Floristic survey of high altitude areas of the Ipanema National Forest, Iperó-SP: elucidating gaps in biodiversity knowledge

• Grant number: 25/10110-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Principal Investigator: Fiorella Fernanda Mazine Capelo
• Grantee: Lina Pastor Cinosi
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias para a Sustentabilidade (CCTS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Sorocaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Ipanema National Forest (FLONA de Ipanema), a Brazilian Federal Conservation Unit (UC) located in the municipality of Iperó, currently preserves one of the largest forest fragments in an urbanized area of ¿¿the state of São Paulo, housing a great diversity of flora in remnants of Ombrophilous Forest, Semideciduous Seasonal Forest and Cerrado. In addition to its ecological importance, the territory where the Ipanema FLONA is located today has a rich history of exploration by important naturalist botanists who traveled through Brazil in the 19th century, such as Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Friedrich Sellow and Ludwig Riedel. Since then, the area where the UC is located has been the focus of numerous studies, with ongoing studies indicating the occurrence of at least 700 plant species in the area. However, the botanical collections carried out to date have been concentrated mainly in easily accessible regions, close to firebreaks and areas of public use. This reality may have created a knowledge gap in more remote areas that remain undersampled and unexplored, which may harbor new and rare species for the UC. Given this scenario, the present project aims to survey the phanerogam species in the highest altitude and most difficult to access areas of the Ipanema National Forest, in order to reduce the knowledge gap of the UC. To this end, the study will be based on: 1) a bibliographic review of works on flora in the Ipanema National Forest, 2) collections of plant specimens in the area, 3) consultations of herbaria, especially the SORO herbarium collection, of the Federal University of São Carlos - Sorocaba Campus, for identification and analysis of morphological characteristics of the specimens collected in the area, 4) consultation of the Flora e Funga do Brasil platform to check the names and use taxonomic identification keys, and 5) preparation of the final list of species, which will follow the methodology of the Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Cosnservação do Brasil. The project has logistical support and active participation from the FLONA Ipanema team. The main results are expected to produce a list of phanerogam species occurring in the high-altitude areas of FLONA Ipanema, with names duly checked, in addition to training the candidate in the handling of herbarium material and in the practice of botanical collection and identification, contributing to the training of human resources in Plant Biodiversity. (AU)