Luiz Flamarion Barbosa de Oliveira

The palm swamp landscapes, particularly the Vereda wetlands and their associated swamp gallery forests (VED.SGF), comprise essential yet threatened ecosystems within the Brazilian Cerrado. In addition to supporting significant portions of biodiversity, they provide critical ecosystem services such as storing and filtering excess rainwater and serving as major carbon reservoirs in organic soils. These wetlands are directly linked to the drainage systems of the headwaters of the main Cerrado river basins, which together account for about two-thirds of Brazil’s hydrographic basins. Mapping and managing VED.SGF ecosystems through remote sensing present major challenges addressed in this first study. Their narrow, dendritic, and complex tabular spatial pattern, often elongated along watersheds on scales of hundreds of kilometers, suffering distortions due to human impact, and the limited amount of annotated data make segmentation particularly challenging. Existing deep learning (DL) methods, typically pre-trained on natural images, struggle to capture the spectral and spatial intricacies of these ecosystems. This study introduces a trained-from-scratch U-Net model supported by field-based experimental procedures to ensure high-quality wetland annotations. The resulting dataset covers approximately 7300 km² in western Bahia and provides domain-specific weights tailored to remote sensing applications. Using high-resolution (4.6 m) RGB mosaics, the model was trained, validated, and tested to establish a reproducible and scalable pipeline. The proposed method achieved robust results in an independent test area of 8040 km², with a mean IoU of 0.728, F1-score of 0.843, and Cohen’s Kappa of 0.837. These results demonstrate consistent performance and strong generalization to new areas, establishing a scientifically reliable baseline that situates the model competitively within the current state of the art. By releasing both the model weights and annotated dataset, this study provides valuable resources to advance future research on mapping and monitoring these unique and strategic wetland ecosystems.

The concept of biodiversity combines the two fundamental dynamics of life on Earth–the flow of energy and the flow of genes across space and time, which are linked, respectively, to four billion ye...

Over the past 5000 years, the predictable climate seasonality of the Brazilian Cerrado has played a crucial role in shaping the life history strategies of species and the structure of ecological communities of this global biodiversity hotspot. However, this biome is becoming hotter and drier, with a notable lengthening and intensification of the dry season. Declining rainfall results from three key factors: the expansion of the South Atlantic Subtropical Anticyclone, warming of northern tropical Atlantic waters, and reduced evapotranspiration during the dry season due to widespread land conversion. The evapotranspiration drop also plays a pivotal role in regional warming and higher vapor pressure deficit. Climatic change already affects the physiology, phenology, and reproduction of the Cerrado plants, while also driving community‐level alterations, such as woody encroachment and ant–plant–herbivore interaction outcomes. Dry season lengthening is likely to reduce the biomass and alter the dynamics of microbial communities, with negative effects also extending to invertebrates and other groups. The pronounced warming reduces the amount and duration of dewfall, an important water source for insect pollinators and other animals with low vagility during periods of drought. Concerning vertebrates, the most suggested impact is the loss of specialist or endemic species, with restricted distributions, and the expansion of generalist species, lowering the levels of β‐ and γ‐diversity across the region and making communities poorer and more homogenized. In summary, climate change is actively reshaping Cerrado communities, and species' survival will largely depend on their phenotypic plasticity, evolutionary response, and dispersal capabilities. This article is categorized under: Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Observed Impacts of Climate Change Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Observed Ecological Changes Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > Regional Reviews

