Inventory of animals and plants in São Paulo City reveals surprising biodiversity

Six new plant species were discovered, a jaguar was sighted not far from the municipality's southern edge, and species typical of the Cerrado are found more frequently.

By Maria Fernanda Ziegler  |  Agência FAPESP – In a certain forest with an area equivalent to 140,000 soccer pitches, you can find the Toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) from the Cerrado, the Southern muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides), Brazil’s largest primate, and the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix aurita), an endangered species endemic to the Atlantic Rainforest of Southeast Brazil.

The area also contains six species of plants unknown to science until recently, as well as charismatic animal species such as the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the puma (Puma concolor capricornensis), and even a specimen of the jaguar (Panthera onca), the largest feline in the Americas. In total, the area contains 1,113 animal species and 4,768 plant species.

The numbers are surprising, especially considering that the area in question is located inside the municipality of São Paulo (São Paulo State, Brazil). The city’s concrete and asphalt conceal considerable biodiversity in a few forested areas, and especially green belts in the north and south, according to the latest wildlife inventory published by the São Paulo City Department of Green Areas & the Environment (SVMA).

The biodiversity inventory was produced by municipal civil servants at SVMA in partnership with FAPESP’s Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration & Sustainable Use (BIOTA-FAPESP) as part of the Environmental Atlas Project (Projeto Atlas Ambiental).

The inventory of wild animals in the area began in 1993, and information on plant species was included for the first time in 2016. The team compiled data collected in primary surveys of over 100 locations (136 in 2016) and supplied by SVMA’s Technical Division for Veterinary Medicine & Management of Wild Animals (DEPAVE-3). The results also included cumulative records of over 20 years of work and studies performed by collaborating researchers.

In the case of plants, the data sources ranged from the Municipal Herbarium and its reports on technical inspections to bibliographical references such as floristic and phytosociological surveys conducted in the municipality since 1911.

One of the most striking aspects of the project is the evidence that new species can still be found in the area, as is the resistance of not only species that are ecologically undemanding, such as the capybaras in the Pinheiros River, but also species that need a balanced ecosystem to survive.

An example is a jaguar weighing almost 100 kilos and sighted in January 2016 while calmly padding through Núcleo Curucutu, a permanent conservation area inside the Serra do Mar State Park, starting at the city’s southern edge and extending down to the coast near Santos and beyond. The animal was photographed by camera traps belonging to the Institute for Conservation of Neotropical Carnivores (Pró-Carnívoros), one of the project’s partners.

“The muriqui, not seen for a long time in the municipality, and the marmoset and jaguar are all ecologically demanding species. Their presence here shows that the ecosystem is well conserved, as they can’t survive in environmentally altered areas. It’s surprising and unquestionably good news,” said Anelisa Magalhães, who works at SVMA and coordinated the animal part of the 2016 Biodiversity Inventory of the Municipality of São Paulo.

Six unknown plant species were found right at the start of the floristic survey for the inventory. Another probable new species, a tree in the family Lauraceae, is being analyzed. These findings are a result of the collective efforts conducted during the project “Phanerogamic Flora of São Paulo State”, funded by FAPESP.

“The evergreen shrub Leandra lapae D’El Rei Souza & Baumgratz, which belongs to the family Melastomataceae, has only been recorded so far as part of a sample collected from a forested area near Parelheiros,” said Ricardo Garcia, the curator of the Municipal Herbarium and the person responsible for the plant section of the inventory.

Cerrado in the metropolis

The point of regular surveys of the biodiversity of a mega-city such as São Paulo is to precisely track changes in the species that live there and to serve as a scientific basis for public policy making.

“The inventory tells us about species that have been documented historically in certain parts of the city and have disappeared, as well as new species that have appeared here,” Magalhães said. “This happens because of the intense environmental changes caused by urbanization.”

The inventory shows that both flora and fauna typical of the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) are more frequently found in the area. “Toucans, for example, are common in the Cerrado and are now being sighted more often here,” Magalhães said.

Even the Picazuro pigeon (Patagioenas picazuro) is an example of this urban colonization. In the 1990s, it was rarely seen, but today, it can be found anywhere in the city. “When habitats are reduced by urbanization and human activity, many species disappear, while others adapt and their population increases,” Magalhães said.

The same applies to plant species, 47 of which were recorded for the first time in the city after more than 50 years of absence from the surveys. These are species that could have been considered extinct but have now reappeared.

“This could be due to lack of collection during the period,” Garcia said. “It could also show that parts of the territory are being reoccupied by rural species owing to current environmental conditions. Twenty of these species occur in the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado biomes."

The main types of vegetation in the municipality were originally open woodland, forest, floodplain and montane meadow. Drier meadow on hills and floodplain vegetation in lower areas predominated only in the historic city center. These types of vegetation have almost entirely disappeared, but plants typical of the Cerrado have also been found more frequently in recent years. Of 3,474 native vascular plant species inventoried in the municipality, 18 are considered exclusive to the Cerrado biome, and five of these have recently been recorded in the wild.

The survey also led to another important discovery: the city’s parks are essential to birds, which use them as a stopover. “The parks provide food and rest while birds are traveling between forest fragments,” Magalhães said. “Ibirapuera Park, Aclimação Park and Buenos Aires Park are visited by the bare-throated bellbird [Procnias nudicollis] in spring, for example. The network of municipal parks, with their mixture of native and exotic vegetation, is more important ecologically to forest-dwelling and migratory birds than was previously thought.”

Urban tree diversity is equally important and needs to be monitored. “The trees you choose to plant in your city will influence biodiversity,” Magalhães said.

Throughout the 20-year period since the inventory was first produced, it has served as a basis for environmental offsetting in large infrastructure projects. “At the end of the day, all this depends on political decisions, but the inventory helps instrumentalize decision making,” she said.

For example, Magalhães went on, four nature parks were created using information from the inventory as environmental offsets during construction of the southern section of the Rodoanel belt highway. As another example, Eletropaulo, the city’s power distribution utility, made changes to its network of overhead supply lines in rural areas of the municipality to mitigate the risk to wildlife based on cases of electrocution recorded by DEPAVE-3. 

“We proved that the overhead electricity cables had an impact and that animals were dying of electrocution. Otherwise, they would always have been able to say there are no animals or plants in São Paulo,” Magalhães said.

The 2016 Biodiversity Inventory of the Municipality of São Paulo is available at prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/upload/pubbiodiversidademunsp2016.pdf.