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The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all biodiversity research stakeholders. Operating since 2004, it has installed long-term ecological research sites throughout Brazil and its logic has been applied in some other southern-hemisphere countries. The program supports all aspects of research necessary to understand biodiversity and the processes that affect it. There are presently 161 sampling sites (see some of them at Supplementary Appendix), most of which use a standardized methodology that allows comparisons across biomes and through time. To date, there are about 1200 publications associated with PPBio that cover topics ranging from natural history to genetics and species distributions. Most of the field data and metadata are available through PPBio web sites or DataONE. Metadata is available for researchers that intend to explore the different faces of Brazilian biodiversity spatio-temporal variation, as well as for managers intending to improve conservation strategies. The Program also fostered, directly and indirectly, local technical capacity building, and supported the training of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. The main challenge is maintaining the long-term funding necessary to understand biodiversity patterns and processes under pressure from global environmental changes. Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-03T12:00:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Program-for-Biodiversity-Research-2021.pdf: 4613827 bytes, checksum: 04b1875a6efdcba448fd73c1ecddf986 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021

Given the global biodiversity crisis, it is crucial to identify methods best suited for conducting inventories. We evaluated the relative merits of Malaise traps (MT) and ground-level yellow pan traps (YPT) to sample male velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) in a Neotropical savanna biodiversity hotspot. We compared richness, number of captures, evenness, composition, and body size of male velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) sampled with both methods in four sites at Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros, central Brazil, during 19 d. We expected reduced diversity and smaller body size of velvet ants sampled with YPT, because they target visually oriented insects that are active closer to the ground, whereas MT represent a passive method that intercepts insects flying at different heights. Richness, total number of captures, and evenness of species and genera were significantly higher in MT. The body size of velvet ants captured with MT was significantly larger than those found in YPT. Generalized linear model and nonmetric multidimensional scaling analyses revealed a clear difference in the patterns of abundances and composition of velvet ants sampled with MT and YPT, especially for the genera Darditilla, Traumatomutilla, Lomachaeta, Pseudomethoca, Tallium, and Ephuta. YPT were effective at capturing few species that were rare in MT but, overall, MT were much more effective than YPT. We found similar patterns when using either species or genus for assessing samples obtained with MT or YPT, suggesting that ecological studies on Neotropical velvet ants may not require taxonomic resolution to the species level.

Tail autotomy and regeneration are perhaps the most dramatic adaptations to enhance survival among lizards. In spite of much work on the subject, the ecological significance of tail autotomy rates in natural populations remains elusive, due to difficulties in controlling several confounding factors and the paucity of accurate demographic data. On the basis of a capture–recapture study, we investigate the ecological determinants of tail autotomy rates in Micrablepharus atticolus, a blue-tailed lizard from the South American Cerrado. We tested whether habitat (as a proxy of predation intensity), seasonality (as a proxy of intensity of social interactions), ontogeny and sex affected autotomy rates, and also whether autotomy rates affected body condition. We found that tail autotomy rates in M. atticolus are lower than in many other species with brightly colored tails, likely resulting from a small body size and fossorial habits. Autotomy rates were lower than expected by chance in the plot with lower mortality rates, suggesting a more prominent role of predation intensity instead of predator efficiency, and increased with age, suggesting cumulative effects of predation attempts along the ontogeny or age-specific differences in predation intensity. We also found no intersexual differences or any effect of breeding activity on autotomy rates. Our results indicate that energetic costs of tail autotomy are low, or that animals compensate tail loss with increased foraging rates. These characteristics of M. atticolus seem tightly associated with its small body size, fossorial lifestyle and very short life span, and suggest that the costs of tail regeneration should be low.

Pervasive changes in land use combined with the effects of climate change are a major threat to biodiversity in the arc of deforestation, a region at the Amazonia–Cerrado transition in Brazil. In this region, we investigated edge effects evidenced by microhabitat and microclimate changes upon the diversity and organization of velvet ant communities. We selected two forest edges with different histories of deforestation (8 and 28 years-old). From each edge, we placed arrays of pitfall traps along a 0.5 km linear transect towards the preserved forest interior. In each array, we recorded microhabitat variables to characterize transects. Over the period of a month, we collected 1073 velvet ants from 30 species. Along the 28 year-old transect we found twice as many logs, less canopy cover and higher shrub density, associated with higher variation in air temperature, than the 8 year-old transect. Velvet ant abundance, richness and evenness were significantly higher in the 28 year-old transect. In both transects, the abundance of velvet ants was highest on the edges and declined towards the forest interior. Environmental variation correlated with time since deforestation and with proximity to the edge affected the organization of velvet ant communities. This can be due to colonization of species from the open habitat matrix and loss of species associated with the forest interior. The combination of deforestation and microclimate change in southeastern Amazonia may alter the structure of insect communities and generate consequences through cascading effects and alterations of ecosystem services provided.