Background: Assessing the structure of communities requires analysis of multiple dimensions of biological diversity. Such approaches provide a broader understanding of the ecological and historical factors involved in the formation and maintenance of communities. Metrics such as functional and phylogenetic diversity are crucial as they unveil how communities respond to environmental changes, providing a deeper understanding of their current state and resilience. This goes beyond species richness or community composition, enabling more profound insights into their present condition and resilience. Therefore, analysis in this sense allows accessing differences in the distribution of species, considering different landscape mosaics, and allowing strategic prioritization of conservation initiatives. In this sense, we investigated whether the composition of functional and phylogenetic groups of chiropteran species differs between the Pantanal and Cerrado biomes and various habitat types. We hypothesize that communities with greater conservation integrity are more diverse than communities that suffer anthropogenic influences. Methods: The surveyed communities include two areas in the Pantanal and two in the Cerrado, with one conservation unit and one that suffers anthropic influence, for each biome. We assessed the composition of bat assemblages by examining functional richness (FRic), functional uniformity (FEve), functional divergence (FDiv), and functional dispersion (FDis). Metrics that reflect phylogenetic richness and divergence were also used, such as phylogenetic diversity (PD), mean pairwise distance (MPD), and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD). Results and discussion: Overall, conservation units sustain higher levels of functional and phylogenetic diversity compared to areas with anthropic influence. In the latter, species occupy fewer ecological niches, indicating that bats can persist in degraded environments, albeit the communities support only a portion of the functional groups. Conclusion: Our results showed, through analyses across multiple dimensions of functional and phylogenetic diversity, that bat populations are impacted by environmental degradation and fragmentation. Communities in more conserved areas exhibited higher functional and phylogenetic richness, indicating a greater number of occupied niches. These findings highlight the importance of exploring measures of biological diversity and their spatial scales to advance our understanding of biodiversity dynamics and optimize conservation planning for both species and communities.

Extreme wildfire events, such as the Pantanal 2020 megafires, are expected to become more common. Assessing the impacts of such extreme events on wildlife is imperative for conservation planning. Direct observation of carcasses can provide valuable information on how these impacts relate to spatial heterogeneity. Here, we use double‐observer carcass surveys to assess the numbers and spatial patterns of direct mortalities of medium‐ to large‐sized mammals resulting from the Pantanal 2020 megafires in a large reserve (1080 km²) in the northern Pantanal wetland. Accounting for imperfect detection, we model the spatial variation in mortality occurrence and abundance, testing the effects of habitat‐related variables and wildfire severity using multi‐species N‐mixture models. We found that 26 out of 27 species of medium and large‐sized mammals died from the fires with a mean estimate of around 49 thousand individuals. The most affected species included capuchin monkeys, agoutis, peccaries, tapirs, brocket deer, tamanduas, coatis and capybaras. Direct mortality of mammals by wildfires was affected by landscape factors related to species habitats, species traits (probably related to escape or refuge strategies), and the intensity of the wildfires. Mortalities presented a general positive relationship with non‐flooded forests (a fire‐sensitive habitat in Pantanal) and with the severity of wildfires. Artificial water bodies, a common landscape structure in Pantanal, had 7.5 times more deaths than other areas. Synthesis and applications: With the approach used, we were able to: (i) identify mortality hotspots associated with landscape features; (ii) simultaneously identify the most affected species and assess the average relationships for all the assemblage of medium‐ and large‐sized mammals. We discuss conservation and management actions in two contexts: species prioritization for rescuing and monitoring; and territory prioritization for fire prevention and fighting.

The morphological plasticity of the Sus scrofa wild–domestic species complex is evident in both free-ranging morphotypes and domestic breeds. The Brazilian Pantanal feral hog (“porco-monteiro”) evolved after a long-term feralization process and represents a significant proportion of the mammalian biomass in the region. Its coexistence with native fauna brings several ecological impacts, which are mitigated by the Brazilian Pantanal wetland vastness and resource availability. They are a local subsistence game resource but also impact crops and pastures. Around the 2000s to mid-2010s, numerous European wild boar were introduced in Brazil to fulfill a demand for gourmet meat. Wild boar was also introduced to the Brazilian Pantanal as a game species and to breed with porco-monteiro feral hogs in a commercial venture to produce an even more exotic meat. The craze for wild boar meat has since dwindled, but their populations remain widespread and uncontrolled. Moreover, the full impact of the wild boar introduction on feral hog populations is still unknown. This study analyzes the skulls of porco-monteiro feral hogs from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s to assess possible morphological and functional variations along with skulls of wild boar and hybrids from Argentina, Uruguay, and Southern Brazil. The results indicate a trend of broadening of feral hog skulls at the coronal plane and a progressive reduction of the semispinalis capitis muscle scars over the decades. Biomechanical analysis denoted a decrease in head-elevation force that could affect the rooting performance of the latest feral hog morphotypes. Taken together, results show that wild boars likely influenced the evolution of the Pantanal feral hog skull. The magnitude of ecomorphological implications of these morphofunctional changes is unknown, as well as its effects in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland ecology.

