Plant Diversity in the Montane and Submontane Forests of Southern Bahia and Northern Espírito Santo, Brazil

巴西的大西洋沿岸森林是世界生物多样性“热点”之一。它遭受着严重的森林砍伐，具有高度的生物多样性，特别是在其他地方找不到的物种(特有物种)。从这些高度分散的森林中收集的生物标本分布不均，大多数标本收集在城市或大型保护区附近，或在靠近海岸的更容易到达的地区。这一狭窄的森林边缘包括几个植物和许多动物群体的高度特有的地区。这些地区包括圣保罗和里约热内卢(保利斯塔地区)的沿海山地森林，以及巴伊亚南部的潮湿森林。保利斯塔地区和巴伊亚地区之间的划分与圣埃斯皮里托北部和巴伊亚最南端的森林采集区非常糟糕不谋而合。据推测，在保利斯塔地区和巴伊亚地区之间的空隙中增加收集将表明这一空隙不存在。它将证明，目前仅在巴伊亚山下森林中已知的物种将出现在更南边的类似森林中，仅在里约热内卢和圣保罗塞拉·杜马山地森林中已知的植物将在圣埃斯皮里托北部和巴伊亚南部的高海拔森林中找到。纽约植物园(NY)、可可研究中心(CEPEC)、巴伊亚圣克鲁斯州立大学(UESC)和圣特雷萨圣埃斯皮里托的Mello Leitao生物博物馆(MBML)的工作人员将合作并收集巴西巴伊亚南部和北部圣埃斯皮里托山下和山地森林中的维管植物。在国际科学与工程办公室和生物多样性调查和名录计划的支持下，该项目将有：1)测试假设，即在保利斯塔和巴伊亚特有中心之间没有差距，许多山地和亚山地物种在分布上的限制比之前认为的要少；2)产生的标本将被现在和未来的生物学家用于专家鉴定、研究和新物种的描述；3)编制了一份关于巴希安南部和圣埃斯皮里托北部植物区系的核心清单；以及4)重新评估了巴西东部森林中的植物特有格局。该项目将对巴西东部大西洋森林的智能保护至关重要。项目组将寻找和突出可能保护的亚山和山地森林区域。此外，珍稀植物物种的分布将得到更好的界定，从而能够评估将每个物种列入国际自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录的标准。预计这些分布将遵循生态分区的模式，特定森林碎片中某些物种的存在或不存在将是可预测的。对巴西植物学家和纽约研究生的培训将是我们研究的另一个重要副产品，随着美国学生前往巴西，他们将为未来的工作发展重要的合作。

The Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil is one of the World's biodiversity "hotspots." It suffers severe deforestation and has high biological diversity, especially of species found nowhere else (endemic species). Collection of biological specimens from these highly fragmented forests is unevenly distributed, with most collections made in proximity to cities or large protected areas, or in more easily accessible areas near the coast. This narrow fringe of forest comprises several areas of high endemism for plants and many groups of animals. These include the coastal montane forests of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Paulista area) and the moist forests of southern Bahia. The division between the Paulista area and the Bahia area coincides with a very poorly collected region of forests in northern Espirito Santo and extreme southern Bahia. It is hypothesized that increased collecting in the gap between the Paulista area and the Bahia area will show that this gap does not exist. It will demonstrate that species now known only from the submontane forests of Bahia will be found occurring in similar forests farther south and that plants known only from the montane forests of the Serra do Mar of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo will be found in the high elevation forests of northern Espirito Santo and southern Bahia. Staff of The New York Botanical Garden (NY), the Center for Cocoa Research (CEPEC), the State University of Santa Cruz, Bahia (UESC), and the Mello Leitao Biological Museum (MBML) of Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, will collaborate and collect the vascular plants in the submontane and montane forests of southern Bahia and northern Espirito Santo, Brazil. The project, with support from the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Biodiversity Surveys and Inventories program , will have: 1) tested the hypotheses that there is no gap between the Paulista and Bahia centers of endemism, and that many montane and submontane species are less restricted in distribution than previously believed; 2) produced specimens that will be used by present and future biologists for expert identification, study, and descriptions of new species; 3) compiled a core checklist of the flora of the southern Bahian and northern Espirito Santo; and 4) reassessed patterns of plant endemism in the forests of eastern Brazil. This project will be critical to intelligent conservation in the Atlantic forest of eastern Brazil. The project team will find and highlight areas of submontane and montane forest for possible conservation. In addition, distributions of rare plant species will be better defined, permitting an assessment of criteria for the inclusion of each species on IUCN's Red List of threatened species. It is expected that these distributions will be seen to follow patterns of ecological zonation and the presence or absence of certain species in a given forest fragment will be predictable. Training of Brazilian botanists and NY graduate students will be another important byproduct of our research, as the US students travel to Brazil they will develop important collaborations for future work.