Journal
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
Volume 19, Issue 3, Pages 640-645Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00682.x
Keywords
-
Funding
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) [98/05101-8, 02/08558-6, 98/05085-2, 00/01484-1] Funding Source: FAPESP
Ask authors/readers for more resources
As one of the world's prime megadiverse countries, Brazil holds an immense number of terrestrial invertebrates. Current knowledge of this biota is very heterogeneous. Several taxa are sufficiently well known to be used as indicators of ecological integrity or of endemism. The current Brazilian national and regional red lists include 130 terrestrial invertebrate species, of which 42% are butterflies. These lists are contingent on available knowledge, and many taxa that are omitted certainly include species at risk. Knowledge of various biomes and habitats is also quite irregular, with the Caatinga and Pantanal in need of more study, compared with the Atlantic Forest, the Amazon, and Cerrado. Canopy, host-associated, and soil faunas also need further intensive study. Invertebrate conservation will be promoted more effectively by habitat preservation and management rather than single-species initiatives. To this end, better geographic surveys of entire taxonomic or functional assemblages are needed. An improved understanding of the invertebrate role in ecosystem processes will strengthen enormously the case for their conservation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available