Understanding how and why biological communities are organized over space and time is a major challenge and can aid biodiversity conservation in times of global changes. Herein, spatial-temporal variation in the structure of velvet ant communities was examined along a forest-savanna gradient in the Brazilian Cerrado to assess the roles of environmental filters and interspecific interactions upon community assembly. Velvet ants were sampled using 25 arrays of Y-shaped pitfall traps with drift fences for one year along an environmental gradient from cerrado sensu stricto (open canopy, warmer, drier) to cerradão (closed canopy, cooler, moister). Dataloggers installed on each trap recorded microclimate parameters throughout the study period. The effects of spatial distances, microclimate parameters and shared ancestry on species abundances and turnover were assessed with canonical correspondence analysis, generalized dissimilarity modelling and variance components analysis. Velvet ant diversity and abundance were higher in the cerrado sensu stricto and early in the wet season. There was pronounced compositional turnover along the environmental gradient, and temporal variation in richness and abundance was stronger than spatial variation. The dry season blooming of woody plant species fosters host abundance and, subsequently, velvet ant captures. Species were taxonomically clustered along the gradient with Sphaeropthalmina (especially Traumatomutilla spp.) and Pseudomethocina more associated, respectively, with cerrado sensu stricto and cerradão. This suggests a predominant role of environmental filters on community assemble, with physiological tolerances and host preferences being shared among members of the same lineages. Induced environmental changes in Cerrado can impact communities of wasps and their hosts with unpredictable consequences upon ecosystem functioning and services.

We studied the influence of synthetic (E)-2-hexenal on the abundance of Telenominae aiming to attract parasitoids and enhance stink bug egg parasitism in treated areas. We conducted experiments in 2006, 2007 and 2008 soybean seasons with two short-term (one week) and one long-term (seven weeks) experiment, respectively. We evaluated the abundance of parasitoids with yellow sticky traps and estimated the incidence and intensity of parasitism with sentinel eggs of Euschistus heros Fabricius (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) or with tulle bags, enclosing laboratory pregnant E. heros as an egg source. In short-term experiments, there was increased abundance of Trissolcus spp. (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae: Telenominae) in treated areas, associated with greater intensity of parasitism. In long-term experiments, treatment with (E)-2-hexenal did not influence the abundance of Telenominae or parasitism levels, but increased egg predation. Applications of (E)-2-hexenal can be used to increase recruitment of Trissolcus spp. in the early flowering stages of soybean and also to attract other natural enemies, but do not increase egg parasitism.

In many plants, the secondary metabolite cis-jasmone activates the metabolic pathway that produces volatile organic compounds attractive to natural enemies and, sometimes, repellent to herbivores. Previous studies indicate that the feeding damage caused by the herbivore Euschistus heros or the exogenous application of cis-jasmone in soybean plants induces the release of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) with a similar chemical profile and these compounds can attract the stink bug egg parasitoid Telenomus podisi (Scelionidae). Herein we tested in field conditions the effect of exogenous application of cis-jasmone in soybean plants on the parasitoid and stink bug community and on stink bug egg parasitism. In two areas, one within a soybean and another within a Crotalaria matrix, we randomly distributed 2 m2 plots, with soybean plants induced (treatment, n = 5) or not induced by cis-jasmone (control, n = 5) in the field. We sampled the parasitoid community weekly with yellow sticky traps (n = 3/plot) and monitored parasitism with sentinel eggs of E. heros (n = 150/plot). We also monitored the population of stink bugs weekly, by sampling each plot with shake-cloth technique. The abundance of Scelionidae was highest overall and also in treated plots during the first four weeks in the area with a soybean matrix, but decreased thereafter. The richness of parasitoid families was similar between treatment and control plots in the area with a soybean matrix, but higher in control plots in the area with a Crotalaria matrix. Evenness was higher in control plots in the area with soybean matrix, whereas the reverse occurred in the area with a Crotalaria matrix. Results suggest that treatment with cis-jasmone effectively attracted and enhanced the population of scelionid parasitoids, but had no effect on the occurrence and intensity of parasitism and in the number of stink bugs.