Caroline Oliveira Andrino

The resilience of biological natural capital in the Amazon is strongly influenced by the functional diversity of multitaxa, which promotes the stability and sustainability of the ecosystem. However, biological natural capital, driven by multiple dimensions of biodiversity, is often underestimated by focusing on the taxonomic dimension, such as richness and abundance. We applied a multitaxa and trait‐based approach to assess how functional diversity supports natural capital. By using a dataset including woody plants, bees, frugivorous butterflies and songbirds, we created two indices: Biological Natural Capital Resilience (BNCR), the proportion of biological assets needed to maintain natural capital integrity, and Biological Natural Capital Uniqueness (BNCU), the proportion of natural capital sustained by species' functional uniqueness. BNCR results show that, in general, more than 80% of biological assets to maintain the integrity of natural capital, and that the BNCR index reached the highest value when all taxonomical groups are combined. These results reveal that natural capital strongly depends on biological assets and underscore the importance of multitaxa approaches for assessing ecosystem resilience. BNCU values show that a substantial portion of natural capital integrity (from 46.22% to 64.23%) depends on a small subset of functionally unique species, indicating that the loss of few species, which play irreplaceable ecological roles, rapidly reduces ecosystem functioning. Synthesis and applications . This study presents a trait‐based framework integrating functional diversity into biological natural capital accounting, capturing both ecosystem resilience and species uniqueness across multiple taxa. It provides ecologically grounded, standardized and reproducible indicators that move beyond single‐taxon or purely taxonomic approaches. By embedding these indicators into natural capital accounts, the framework supports conservation prioritization, restoration planning, impact assessment, trend monitoring and scenario testing, offering a practical methodology to evaluate and manage the multiple dimensions of biodiversity within natural capital assessments.

The Serra do Padre Ângelo (SPA), a quartzitic mountain complex in the Atlantic Forest of Rio Doce Valley, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, harbors exceptional biodiversity. Recent studies have uncovered numerous new species, particularly in the campos rupestres, a unique ecosystem. Despite its ecological importance, the SPA remains legally unprotected. This study initiates a series of taxonomic studies on SPA’s plant families, focusing on Eriocaulaceae, a key group in the campos rupestres. Field expeditions, herbarium studies, and SEM seed imaging revealed eight Eriocaulaceae species belonging to four genera: Giuliettia, Gnomus, Paepalanthus, and Syngonanthus. Two species are endemic to SPA and its vicinity, while three are classified as Critically Endangered. The study highlights significant biogeographic, taxonomic, and conservation insights, including the rediscovery of one species. These findings emphasize SPA’s critical role in biodiversity conservation amid mounting anthropogenic threats that risk species extinction.

Eriocaulaceae is a pantropical family of approximately 1200 species across 18 genera, with its highest diversity in the Neotropical region. Traditionally, the family has been divided into two subfamilies, Eriocauloideae and Paepalanthoideae, based on floral traits. Here, we use target‐capture sequencing of nuclear markers to test the monophyly of these subfamilies. Using the Angiosperms353 probe set, we analyzed data from 30 species, generating new sequences for 24 species, representing eight genera of Eriocaulaceae. Phylogenetic analyses using ASTRAL‐III and a concatenated maximum likelihood approach recovered three major clades, revealing that Paepalanthoideae is non‐monophyletic. Monosperma, a Pantepui‐endemic lineage, recently elevated to generic status, emerged as the sister group to the rest of the family. Our findings suggest that the ancestral Eriocaulaceae flower had a single‐whorled androecium, contrary to previous hypotheses. Additionally, this study highlights the non‐monophyletic nature of the broad circumscription of Paepalanthus. These results challenge long‐held assumptions about the evolutionary relationships within Eriocaulaceae, providing critical insight into its subfamilial and generic classification, and call for further research into the evolutionary history of the family.

Protected areas worldwide have been recognized as crucial entities in preserving and conserving forest ecosystem services. These areas play an important role in mitigating climate change due to their carbon stocks. In this study, we characterized the aboveground carbon stocks (AGC) across different forest types for the Protected Area Carajás National Forest in the Eastern Amazon, based on data from 387 forest inventory plots and two distinct AGC maps from remote sensing and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data fusion—GEDI and EBA. The estimates of AGC from field data showed higher amounts of AGC in the open forest formations (187.20 ± 46.83 MgC ha⁻¹), followed by dense (105.90 ± 42.56 ha⁻¹ MgC ha⁻¹) and transitional forests (48.86 ± 31.72 MgC ha⁻¹) with lower amounts under seasonal forests (38.65 ± 9.48 MgC ha⁻¹) and secondary forest areas (>23 MgCha⁻¹). However, the dense, seasonal, and transitional forests exhibited higher carbon density than the open and secondary areas in both AGC maps analyzed. We emphasize the significant importance of monitoring open and seasonal forest areas, due to the gap in field data for these forest types in Amazonia. Here, we underscore the importance of more standardized forest field data and better plot distribution in non-disturbed areas to reduce the uncertainty of AGC estimates and improve the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest fires.

