ diversification believed to have given rise to the current patterns of endemism and diversity of eastern Brazil SDTF, we argue that the conditions presented by limestone outcrops, including aridity and high fertility, may have favoured the persistence of SDTF lineages during the Quaternary environmental changes, highlighting their role as litho-refugia. In order to complete this biogeographic puzzle, we encourage other fine-scale assessments of outcrop-associated SDTF from the phylogenetic viewpoint.

Riverine forests in the Brazilian Amazon provide a series of ecosystem services and harbor one of the world's most diverse floras, but the main drivers of variation in small spatial scales in such tropical forests are not well understood. Our aim was to evaluate tree community structure and diversity patterns in the Teles Pires River to identify the main drivers of small-scale variations in the area. We sampled 4,180 individuals from 49 botanical families, 164 genera and 347 species by using six transects of five pairs of 50 m x 40 m permanent plots totalizing 60 permanent plots in a 12-hectare area. We utilized generalized linear mixed models to assess whether the effects of the environmental variables in the vegetation structural parameters. Altitude and groundwater depth were the main drivers influencing species diversity patterns. The trees had similar total biomass in areas within the same distance from the river margins. There was a lower species richness and tree density closer to the river margins. Otherwise, we found larger trees (higher individual biomass) closer to the river margins when compared to areas distant from the margins. Our results indicate a high species turnover from the river margins to the forest interior, which highlights the importance of assessing local effects on biological communities in tropical forests, especially in the Brazilian Amazon where several high-impact dams are planned.

This study aimed to evaluate the occurrence patterns and role of volunteering in Brazilian protected areas in facing the scenarios of reduced public funds for conservation. Thus, we analyzed volunteer work documents in 210 Brazilian conservation units and carried out a meta-analysis on the proposed objectives, activities offered, the prerequisites for participation and the provisions offered to volunteers. Parks have the highest demand for volunteers (i.e. the type of protected area where volunteers are needed the most to perform volunteer work), as well as for the objectives, activities and prerequisites. Volunteering is motivated by objectives associated with providing practical experience, but in activities associated with public use, visitation and infrastructure. The desired profile is associated with adults with advanced education who have experience in the environmental sciences, and there is no incentive for participation by local resident. The provisions offered to volunteers are mainly related to work execution itself, such as accommodation, food and transportation, despite the relatively low supply of training courses and personal protective equipment. We argue that volunteer actions are being encouraged to meet both the need for professionals and the reduced public funds allocated to conservation. In this sense, this incentive has motivated volunteer precariousness, since the ideal volunteer activity motives are distorted, as well as the services rendered. Knowledge of this process is important to assist in planning public policies and initiatives for conservation, as well as in models for restructuring voluntary action that can achieve both the objectives of volunteer action (i.e. inclusion of the surrounding community and society in the conservation), as well as to contribute to advances in the ecology and in the effectiveness of natural area conservation. Keywords: Conservation units, Volunteering, Nature conservation, Non-remunerated activity

The aim of this study was to evaluate the vegetation identity of local-scale ecotones and its importance to landscape biodiversity in a transition between savanna and forest vegetation types in Brazil. We surveyed the tree community (diameter at breast height ≥5 cm) within 25 plots of 400 m2 across three core vegetation types and two ecotones among them (totalling five vegetation types). We then evaluated similarities in species composition, community structure and phylogenetic diversity across the transitions in order to assess the relationship between the ecotones and the core areas. Ecotones were distinct floristic units with a high number of unique species and floristic and phylogenetic clustering, and hence these environments are additional vegetation types in relation to the core areas. Some species showed maximum abundance in ecotones, which harboured distinct ecological patterns, demonstrating the importance of the ecotones in the overall ecosystem. Results are related to the distribution of the species present in the regional pool across local-scale microhabitats, with ecotones being a product of a distinct environmental conditions resulting from the distinct adjacent biomes (savanna and forest), which enable the maintenance of biological diversity.