Does spatial and seasonal variability in fleshy-fruited trees affect fruit availability? A case study in gallery forests of Central Brazil

Darosci, Adriano Antonio; Takahashi, Frederico Scherr Caldeira; Proença, Carolyn Elinore Barnes; Soares-Silva, Lucia Helena; Munhoz, Cássia Beatriz Rodrigues

doi:10.1590/0102-33062020abb0279

Cited by 3 publications

References 41 publications

(82 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Martins,

Proença,

Vasconcelos

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stingless bees are major flower visitors in the tropics, but their foraging preferences and behavior are still poorly understood. Studying stingless bee interactions with angiosperms is methodologically challenging due to the high tropical plant diversity and inaccessibility of upper canopy flowers in forested habitats. Pollen DNA metabarcoding offers an opportunity of assessing floral visitation efficiently and was applied here to understand stingless bee floral resources spectra and foraging behavior. We analyzed pollen and honey from nests of three distantly related stingless bee species, with different body size and social behavior: Melipona rufiventris, Scaptotrigona postica and Tetragonisca angustula. Simultaneously, we evaluate the local floristic components through seventeen rapid botanical surveys conducted at different distances from the nests. We discovered a broad set of explored floral sources, with 46.3 plant species per bee species in honey samples and 53.67 in pollen samples. Plant families Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Melastomataceae and Malpighiaceae dominated the records, indicating stingless bee preferences for abundant resources that flowers of these families provide in the region. Results also reinforce the preference of stingless bees for forest trees, even if only available at long distances. Our high-resolution results encourage future bee-plant studies using pollen and honey metabarcoding in hyper-diverse tropical environments.

show abstract

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Martins,

Proença,

Vasconcelos

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Revealing the Permanent and Transient Plant Understory in Gallery Forests in the Cerrado of Central Brazil

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The understories of tropical forests comprise complex communities and can be divided into permanent understory, where the generally shade-tolerant plant growth forms are less developed in height, and transient understory, where young tree individuals are only temporarily present. Despite a high contribution to species richness in tropical forests, the understory is poorly studied. Here, we examined the species composition, richness, structure, diversity, and the relative contribution of growth forms in permanent and transient understories of gallery forests in the Brazilian Cerrado. A total of 211 species distributed into sixty-seven families and 153 genera were sampled. The most species-rich family was Rubiaceae, and Miconia was the genus with the highest species richness. The species Hildaea pallens had the highest importance in the forests. The best-represented growth forms were tree seedlings, followed by shrubs and lianas. The transient component of the understory in gallery forests was the most diverse. However, in terms of species relative cover, both transient and permanent understory species contributed equally to the understory structure, mainly due to the high cover of Poaceae species. Our study is the first to examine composition, structure, diversity, and growth forms in the permanent and transient understories of gallery forests. Study Implications: Our study is innovative in describing the plant community attributes of gallery forest understories in the Brazilian Cerrado. The understories of tropical forests comprise complex communities and can be divided into permanent and transient understory. The transient component of the understory in gallery forests was the most diverse, represented by seedlings and young tree specimens. However, in terms of species relative cover, both transient and permanent understory species contributed equally to the understory structure. Here, we provide evidence that may be useful to initiatives seeking to conduct ecological restoration and conservation of gallery forests in the Cerrado.

show abstract

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in Neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Martins,

Proença,

Vasconcelos

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stingless bees are major flower visitors in the tropics, but their foraging preferences and behavior are still poorly understood. Studying stingless bee interactions with angiosperms is methodologically challenging due to the high tropical plant diversity and inaccessibility of upper canopy flowers in forested habitats. Pollen DNA metabarcoding offers an opportunity of assessing floral visitation efficiently and was applied here to understand stingless bee floral resources spectra and foraging behavior. We analyzed pollen and honey of three distantly related species of stingless bees, with different body size and social behavior: Melipona rufiventris, Scaptotrigona postica and Tetragonisca angustula. Simultaneously, we evaluate the local floristic components through seventeen rapid botanical surveys conducted at different distances from the nests. We discovered a broad set of explored floral sources, with 46.3 plant species per bee species in honey samples and 53.67 in pollen samples. Plant families Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Melastomataceae and Malpighiaceae dominated the records, indicating stingless bee preferences for abundant resources that flowers of these families provide in the region. Results also reinforce the preference of stingless bees for forest trees, even if only available at long distances. Our high-resolution results encourage future bee-plant studies using pollen and honey metabarcoding in hyper diverse tropical environments.

show abstract

Does spatial and seasonal variability in fleshy-fruited trees affect fruit availability? A case study in gallery forests of Central Brazil

Cited by 3 publications

References 41 publications

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Revealing the Permanent and Transient Plant Understory in Gallery Forests in the Cerrado of Central Brazil

Contrasting patterns of foraging behavior in Neotropical stingless bees using pollen and honey metabarcoding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About