Sturnira, known as the yellow-shouldered bat, has a wide geographical distribution and encompasses 24 distinct species. Within Phyllostomidae, Sturnira is the most diverse, with four species in Brazil: S. lilium, S. magna, S. tildae, and S. giannae. Sturnira species occur on the eastern slopes of the Andes and adjacent Amazonian lowlands, spanning from Colombia to northern Bolivia, the Brazilian Amazon, the southern lowlands of Venezuela, and the Guianas. In the present study the following were investigated: the phylogenetic relationships of Sturnira, employing the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene as a marker; the phylogeography of S. lilium and S. giannae, aiming to elucidate their geographical boundaries and phylogenetic positions; the morphology of S. lilium and S. giannae, and their potential distributions. The results indicate that there are two major clades within Sturnira, one including S. lilium, S. parvidens, and S. bakeri as the sister group of S. giannae, S. luisi, and S. paulsoni, and another clade with the remaining species. Morphological analyses showed that the diagnostic characteristics previously advanced for S. lilium and S. giannae overlap. Our findings expanded the known distribution of S. giannae, and show an area where S. lilium and S. giannae overlap in distribution. This area spans from the south of the state of Mato Grosso to the south of the state of Maranhão; the two species are sympatric in northeast Brazil and syntopic in the Pantanal. The comprehensive species distribution model suggested that the sympatry between S. lilium and S. giannae is notably larger than documented here.

The influence of the landscape mosaic on the composition of the bat fauna regarding its trophic guild in a ranch area of northern Pantanal was evaluated. Seven trophic categories and five foraging strategies were found, composing 11 guild associations. Cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) revealed the structure of the data and enabled a broader understanding of resource exploitation. The similarity between sites for the presence of guilds was moderate, with the presence of aerial insectivores and trawling insectivores occurring in most of them, mainly in pasture areas and in the cambará forest. Gleaning sedentary frugivores, gleaning nomadic frugivores, and gleaning nectarivores were present in almost all sites, most often in dense acuri palm forest. Frugivores were the most numerous at the individual level, followed by trawling insectivores and hematophagous. The similarities between groups ranged from low to moderate. Some subgroups identified in the analyzes showed high similarity, with strong congruences between sites. The areas used by cattle do not seem to restrict the use by some species of bats, especially those already proven to be associated with degraded areas. However, information is still lacking to predict which level of alteration is acceptable for the conservation of each guild and foraging strategy of bat species.

The Brazilian Cerrado is a global biodiversity hotspot with notoriously high rates of native vegetation suppression and wildfires over the past three decades. As a result, climate change can already be detected at both local and regional scales. In this study, we used three different approaches based on independent datasets to investigate possible changes in the daytime and nighttime temperature and air humidity between the peak of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season in the Brazilian Cerrado. Additionally, we evaluated the tendency of dew point depression, considering it as a proxy to assess impacts on biodiversity. Monthly increases of 2.2−4.0℃ in the maximum temperatures and 2.4−2.8℃ in the minimum temperatures between 1961 and 2019 were recorded, supported by all analyzed datasets which included direct observations, remote sensing, and modeling data. The warming raised the vapor pressure deficit, and although we recorded an upward trend in absolute humidity, relative humidity has reduced by ~15%. If these tendencies are maintained, gradual air warming will make nightly cooling insufficient to reach the dew point in the early hours of the night. Therefore, it will progressively reduce both the amount and duration of nocturnal dewfall, which is the main source of water for numerous plants and animal species of the Brazilian Cerrado during the dry season. Through several examples, we hypothesize that these climate changes can have a high impact on biodiversity and potentially cause ecosystems to collapse. We emphasize that the effects of temperature and humidity on Cerrado ecosystems cannot be neglected and should be further explored from a land use perspective.