Tropical montane organisms are vulnerable to climate change because of elevational specialisation, but little is known of the variability in elevational specialisation across tropical insects. We assessed elevational specialisation across several insect taxa comprising four trophic groups 80–2263 m up an elevational transect in Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, using community‐based and species‐based approaches. We sampled 697 species, of which 32% were found only in the top and 45% only in the bottom half of the transect. Considering only the 182 species with at least five individuals recorded, the percentage of species found exclusively in the top or bottom half drops to 16% and 24%. Across four vegetation belts (lower montane forest, montane forest, upper montane forest and Campos de Altitude) the Eumolpinae (herbivores) were more specialised than Scarabaeinae (saprotrophs), or Lampyridae (predators). This result was robust to the treatment of rare species, and the difference was most marked at higher elevations. Lampyridae lacked upper montane forest specialists. Using all species sampled, specialisation to the upper or lower half of the transect was greatest among Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae (both herbivores) and Lampyridae, and lowest among Tiphiidae (parasitoids) and Coccinellidae (predators). Considering only better sampled species, however, Lampyridae were the most specialised and Braconidae the least specialised. Trophic groups also varied consistent with these findings. Our findings suggest high elevational specialisation and concomitant extinction risk in Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest insects. Differences in elevational specialisation between taxonomic groups may alter the functioning of insect communities under climate change.

The AtGRP5 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a glycine-rich protein which has a major activity in protoderm-derived cells and is expressed in cells that undergo the first anatomical modifications leading to somatic embryo development. It has been previously demonstrated that its minimum promoter is 316 bp long including the 5'UTR and presents three putative TATA-boxes sequences and several regions that are homologous to previous characterized cis-acting elements. In order to better characterize the AtGRP5 expression and to identify the promoter regions involved in its preferential epidermal expression, in situ hybridization and 5' promoter deletions were employed. In situ hybridization and GUS expression assays indicate that, besides being present during somatic embryogenesis, AtGRP5 is also expressed during the zygotic embryo development. The sequential 5' deletions indicate that multiple negative and positive regulatory elements are present in the AtGRP5 promoter and operate in order to confer its distinct expression pattern. A 44-bp region was shown to be essential for the epidermal expression of this gene in leaves, stems, flowers and fruits, and is also responsible for high activity of the AtGRP5 promoter in zygotic embryos. An element responsible for the phloem expression was also identified in a 35-bp region.

Mountains present large climatic variations along altitudinal gradients, which can affect the distribution and abundance of species over space and time, generating patterns such as a reduction in richness towards higher altitudes and seasonal variations. However, variations in biodiversity along altitudinal gradients within the Atlantic Foresta hyperdiverse and highly threatened Neotropical biome-have been seldom studied. We characterize the altitudinal and temporal variation in species richness and abundance of Scarabaeinae dung beetles along the altitudinal gradient of the Itatiaia National Park (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), placed at Serra da Mantiqueira Mountain massif. Surveys were carried out between 600 and 2400 m a.s.l., with 3 pitfall traps baited with human feces installed every 50 m of altitude, constituting the largest elevational range studied so far for Brazilian dung beetles. A total of 3586 individuals from 53 species of Scarabaeinae, mostly paracoprids, were found at Itatiaia. Species richness and abundance were higher at intermediate altitudes (1000-1500m). Dung beetle communities showed a marked seasonality, with 31 species exclusive of summer and only two in winter. Winter populations were also less abundant, showing a bimodal distribution of species abundances that contrasts with the lognormal pattern of distribution of abundances observed in the summer fauna. Results of General Linear Models show that both altitude and season correlates with the variations in species richness and abundance. Further, eight out of the nine species with large populations in both seasons showed significant shifts in their altitudinal distributions between winter and summer. Our results indicate that Itatiaia hosts an extremely rich fauna of Scarabaeinae, with large variations in richness and abundance along the altitudinal gradient and significant phenological changes at the community level associated with climatic variations between seasons.

The mountaintops of the Atlantic Rainforest in Southeastern Brazil are dominated by high altitude grasslands, named Campos de Altitude (CA). Considering the location and the smaller habitat areas of communities on the mountaintops and the high frequency of endemic species, the assemblages in these habitats are particularly threatened by climate change, and the vulnerability of a species should then be higher if its elevational range is narrow. In this study we aim to describe the elevational range of beetle species occurring in the CA and discuss their vulnerability to local extinction in the context of climate change, also considering their trophic group. We selected beetles in five taxa from three trophic groups in the CA of Serra dos Órgãos National Park (SONP) and Itatiaia National Park (INP): detritivores (Scarabaeidae-INP), herbivores (Chrysomelidae-SONP and INP, and Curculionidae-SONP) and predators (Coccinellidae-SONP, and Lampyridae-SONP). We found different elevational ranges among the studied taxa and among species within each taxon. Herbivores tended to have narrower ranges than the detritivores, and predators were the trophic group with the broadest species range. The relatively high frequency of species with narrow elevational range, particularly within the herbivores, suggests that this entomofauna is particularly endangered due to predicted climate warming and an expected range shift upwards. Considering that many endemic species are expected in the CA and that many undescribed species of insects have been found in this habitat, we may lose many yet unknown species.