Large areas in the Pantanal wetland are covered by monodominant formations, e.g. typical landscapes with local names such as "paratudal", dominated by T. aurea. Studies on structure of these formations generally include only woody strata, consequently the species richness registered is usually low due to the absence of the 'ground layer' of herbaceous and others low species. We recorded 13 spec...

Monoculture farming is pervasive in industrial oil palm agriculture, including those RSPO plantations certified as sustainably managed. This farming practice does not promote the maintenance of farmland biodiversity. However, little scientific attention has been given to polyculture farming in oil palm production landscapes. Polyculture farming is likely to increase the floristic diversity and ...

Modern soil and litter samples from southeastern Cameroon, collected along a continuous forest-savanna transect were analysed for pollen content to define modern pollen-vegetation relationships. The pollen results, completed and compared with botanical inventories, leaf area index and basal area measurements performed in the same area, clearly registered the physiognomy, the main floristic comp...

The Restionaceae species of the Fynbos biome is part of the Cape Floristic Kingdom is threatened by urbanization, agricultural expansion, groundwater extraction, and climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to assess and monitor the Restionaceae species under the impact of climate change. South Africa is a semi-arid environment, and hydrological factors are the main variables in the determina...

This is a short review of the state of the art concerning diversity of aquatic macrophytes and the main aquatic vegetation types in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland and upper watershed. There are ca. 280 species of aquatic macrophytes on the Pantanal floodplain, with scarce endemism. On the upper watershed, Cerrado wetlands (veredas) and limestone springs have a distinct flora from the Pantanal, ...

The turnover of phylogenetic clades across space is a fundamental biodiversity pattern that may depend on long-term evolutionary processes, and that has downstream effects on other aspects of diversity including species richness and community structure. Limited niche evolution and limited dispersal are two major processes causing spatial restriction, and thus turnover, of clades. We studied the...

We compared plant diversity in four restored and four natural wetlands in the glaciated interior plains to evaluate how quickly plant biodiversity develops following cessation of agriculture and reintroduction of wetland hydrology. After approximately ten years, restored wetlands had plot and site richness comparable to natural wetlands; 6.2 + 0.5 species per plot and 33.8 + 2.3 species per sit...

The methods employed in a restoration can impact the resulting plant community. This study investigated the effect of restoration method on several indices of plant community structure by comparing two restoration methods conducted over an 8-year period to a naturally colonized postagricultural field and a remnant grassland. The restoration methods included (1) distributing seed over fallow fie...

The Kashmir Himalaya, being nestled within north-western folds of the Himalaya, harbours a rich floristic diversity of immense scientific interest and enormous economic potential. Though scientific studies on the floristic diversity in the Kashmir Himalaya have been started about two centuries ago, yet they fall short of the requirements needed urgently in the post-Rio Summit. In fact, at the s...

Identification of global biodiversity hotspots is a leading conservation priority (Mittermayer et al. (1999) Hotspots. Conservation International, Washington, DC; Stein et al. (2000) Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK), but we know little about the nature and structure of such hotspots. Botanical richness in one recently ident...