WHAT DID CABRAL SEE WHEN HE FIRST LOOKED AT BRAZIL? THE LICHEN BIOTA OF MONTE PASCOAL, BAHIA, BRAZIL

  • Author
  • Isaias de Oliveira Junior
  • Co-authors
  • Lidiane Alves dos Santos , Bruno Micael Cardoso Barbosa , Wellen Lívia de Santana , Bruna Leticia Campos de Melo , André Aptroot , Marcela Eugenia da Silva Cáceres
  • Abstract
  • It is well-known that Brazil holds a high diversity of organisms distributed in different biomes around the country. In fact, being a tropical country and located in one of the hotspots of diversity helps to create habitats with unique characteristics. However, this diversity called attention during the age of exploration, and Brazil ended being one of the countries largely explored, especially through logging activity. Monte Pascoal (MP) National Park is a well-preserved area of Atlantic Forest located at the Northeast of Brazil, composed of 22,500 hectares of humid and dense forest divided in seven zones of usage. In fact, it is known as the first spot that was sighted by the Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral, and home to the Pataxó tribe. The goal of this work is to present the first official report of the lichen biota of MP. Samples were collected in August/2018 and February/2019, mainly the corticolous lichens removed using knife and hammer, and foliicolous, saxicolous and terricolous lichens when available at the plot area previously established. All samples were dried and identified using morphological and chemical (when demanded) characteristics. A total of 522 samples were collected, where 353 lichen species were identified, and 175 are new records. For the species identified, 297 were represented by corticolous crustose, 42 foliicolous, 9 saxicolous, and 5 terricolous. The species with a high abundance are Diorygma poitaei, Sarcographa labyrinthica, Ocellularia inspersula. Also, the cumulative curve of species showed that after a certain time of intensive collecting at each plot the number of species kept growing. Indeed, the richness and diversity of lichens in MP is impressive, and a detailed article is in press already. This work highlights the importance of investigating new areas and confirms that Brazil is a country with a high diversity of organisms, specially lichens, yet to know.

  • Keywords
  • Modality
  • Pôster
  • Subject Area
  • Fungal phylogeny/taxonomy
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