Rupestrian diversity

A research project supported by a call for proposals launched by FAPESP intends to determine restoration actions for one of Brazil's most biodiverse and endemic environments: rupestrian fields

By Mônica Pileggi

Agência FAPESP – Defining concrete and lasting actions to restore one of Brazil’s most biologically diverse environments is target of “The forestial diversity and seasonal standards of rupestrian fields and savannahs” project ("Diversidade florística e padrões sazonais dos campos rupestres e cerrado")  coordinated by Leonor Patrícia Cerdeira Morellato, professor at Universidade Estadual Paulista’s Biosciences Institute in Rio Claro.

The study is part of the Recuperar network (Recovery), approved in the call for proposals launched in 2010 by the research support foundations (FAPs) of the states of São Paulo (FAPESP),  Minas Gerais (Fapemig) and Pará (Fapespa), along with mining giant Vale S.A. 

Brazil has innumerous zones of life and vegetal formations. Among the main types of vegetation are forests (the Amazon, the Atlantic Rainforest, mixed ombrophilous and other types). Some are among the world’s most diverse, with high local endemism – restricted to specific ecosystems. Nevertheless, the greater part of this biodiversity has not been studied or understood.

The country has several conservation hotspots, such as its rupestrian fields. Formed on thin, poorly nourished soil characterized by a high concentration of aluminum and an uneven terrain – the result of  uplift – of rocky outcrops at above 900-meter altitudes, this vegetation has a vast wealth of flora, boasting more than 4,000 species, and endemisms.

“Rich in quartz and iron, the area under study has ravines, ridges and gullies all over, which are caused by mining. Because of the fragile ecosystem and the low resilience, rupestrian fields do not often manage to regenerate spontaneously,” explains Morellato in an interview with Agência FAPESP. 

“The main focus of our research project will be to supply technology and/or paths to the recovery and handling of the vegetation that is currently susceptible to many threats. The Recuperar network’s objective is to develop proposals,” she explains.

By 2015, scientists from the universities of Minas Gerais and São Paulo will have a constant flow of information about the Serra do Cipó region in Cadeia do Espinhaço.

Currently, cattle-raising is the main economic activity in Cadeia do Espinhaço. According to Morellato, many existing species in the rupestrian fields run the risk of extinction due to the small area that they occupy, in addition to the human impact.

The Recuperar network is comprised of five subprojects with participating professors and students from Unesp, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA), Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) and Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes).

Morellato, who is also responsible for the São Paulo leg of the project, explains that the majority of the research will be conducted in Minas Gerais. Although the beginning of the project is slated for March, the group has gotten a head start on the first phase – the project is also split into five phases – beginning demarcation of transects of plants in different altitudes along Serra do Cipó range.
“After this field work, which has a goal of helping to understand the biodiversity of the location, we intend to monitor the phenology of the plants. This phase is part of my subproject,” he says.
Phenology is the study of how plants and animals develop throughout their different phases and relate as an environment, especially changes caused by the environment or temperature. In this second phase, the teams will define the seasonal patterns of vegetation, or rather, the behavior along the altitude gradient.  

Seeds and conservation

“As certain types of plants have more specialized methods of pollination than others, based on the results obtained we expect to forecast any modifications and eventually mitigate this data for mining, climate change or other future environmental changes,” explains the Unesp professor.

Simultaneously, the researchers at Minas Gerais universities under the coordination of professor Geraldo Wilson Fernandes of the General Biology Department at UFMG will investigate part of the material collected in the first phase in order to establish protocols for seed germination.

“The objective of this work will be to obtain the ecophysiological characteristics, or rather, adaptation of the species to the environmental conditions of Minas Gerais rupestrian fields and similar formations, like the savannas in upstate São Paulo state,” explains Morellato.

The result of this study will culminate in the next stages, which consist of the development and possible implementation of a seed bank, in addition to in vitro propagation of the 20 main species indentified during the previous stages of the project.

At the end of the study, the researchers hope to obtain sufficient data for effective and self-sustainable usage of these species in the restoration of rupestrian fields and its future conservation.