Australian tall eucalypt forests have been the subject of awe and admiration since early colonial days. In the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, such forest occurs in transitional or ecotonal patches between rainforests and open woodland savannas. Rainforest species are commonly interpreted to be encroaching into the understorey of these tall eucalypt forests, namely those with statuesque Rose Gum (Eucalyptus grandis) dominants. This has led to concerns for the long term persistence of E. grandis forests, and ongoing debates over their need for active fire management. In this essay, I highlight the enigmatic ecology of these ecotonal forest habitats, and make the case that the management of these habitats should be grounded in ecological principles within a broader perspective of patterns in global vegetation change.

Knowledge on floristic composition and vegetation structure is essential to preserve plant biodiversity and environmental conditions. A floristic and structural survey of woody vegetation was carried out in a physiognomic gradient of riparian forest of Cerrado vegetation, Campinas - SP. We sampled 25 plots, distributed along five transects, located perpendicularly to a stream. We found 971 individuals (65 standing dead trees) distributed among 35 families and 80 species. We recorded one single individual of exotic species (Citrus limon – rangpur) and a large number of individuals of endangered species (Luetzelburgia guaissara, Myroxylon peruiferum andTrichilia hirta) indicating that the Santa Elisa study area retains much of the original characteristics of its native vegetation. The small number of exclusive Cerrado species in the study area indicates that riverine environments represent a very different condition in relation to that of the Cerrado. Except for swampy areas, which ar...

We analyzedarthropod community structure and composition among different anthropogenic systems. The study was conducted in areas of secondary forest (control system), Eucalyptusplantation and pasture, where we sampled arthropodsusing pitfall traps. The systems did not differ in mean richness and mean abundance of arthropods, however, eucalyptus presented the highest total richness. The systems supported different arthropod communities in relation to structure and species composition. Pasture was the most simplified and different system in comparison to the others, probably because it is more open and presents low complexity. Our results demonstrate that different anthropogenic systems exhibit communities that reflect itscharacteristics, corroborating the evidence that human impacts are capable of changing community composition and structure. Our study serves to understand arthropod response in face of environmental disturbance, selecting indicator morphospecies and orders of arthropods for different anthropogenic systems and providing valid information for the development of conservation strategies.

We evaluated the floristic and structural composition of a tree community in an ecotone between Cerrado (cerradão) and Atlantic Forest (seasonal semideciduous forest) domains located in Porto Ferreira State Park (PFSP), southeastern Brazil. We compared the floristic relationships of this ecotone with those of previous surveys carried out on the same vegetation types and checked the species distribution among the Brazilian biomes. We sampled all living trees with PBH>10 cm in 64 10x10 m plots (0.64 ha), totaling 1,755 individuals belonging to 101 species and 37 families. The richest families were Myrtaceae (13 spp.) and Fabaceae (11 spp.), and Siparuna guianensis was the most abundant species (188 individuals). We reported two threatened species. A great number of species are widely distributed, occurring in different Brazilian biomes. Floristic similarity values were low among the selected studies, but our sampled community clustered with communities of cerradão and ecotone areas...

Estudos sobre a ocorrência de queimadas são muito importantes, visto que eles corroboram medidas de controle, prevenção e monitoramento destas. Incêndios florestais causam vários impactos, entre eles perda da biodiversidade e prejuízo à saúde humana, sendo um problema tanto na esfera ambiental quanto social e política. Uma forma de monitoramento desses incêndios é a utilização de técnicas de sensoriamento remoto. Assim, a proposta do presente trabalho foi a utilização de imagens Modis (MCD45A1) para identificação e avaliação de áreas queimadas na região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, entre os anos de 2012 e 2016, validando-o com dados do sensor Landsat-8/OLI. Com o emprego dos dados Landsat, é possível delimitar com melhor precisão a dimensão da área queimada, mas exigindo-se conhecimento técnico operacional e corpo técnico especializado para tanto. Já o produto decorrente do Modis, é mais acessível e de fácil utilização, sendo de aplicação direta, pois já informa os focos de incê...