Trends and gaps in the literature on native palms of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Palms (Arecaceae) exert great relevance to the structure and functioning of tropical forest ecosystems, in addition to comprise key resources for frugivorous animals. However, many species are currently at risk of extinction due to overexploitation and/or habitat loss. Our study aimed to perform a systematic review with a scientometric approach of all 78 native palm species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, seeking to identify the best‐studied species and regions, main studied topics, overall patterns, trends and gaps in scientific research associated with this botany family. In total, studies were carried out for 48 species belonging to 10 genera, with the number of studies exponentially increasing from the 70s and exhibiting great difference in the number of publications among species. Euterpe edulis was the most studied species (n = 274), followed by Acrocomia aculeata (n = 205), whereas Bactris bahiensis (1), Geonoma litoralis (1), Syagrus santosii (1) and Trithrinax acanthocoma (0) comprised the less studied species. The largest number of studies was carried out in the south‐eastern states of Brazil. Regarding the type of studies, 34% and 27% were related to biochemical properties and ecological processes, respectively, while studies on entomology (n = 26), tissue culture (n = 23) and taxonomy (n = 7) showed the lowest number of studies. Given the key role of palms in tropical forests, our study suggests that future research should focus on less studied species, including Desmoncus spp., Geonoma spp. and Trithrinax sp., and on some less studied areas like the north‐east portion of the Atlantic Forest.