Reproductive traits and the evolution of the campo rupestre flora

• Grant number: 24/01806-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2024
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Beatriz Lopes Monteiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10639-5 - Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The Neotropical region, mainly mountainous areas, concentrates high biodiversity and landscapes and biotic interactions are important factors to explain its high plant diversity. Typically, vegetative traits from the plant community are accessed to answer ecological and evolutionary questions. However the use of reproductive traits is still a neglected approach. Biotic interactions with pollinating agents and reproductive traits are directly connected with the ability of Angiosperms to leave descendants. That is a crucial perspective for understanding the processes that creates biodiversity patterns as well as for developing conservation plans. In the context of a rapidly changing world, mountain systems are a major conservation priority, as they concentrate disproportionately high biodiversity and greater sensitivity to climate change. In Brazil, we find a mountain vegetation, the campo rupestre, which occupies less than 1% of the territory and concentrates around 15% of the vascular plants estimated for the country. Considered an important center of endemism, this vegetation is classified as a Neotropical OCBIL (Old Climatically-Buffered Infertile Landscape), and we aim to test some hypotheses of this theory, such as the predominance of species with reduced dispersal capacity and the presence of strategies to preserve the heterozygosity, such as pollination by agents capable of flying longer distances, connecting restricted populations. Its high diversity can be explained by climatic fluctuations and isolation of populations that occur on island-like systems, such as mountain tops. Furthermore, the very distribution of campo rupestre vegetation, associated with edaphic characteristics, isolates the different types of vegetation on a local scale and constitutes an important factor that explains its high diversity and evolutionary history. In this way, in line with the CEPID (2021/10639-5) WP1 - WP3 research packs, this project proposes (i) prepare a bibliographical survey of plant breeding systems in Brazil, seeking to elucidate how the campo rupestre compares to the breeding systems present in the Brazilian flora? (ii) survey reproductive traits across altitude and vegetation types and answer how these are distributed across the landscape? Are there types of vegetation that combine certain reproductive characteristics? (iii) Finally, we ask whether there is a phylogenetic signal or an evolutionary convergence in reproductive traits related to pollination carried out by long-distance pollinators?

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)

MONTEIRO, BEATRIZ LOPES; SOUZA, CAMILA SILVEIRA; MARUYAMA, PIETRO K.; CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA GUTIERREZ; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA CERDEIRA. Applying plant-pollinator network to identify priority species for conservation in a biodiversity hotspot. Biological Conservation, v. 302, p. 9-pg., 2025-01-16. (09/54208-6, 13/50155-0, 15/10754-8, 24/01806-3, 18/21646-0, 21/10639-5, 10/51307-0)