Recent studies have argued that changes in fire regimes in the 21st century are posing a major threat to global biodiversity. In this scenario, incorporating species’ physiological, ecological, and evolutionary traits with their local fire exposure might facilitate accurate identification of species most at risk from fire. Here, we developed a framework for identifying the animal species most vulnerable to extinction from fire-induced stress in the Brazilian savanna. The proposed framework addresses vulnerability from two components: (1) exposure, which refers to the frequency, extent, and magnitude to which a system or species experiences fire, and (2) sensitivity, which reflects how much species are affected by fire. Sensitivity is based on biological, physiological, and behavioral traits that can influence animals’ mortality “during” and “after” fire. We generated a Fire Vulnerability Index (FVI) that can be used to group species into four categories, ranging from extremely vulnerable (highly sensible species in highly exposed areas), to least vulnerable (low-sensitivity species in less exposed areas). We highlight the urgent need to broaden fire vulnerability assessment methods and introduce a new approach considering biological traits that contribute significantly to a species’ sensitivity alongside regional/local fire exposure.

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.

Brazilian beekeepers have experienced massive colony losses in recent years. Possible causes include bee pests and diseases, although there have been few relevant studies in the country and no official data are available. The aim of this work was to assess, from a beekeeper's perspective, the incidence of pests and diseases in colonies, and their impact on the decline of bee populations in Brazil. The research used two online questionnaires that included disease symptoms to facilitate participant identification of diseases. A total of 674 valid responses were obtained from beekeepers of Apis mellifera (49% of the total) and stingless bees (51%), distributed among 24 of the 27 Brazilian states. Most beekeepers observed pests (average 78.1%) and disease symptoms (65.5%) in their colonies. Based on beekeepers' responses, pests and diseases affect beehive losses in Brazil. Colony loss percentage for A. mellifera was higher in apiaries with ants (19.8% of colony losses) and wasps (46.7%) than in those without pests (p < 0.001). While for stingless bees, meliponaries with robber bees (15.8% of colony losses), ants (14.7%), and phorid flies (12.5%) had higher colony losses than those without pests (p < 0.001). Apiaries and meliponaries with worker bee deaths had higher losses than those without symptoms. The results also indicate that monitoring can reduce colony losses in apiaries and meliponaries that have some kind of pests and diseases. Using a beekeeper perspective, this study provides information about the impact that pests and pathogens have on bee losses that can be used to guide improved management practices.

The most important condition of ecological restoration is the identification of reference ecosystems, which function as a guide for assertive practice with which biological integrity and ecosystem structure and function can be compared. For restoration and conservation projects to be effective in the current scenario of biodiversity and ecosystem services decay worldwide, it is fundamental to understand the soil-plant interactions in each environment. In this study, we evaluated the structure and composition of the flora in 45 plots, equally distributed in three preserved areas (reference ecosystems) of Atlantic Forest in the upper Rio Doce watershed, Southeast Brazil. We also tested whether differences in species composition were influenced by edaphic factors, both in the adult tree and sapling strata. In both tree and sapling strata, Fabaceae was the species-richest family, followed by Myrtaceae, and Lauraceae. The Fabaceae family also showed the highest importance value for both strata. The soils of the riparian forests were highly heterogeneous among the studied sites. Co-inertia analyses indicated a clear edaphic-floristic gradient in both tree (RV = 0.467; p < 0.001) and sapling (RV = 0.478; p < 0.001) strata, with a connection of 46.7% and 47.8% between the edaphic and floristic matrices for trees and saplings, respectively. We identified the groups of tree and sapling strata species that were strongly associated with either nutritionally richer or poorer soils on each studied site. Understanding how ecological and life-history traits of plant species relate with edaphic factors is an important step to provide scientific-based knowledge to support policies for ecosystem recovery and restoration in the stretches of the Rio Doce watershed.