The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

Entender como a biota responde aos eventos de fogo é de extrema relevância para o manejo e a conservação dos ecossistemas terrestres, especialmente em face das mudanças ambientais globais e do aumento das atividades antrópicas. Apresentamos aqui uma revisão dos artigos publicados até o ano de 2009 a respeito do efeito do fogo sobre a fauna das formações savânicas brasileiras. Dentre os 1.512 artigos encontrados na Web of Knowledge utilizando as palavras-chave "cerrado fire*" ou "savanna fire*", apenas 12 tratam especificamente da fauna brasileira. Além destes, foram encontrados mais oito artigos em revistas não indexadas na Web of Knowledge ou em capítulos de livro. Dos 20 estudos, 11 foram realizados em Brasília, demonstrando uma alta concentração de trabalhos em uma única região. Observou-se que a resposta da fauna aos distúrbios causados pelo fogo pode ser variada, dependendo não só das características de cada espécie, mas também da frequência, intensidade das queimadas e das características espaciais do local como: tamanho da área queimada e o grau de fragmentação e heterogeneidade da paisagem. Características da história de vida, como comportamento e morfologia, geralmente determinam quais espécies são mais ou menos susceptíveis aos efeitos diretos do fogo. As mudanças físicas no habitat e/ou na disponibilidade de recursos causadas pelo fogo tendem a favorecer algumas espécies enquanto outras são prejudicadas. Os efeitos do fogo tendem a ser mais severos quando há uma grande acumulação de biomassa combustível e consequentemente incêndios de alta intensidade. O processo de recolonização das áreas queimadas ainda é pouco conhecido, mas um estudo com insetos galhadores e minadores mostra que esta se dá principalmente através de indivíduos vindos de fora da área queimada. Apesar das queimadas no Cerrado causarem uma drástica mudança na paisagem em um primeiro momento, registros de extinções locais de espécies animais são raros, o que sugere que ao menos parte da fauna do Cerrado é resiliente ao fogo. Como é o caso em outras savanas, a utilização de queimadas controladas em unidades de conservação no Cerrado pode ser uma forma de diversificação de habitats garantindo uma maior diversidade biológica. Palavras-chave: Biodiversidade; cerrado; distúrbio por fogo; disponibilidade de recursos; manejo da fauna. ABSTRACT A REVIEW ON FIRE EFFECTS ON THE FAUNA OF SAVANNA FORMATIONS IN BRAZIL. A better understanding of how species respond to fire events is of great relevance for the management and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems, especially in view of global change and increasing human activities. We present a review of papers published up to 2009 about the effects of fire on the fauna of Brazilian savanna formations (Cerrado and Amazonian savannas). Of the 1,512 papers found in the Web of Knowledge using the key words "cerrado fire*" and "savanna fire*", only 12 deal specifically with the Brazilian fauna. In addition to these, eight other non-indexed papers or book chapters were found. Of the 20 studies, 11 were don...

Ants are a dominant group in tropical savannas and here we examined the responses of the arboreal and ground-dwelling ant fauna to a fire in a Neotropical savanna (cerrado) reserve in Central Brazil. Ants were collected using pitfall traps and baits placed in trees and on the ground beneath each tree. Of the 36 trees marked along two transects, half (from each transect) were burned and half not. The same trees were sampled 1 wk before and again 3 and 12 mo after the fire. Rarefaction curves and ordination analyses using data from all trees from each side of each transect indicated that overall ant species richness and composition did not change after fire. Fire, however, reduced the mean number of ant species per tree, and increased the mean number of species on the ground. Fire increased the average abundance of specialist predators, Camponotini, and opportunistic species, and decreased that of arboreal specialists. Changes in the ground-dwelling fauna were only detected 12 mo after the fire, while those in the arboreal fauna occurred earlier and were no longer apparent 12 mo after the fire. We suggest that these contrasting results represent mainly an indirect response of the ant communities to fire-induced changes in vegetation. Given the temporary and small scale nature of the effects detected and the overall resilience of the ant fauna, our results indicate that a single fire in the cerrado vegetation does not greatly impact the structure of ant communities in the short term.

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Ecological patterns and processes are highly scale-dependent, but few studies have used standardized methodology to examine how scale dependency varies across continents. This paper examines scale dependency in comparative ant species richness and turnover in savannas of Australia and Brazil, which are well-matched climatically but whose ant faunas have contrasting biogeographic origins. The study was conducted in savanna woodland near Darwin in northern Australia and Uberlândia in central Brazil. The sampling design consisted of eight 400-m line transects, four in each continent, with eight pitfall traps located on and around each of 20 trees evenly spaced along each transect. Ant richness and species turnover were compared at three spatial scales: pitfalls associated with a tree, trees within a transect and transects within a savanna.The composition of the Australian and Brazilian savanna ant faunas was broadly similar at the subfamily level, despite the very low proportion of shared genera and species. The ground and arboreal ant faunas were very distinct from each other in both savannas, but especially in Brazil. Overall ant abundance was almost three times higher in Australia than in Brazil, both on the ground and on vegetation, but overall species richness was higher in Brazil (150 species) than in Australia (93). There was no significant difference in the mean number of species per pitfall trap, but the mean species richness was significantly higher in Brazil than in Australia at both the tree and transect scales. We attribute these scale-dependent intercontinental differences to biogeographical and historical factors in Brazil that have led to a large regional pool of arboreal species of rainforest origin. Our study underlines the importance of biogeographical context when conducting comparative analyses of community structure across biogeographical scales, and highlights the importance of process acting at regional scales in determining species richness in ant communities.

Although biological conservation has traditionally focused on the protection of pristine areas, it is becoming increasingly evident that efforts should also be made toward the maintenance of biological diversity in human‐managed ecosystems. We evaluated the potential role of scattered, remnant trees in enhancing ant diversity in agricultural lands within a biodiversity hotspot, namely the Cerrado savannas of central Brazil. Ant collections were performed in, beneath, and away from the crowns of a native tree species growing in planted pastures, soy fields, and in small (<400 ha) savanna reserves. Significantly more ant species were found beneath than 30 m away from scattered trees. The magnitude of this effect was similar in soy fields and in pastures at all scales of our analyses, except at the landscape scale where the effect was comparatively greater in soy fields. Most of the species that occurred more frequently beneath than away from trees nest on ground, indicating that the conservation value of scattered trees goes beyond the mere protection of arboreal ant species. Soy plantations presented a particular species‐poor ground‐dwelling fauna when compared with savannas, whereas differences in the number and composition of arboreal species were less marked. In contrast, the diversity of arboreal‐ and ground‐dwelling ants recorded in and beneath pasture trees was nearly as high as the one found in savannas. It is suggested that pasture trees can have an important value for ant conservation off reserves, particularly in regions where most of the native vegetation has already been cleared.

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