Diversification in the Brazilian campos rupestres with focus on the family Velloziaceae

• Grant number: 13/01780-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Taxonomy
• Principal Investigator: Renato de Mello-Silva
• Grantee: Suzana de Fátima Alcantara
• Supervisor: David Ackerly
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States

Abstract

The recent integrative approaches available with the outcoming well-resolved phylogenies and the accumulation of distribution, morphological and ecological data sets are reviving the interest for the study of diversification of organisms. This approach is particularly interesting to study Neotropical groups because of the huge diversity of species in this region of the Earth. Historically, many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the high diversity in the Neotropic, basically focusing on Amazon groups, but most hypotheses only currently can be evaluated. In spite of increasing efforts to understand the diversification in these areas, we have not enough empirical data to evaluate the processes that determine the diversification in other Neotropical areas as the “campos rupestres”. This environment has the highest indices of endemisms and rare species among all the other known Brazilian areas. Thus, we propose in this project to evaluate the processes that resulted in the diversification of lineages in the “campos rupestres”. For that, we will use the family Velloziaceae as model, since this is one of the most diverse lineages in the “campos rupestres”. We will increase the number of taxa sampled in the phylogeny available for the family and compile/sample data about the geographical distribution, the morphology and the ecology of the species included in the phylogeny. We will focus on vegetative traits associated to the tolerance of the species to extreme conditions and on floral traits the mediate plant-pollinator interactions. These data will be evaluated in an explicit phylogenetic context to test hypotheses including historical, biogeographical and ecological factors. We hope it will allow a holistic evaluation about the processes that have driven the diversification in the “campos rupestres”. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ALCANTARA, SUZANA; REE, RICHARD H.; MELLO-SILVA, RENATO. Accelerated diversification and functional trait evolution in Velloziaceae reveal new insights into the origins of the campos rupestres' exceptional floristic richness. ANNALS OF BOTANY, v. 122, n. 1, p. 165-180, JUL 1 2018. (13/01780-0)

ALCANTARA, SUZANA; DE MELLO-SILVA, RENATO; TEODORO, GRAZIELLE S.; DREQUECELER, KAMILA; ACKERLY, DAVID D.; OLIVEIRA, RAFAEL S.. Carbon assimilation and habitat segregation in resurrection plants: a comparison between desiccation- and non-desiccation-tolerant species of Neotropical Velloziaceae (Pandanales). FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, v. 29, n. 12, p. 1499-1512, DEC 2015. (11/52072-0, 10/17204-0, 10/52174-4, 13/01780-0)

LAROCCA, PAULA DE FREITAS; MANCIO, JESSICA SALDANHA; PADILHA, PATRICIA; MELLO-SILVA, RENATO; ALCANTARA, SUZANA. Recent divergence in functional traits affects rates of speciation in the Neotropical Velloziaceae (Pandanales). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 199, n. 1, p. 29-pg., 2022-02-23. (13/01780-0)