Identifying discontinuous entities within species complexes is a major topic in systematic and evolutionary biology. Comprehensive inventories describing and identifying species rapidly and correctly before they or their habitats disappear is especially important in megadiverse regions, such as South America continent, where a large part of the biodiversity is still unknown and remains to be discovered. Species complexes may account for a substantial number of plant groups in the South American flora, and studies investigating species boundaries in such challenging groups are needed. In this context, multidisciplinary approaches are crucial to understanding the species integrity and boundaries within species complexes. Morphometrics, cytogenetics, anatomy, crossing experiments, and molecular markers have been combined in different ways to investigate species complexes and have helped depict the mechanisms underlying the origin of South American species. Here, we review the current knowledge about plant species complexes on the hyperdiverse South American continent based on a detailed examination of the relevant literature. We discuss the main findings in light of the potential evolutionary mechanisms involved in speciation and suggest future directions in terms of integrating multispecies coalescence methods with several complementary types of morphological, ecological, and geographical data in this research field.

Table 1. Species used in analysis. For each species, the scientific name, type of organism, type of data, number of sequences, and reference of original publication is shown. SpeciesBroad Taxon Type of Data # sequences Original publication Bryopsis sp. Green Algae cpDNA 66 Krellwitz et al. (2001) Gracilaria tikvahiae Red Algae cpDNA 20 Gurgel et al.(2004) Xerula furfuracea Fungi nuDNA 41 Yang et al.(2009) & Petersen and Hughes (2010) & Hao et al.(2016) Sphagnum bartlettianum Bryophyta cpDNA + nuDNA 12 Shaw et al.(2005) Acer rubrum Angiosperm cpDNA 38 McLachlan et al.(2005) Apios americana Angiosperm nuDNA 18 Joly & Bruneau (2004) Dicerandra spp Angiosperm cpDNA 30 Oliveira et al.(2007) Fagus grandifolia Angiosperm cpDNA 23 McLachlan et al.(2005) Liquidambar styraciflua Angiosperm cpDNA 109 Morris et al.(2008) Prunus spp Angiosperm cpDNA 226 Shaw & Small (2005) Tilia americana Angiosperm cpDNA 297 McCarthy and Mason-Gamer (2016) Trillium cuneatum Angiosperm cpDNA 281 Gonzales et al.(2008) Uniola paniculata Angiosperm cpDNA 131 Hodel & Gonzales (2013) Bugula neritina Bryozoa mtDNA 30 McGovern & Hellberg (2003) Daphnia obtusa Crustacean mtDNA 36 Penton et al.(2004) Emerita talpoida Crustacean mtDNA 4 Tam et al.(1996) Farfantepenaeus aztecus Crustacean mtDNA 76 McMillen-Jackson and Bert (2003) Litopenaeus setiferus Crustacean mtDNA 92 McMillen-Jackson and Bert (2003) & Maggioni et al. (2001) &Vazquez-Bader et al.(2004) & Bremer et al.(2010) Pagarus longicarpus Crustacean mtDNA 67 Young et al.(2002) Pagarus pollicaris Crustacean mtDNA 13 Young et al.(2002) Busycon sinistrum Gastropod mtDNA 31 Wise et al.(2004) Lampsilis altilis Mollusk mtDNA 5 Roe et al.(2001) Lampsilis australis Mollusk mtDNA 5 Roe et al.(2001) Lampsilis ovata Mollusk mtDNA 2 Roe et al.(2001) & Campbell et al.(2005) Lampsilis perovalis Mollusk mtDNA 5 Roe et al.(2001) Lampsilis teres Mollusk mtDNA 2 Roe et al.(2001) & Lydeard et al.(2000) Spisula solidissima Mollusk mtDNA 52 Hare and Weinberg (2005) Ambystoma tigrinum Amphibian mtDNA 56 Church et al.(2003) Desmognathus wrightii Amphibian mtDNA 29 Crespi et al.(2003) Eumeces fasciatus Amphibian mtDNA 82 Howes et al.(2006) Eurycea bislineata Amphibian mtDNA 56 Kozak et al.(2006) Eurycea cirrigera Amphibian mtDNA 251 Kozak et al.(2006) Eurycea junaluska Amphibian mtDNA 6 Kozak et al.(2006) Eurycea multiplicata Amphibian mtDNA 46 Bonett & Chippindale (2004) Eurycea tymerensis Amphibian mtDNA 16 Bonett & Chippindale (2004) Eurycea wilderae Amphibian mtDNA 129 Kozak et al.(2006)

