The Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi has released the first results of a study on the flora of Serra dos Carajás, in Pará, one of the largest mineral provinces in the world. The project, developed in partnership with the Instituto Tecnológico Vale (ITV), began in 2015 as a scientific effort involving 74 botanists and over 22 institutions from Brazil and abroad. By the end of the year, the research is expected to cover nearly 10% of the 7,071 species in the state.
The cangas are plant ecosystems associated with areas where iron-rich rocks outcrop. Because they are linked to iron deposits, they pose challenges for research and actions that reconcile biodiversity conservation with the exploration of natural resources.
Immersed in the Amazon rainforest, the cangas of Carajás are considered a significant knowledge gap in Brazil’s flora. The project aims to fill part of this gap and also contribute to the dialogue between science, the productive sector, and agencies responsible for environmental licensing in the region, providing detailed information on taxonomy (which classifies living beings), morphology, and the distribution of species occurring in the cangas of Carajás.Scientific Effort
The Museu Goeldi is the pioneering institution in scientific research on the flora of Carajás, with the first collection expedition in the region conducted in 1969. Two years ago, a decisive step was taken to expand the work: the Museu and ITV joined forces to develop the most recent and systematic botanical study of the iron-rich fields of the Carajás National Forest and its surrounding area. The research is supported by the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio).
The project coordinators, botanists Pedro Viana (Museu Goeldi) and Ana Maria Giulietti (ITV), estimate that by the completion of the research in 2017, more than 600 plant species will be monographed. The information generated is the result of field collections in Carajás and other locations in Pará, bibliographic surveys, and consultations with botanical collections from various parts of the world that hold data on canga vegetation.
All material collected since 2015 is already included in a database, with 8,800 samples deposited in the herbarium of the Museu Goeldi in Belém. “With the fieldwork of the project, the botanical collection of Carajás has practically doubled, and new materials have been collected,” says researcher Pedro Viana, curator of the herbarium at the Museu Goeldi.
With this data, researchers hope to organize often dispersed or incomplete information about the species. “The work has allowed us to update and systematize data on the flora of this important region, which is the canga of Carajás. Species that did not appear in previous lists have been found, and species considered threatened and rare have been collected,” explains Ana Maria Giulietti.
The study will also contribute to the Flora do Brasil 2020 project, currently under construction, which brings together over 700 collaborators preparing an online collection aimed at meeting Goal 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, signed by the Brazilian government.Source: Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications of Brazil