Understanding Distributions of Poorly Known Species Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira Centro de Referncia

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Understanding Distributions of Poorly Known
SpeciesMarinez Ferreira de SiqueiraCentro
de Referência em Informação Ambiental
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Poorly Known Species

• Microendemics or rare
• Poorly collected species
• Species with extremely restricted ecological
  needs
• E.g., in Cerrado vegetation, 30 of trees are
  known from single records in the Projeto de
  Cooperação Técnica Conservação e Manejo da
  Biodiversidade do Bioma Cerrado EMBRAPA
  Cerrados UnB Ibama/DFID e RBGE/Reino Unido
  database
• What to do to understand (or begin to understand)
  the distributions of these species?

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Ecological Space
Measure distance in ecological space
Position of point that might be adjacent to known
occurrence
Annual Mean Temperature
Available Environments
Position of point from which species is known
Annual Mean Precipitation
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Measure Ecological Similarity Across Landscape
Measure ecological distances from all points
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Understanding Distributions of Poorly Known
Species
The idea is to characterize the landscape and
region surrounding the one known occurrence as to
how similar or different it is in terms of
ecological parameters.
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Results of modeling for Byrsonima subterranea
Brad. Mark. (Malpighiaceae)
Assis Ecological Station, a Conservation Unit in
São Paulo State.
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Modeling for Byrsonima subterranea
grey area less environmental similarity
blue area high environmental similarity
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Modeling for Byrsonima subterranea
Identify areas of high and low ecological
similarity to known occurrence point
Black patches of the cerrado vegetation type
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Modeling for Baccharis pseudotenuifolia
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Understanding Distributions of Poorly Known
Species

• To test the applicability of this approach, we
  will go to the field to assess whether additional
  occurrences of this species are concentrated in
  areas that are highly similar to the single known
  locality.
• This approach is highly experimental, and its
  presentation at this point is quite preliminary,
  but it is an illustration of potential approaches
  to understanding better even the most poorly
  known species

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Acknowledgments

• Prof. Dr. A. Townsend Peterson - Natural History
  Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, The
  University of Kansas, to help with modelling
• Dra Giselda Durigan - Assis Ecological Station