Conservation priorities for the threatened flora of mountaintop grasslands in Brazil

Birds in the genus Cinclodes are habitat specialists, with most restricted to the highlands of South America. The recently described Cipo Cinclodes (C. espinhacensis) is isolated in the southern Espinhaço Range of Brazil and is considered Endangered in Brazil and Near Threatened by the IUCN, but as a subspecies of Long‐tailed Cinclodes (C. pabsti). We examined the population and spatial ecology of Cipo Cinclodes at two geographic scales to improve our understanding of their basic biology and conservation status. We monitored 30 birds at Serra do Breu and found relatively large home ranges (mean = 9.3 ha), a density of paired adults of 0.09/ha, a male‐skewed adult sex ratio (males/total adults = 0.57) due to territories occupied by unpaired males, and long‐term site fidelity. Cipo Cinclodes used all habitat types available in our study area, including rocky outcrops, grasslands, and riparian areas, but habitat selection analyses revealed the importance of riparian areas for foraging and rocky outcrops for nesting. At the species distribution scale, we compiled known and novel recorded occurrence points and used them to calculate the extent of occurrence (EOO) and the area of occupancy (AOO). We used a Maxent species distribution model to generate a binary map to estimate upper limits for EOO (EOO around the model predicted area) and AOO (comprised by the model predicted area within the EOO). We obtained 41 locations, resulting in an EOO of 890.7 km2 (up to 1748.7 km2) and an AOO of 100 km2 (up to 327.5 km2). The global population is estimated to be between 880 and 2882 birds, which is concerning because small populations are at risk of extinction due to demographic stochasticity, genetic drift, and the interaction of these factors. As such, our results support the designation of Cipo Cinclodes as Endangered on the Brazilian red list.

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“…, Monteiro et al. ). Mining activities are also a threat to birds in campos rupestres habitat (Pena et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial ecology and conservation of the microendemic ovenbird Cipo Cinclodes (Cinclodes espinhacensis) from the Brazilian highlands

et al. 2019

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“…Although 10 strictly protected areas were created in rupestrian grasslands in the last decade, safeguarding about 116,000 ha (Silva et al 2008), unique elements of biodiversity are likely to be under-represented due to species turnover and high endemism (Fernandes 2016b;Monteiro et al 2018). Although the mining industry has acquired several properties in the Espinhaço range to offset the impacts of mining, most of them have not been officially transformed into protected areas yet and, therefore, not included in the analyses performed to date (GWF, unpub.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third analysis deals with the effect of mining only, overlapping areas of environmental suitability with areas directly and indirectly affected by mining in the current scenario and in a mining expansion scenario. The analysis assessed changes in area and connectivity for rupestrian grasslands' species in current and future scenarios using Fragstats (McGarigal et al 2012). For this analysis, we assumed that all suitable areas are covered by native habitats.…”

Section: Landscape Metrics and Land-use Threats/protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The deadly route to collapse and the uncertain fate of Brazilian rupestrian grasslands

et al. 2018

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Rupestrian grasslands are biodiverse, evolutionary old vegetation complexes that harbor more than 5000 species of vascular plants and one of the highest levels of plant endemism in the world. Growing on nutrient-impoverished soils and under harsh environmental conditions, these mountaintop ecosystems were once spared from major human interventions of agriculture and intensive cattle ranching. However, in Brazil, rupestrian grasslands have experienced one of the most extreme land use changes among all Brazilian ecosystems, suffering from ill policies leading to intense mining activities, uncontrolled tourism, and unplanned road construction. Indeed, the discovery of large mineral reserves, the adoption of ineffective conservation policies, and, going forward, climate change, are Communicated by David Hawksworth.

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“…Finally, Monteiro et al (2018) offer a conservation plan for the key threatened plant species at risk of extinction on campo rupestre, pinpointing priority regions for taking different conservation actions. They found that it is possible to protect, on average, more than 25% of threatened species ranges, while avoiding sites with extensive farming and mining and favoring areas with intensive fire frequency, and while constraining land management to a relatively small area of only 17% of the region.…”

Section: Research Avenuementioning

confidence: 99%

Plant life in campo rupestre : New lessons from an ancient biodiversity hotspot

Morellato

Silveira²

2018

Flora

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Conservation priorities for the threatened flora of mountaintop grasslands in Brazil

Cited by 29 publications

References 25 publications

Spatial ecology and conservation of the microendemic ovenbird Cipo Cinclodes (Cinclodes espinhacensis) from the Brazilian highlands

Spatial ecology and conservation of the microendemic ovenbird Cipo Cinclodes (Cinclodes espinhacensis) from the Brazilian highlands

The deadly route to collapse and the uncertain fate of Brazilian rupestrian grasslands

Plant life in campo rupestre : New lessons from an ancient biodiversity hotspot

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