Podcasts - online distributed audio files - are easy access and production media, which can be used for Scientific Communication (SC) but few are presented in Portuguese. The objective of this work is to perform a case study with data from a survey for two Brazilian SC podcasts (Dragões de Garagem and Fronteiras da Ciência) to evaluate the increase of science podcast media in Brazil, the involved potential, their advantages, shortcomings, and perspectives. We noted an increase of listeners over the years, probably due to the internet popularization and the massive increase of mobile phones. Scientific content is underexplored, despite the great interest of the public. Humorous and informal podcasts are the most appealing to the public and they usually listen to them on informal educational sites. The majority of the public is from the South and Southeast regions, they are young male adults with undergraduate or graduate degrees. SC podcasts, despite their potential to communicate science, still have shortcomings to overcome. Nevertheless, independent initiatives can solve this difficulty, making possible for the media to reach a varied audience, affecting different groups that would not have interest in a specific content before, or even the access itself to the scientific knowledge.

Aim: Ancient climatic fluctuations are invoked as the main driving force that generates the astonishing biodiversity in ancient mountains. As a result, endemism and spatial turnover are usually high and few species are widespread amongst entire mountain ranges, precluding the understanding of origins of macroevolutionary patterns. Here, we used a species endemic to, but widespread in, one of the most species-rich ancient mountains in the globe to test how environmental changes acted on and how their macroevolutionary patterns were shaped.Location: Espinhaço Range, Eastern Brazil. Taxon: Vriesea oligantha species complex (Bromeliaceae). Methods:We compiled data for plastidial regions and nuclear microsatellites to assess genetic diversity, population structure, migration rates and phylogenetic relationships. Using temperature and precipitation variables, we modelled suitable areas for the present and the past, estimating corridors between isolated populations. We also implemented Bayesian demographic analyses to estimate ancient populations dynamics. Finally, we tested if population structure is driven by isolation by environment or by distance using a Bayesian modelling approach.Results: Our results showed that the intraspecific divergence events of V. oligantha are older than those associated with the latest Pleistocene climatic oscillations, supporting the view that Quaternary climatic fluctuations are key components for understanding its population differentiation processes. Species distribution modelling estimated corridors between populations in the past, as also shown in the demographic analyses, depicting a major spatial reorganization during colder climates.Besides, the high genetic structure estimated results from both models of isolation by distance and by environment. Main conclusions: V. oligantha is a remarkable model to test the effects of climatic oscillations over the biological community, since this species originated in the early-Pleistocene, prevailing over several cycles of climatic fluctuations until today. The estimated demographic dynamics of V. oligantha agrees with the species-pump mechanism, suggesting it as the main cause of speciation within the Espinhaço Range. Moreover, the phylogeographic patterns of V. oligantha reflect previously recognised | 2313 DANTAS-QUEIROZ ET Al.

The Espinhaço Range is a center of biodiversity and endemism located in Eastern Brazil, and our knowledge is still scarce for the genetic diversity, structure and phylogeography of species from these mountains. Vriesea oligantha (Baker) Mez is an endemic bromeliad distributed along the Espinhaço Range with naturally fragmented populations. Here, the transferability of 30 microsatellites loci previously developed for seven Bromeliaceae species was tested from three different subfamilies in eight populations of V. oligantha. The amplification of 24 loci was successfully accomplished and 20 of them were polymorphic. Ten highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were selected to be amplified and genotyped in two population of V. oligantha. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 1 to 11, the expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0 to 0.905 and from 0 to 0.750, respectively. Our results endorse the cross-amplification between deeply divergent lineages of Bromeliaceae and provide useful markers for further phylogeographic, population genetics and mating systems studies to better understand the evolutionary history of an endemic species of a naturally fragmented area.

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We present an inventory of Iridaceae species from Serra dos Pireneus, a mountain range with several distinct vegetation types within the Cerrado biome and situated in the mid-east region of Goiás state, Brazil. The samples were collected in situ and surveys of herbaria were conducted. We found nine species of Iridaceae on Serra dos Pireneus, belonging to the following genera: Cipura, Gelasine, Sisyrinchium, Sphenostigma and Trimezia. This study provides a list of all species of Iridaceae recorded in this area including a brief diagnosis, a taxonomic note on Sphenostigma polycephalum, an identification key and an illustrated guide of Iridaceae.