Here we describe a new species of Paepalanthus (Eriocaulaceae) from the Chapada Diamantina, in the northern part of the Espinhaço range in Brazil. The study aims to contribute to the knowledge of Eriocaulaceae in this area, which has a significant knowledge gap, and to provide a comparison with other poorly understood species in the region. The new species, named Paepalanthus roqueae, is described in detail, including morphological measurements, illustrations, and distribution maps. Its conservation status is also evaluated using IUCN criteria. This paper emphasizes the importance of botanical research in the high biodiversity area of Chapada Diamantina, to increase the knowledge of poorly understood species and promote conservation efforts.

There is still a lack of practical guidelines for understanding species roles and planning restoration strategies to enhance plant–pollinator interactions and support ecosystem functioning. We applied a network approach to understand the evolution of plant–pollinator restoration patterns and identify priority species, thus advancing restoration planning. Specifically, we compared species composition and network metrics along a gradient of time postdisturbance, from the initial stage of restoration to pristine forest in the Eastern Amazon. We found that mining type is a predictor of species composition. We observed the recovery of interaction diversity and pollinator specialization in the early stages of restoration. Mining type affected connectance, interactions, and species richness, and the restoration stage affected the number of links. From the interactions, we built a trait‐based framework to select manageable native species for initial restoration. The species selection framework proposed here is useful not only for forest restoration but also for the restoration of other areas and case studies (e.g. agroecosystems, conservation units, and ecological corridors) and can be adapted depending on the goals of each project. Here, we provide practical information for the management of mined land restoration in the Eastern Amazon and for restoration planning across broader scales.

Functional traits help to understand biological diversity and the mechanism by which ecological communities are structured and how they respond to the environment. For example, the high tree species diversity within tropical forests can be grouped into a few functional attributes, wood density, size and dependence on animal pollination or seed dispersal. However, little is known about how these traits influence animal taxonomic and functional diversity in the forests. We carried out a vegetation census on six plots (20 × 100 m) within the National Forest of Carajás (Amazon biome) to identify forest canopy species and their functional traits. Within the same plot, we also applied three bee sampling methods (entomological nets, honey traps and scent traps). By characterizing the functional traits of trees and bees, we were able to predict bee functional diversity better than with taxonomic diversity alone via combinations of tree traits like size, wood density, dependence on pollinators and extinction risk. We found that larger trees with low wood density were negatively associated with small, eusocial tree cavity nesting bees. The richness and abundance of trees with high extinction risk was positively associated with the richness of medium‐sized solitary bees. The dominance in the community of pollinator‐dependent trees (average diameter in the basal area) was negatively associated with the richness of above‐ground and cavity nesting bees. Our findings suggest that the composition of the tree community limits the availability of nesting resources for specific groups of bees. Moreover, the presence of trees with higher extinction risk (conservation value) was associated with a greater variety of bee traits and was the only metric associated with overall bee richness. As expected, functional traits shed light on the mechanism that might drive high diversity within tropical forests. In addition, there appears to be complementarity in terms of conservation value and carbon stock potential, as areas that habour tree species with higher extinction risk and higher wood density are also those with overall greater bee and functional diversity. Finally, our study can contribute to the restoration of plant—pollinator community by providing an understanding of the vegetation community that contributes to biodiversity maintenance. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Paepalanthus is a diverse genus characteristic of the campos rupestres, a megadiverse vegetation found on mountaintops of mainly quartzitic mountain ranges of central-eastern Brazil. Recent efforts on prospecting the biodiversity of Serra do Padre Ângelo, a small mountain complex in eastern Minas Gerais, yielded several new plant and animal species, highlighting the urgency of conservation actions towards this still unprotected area. Here, we describe yet another new species found in the campos rupestres of these mountains, Paepalanthus magnus, a mountaintop microendemic species morphologically similar to taxa found in the Espinhaço Range, over 200 km distant, a biogeographic pattern shared by several other species. The affinities of the new species are discussed, and we provide illustrations, photographs, and SEM photomicrographs of the seed. We also discuss the conservation status of the species, which is preliminarily assessed as Critically Endangered, reinforcing the urgent need to address the conservation of the unique biodiversity of Serra do Padre Ângelo.

Summary: Poales are one of the most species‐rich, ecologically and economically important orders of plants and often characterise open habitats, enabled by unique suites of traits. We test six hypotheses regarding the evolution and assembly of Poales in open and closed habitats throughout the world, and examine whether diversification patterns demonstrate parallel evolution. We sampled 42% of Poales species and obtained taxonomic and biogeographic data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants database, which was combined with open/closed habitat data scored by taxonomic experts. A dated supertree of Poales was constructed. We integrated spatial phylogenetics with regionalisation analyses, historical biogeography and ancestral state estimations. Diversification in Poales and assembly of open and closed habitats result from dynamic evolutionary processes that vary across lineages, time and space, most prominently in tropical and southern latitudes. Our results reveal parallel and recurrent patterns of habitat and trait transitions in the species‐rich families Poaceae and Cyperaceae. Smaller families display unique and often divergent evolutionary trajectories. The Poales have achieved global dominance via parallel evolution in open habitats, with notable, spatially and phylogenetically restricted divergences into strictly closed habitats.