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Abstract Wood falls provide locally and temporally restricted inputs of organic material to the deep sea supporting heterotrophic and chemotrophic fauna. These habitats also play a significant role in the diversity, abundance, and evolution of deep-sea macrofauna. Despite the importance of wood falls to the global deep-sea biodiversity, there is a large gap in understanding these patterns in the South Atlantic, and especially along formerly densely forested continental margins. In this paper, we assessed bathymetric variations in macrofaunal community structures and the biodiversity of wood falls. We deployed experimental wood logs at 1500 m and at 3300 m at six stations along the South-eastern Brazilian continental margin between 21 and 28°S. In total, 13,803 individuals belonging to 44 taxa were identified, displaying local and bathymetrical differences in assemblage abundance, biomass, and diversity. Wood-boring bivalves (Xylophagidae) were the dominant taxa in mid-slope stations (1500 m), whereas polychaetes and gastropods dominated the abyssal stations (3300 m). Total macrofaunal biomass (wet weight) was markedly higher in all mid-slope stations (Avr = 0.0053 g cm-3) compared to abyssal stations (Avr = 0.0001 g cm-3). Rarefaction diversity (ES) revealed that abyssal wood falls at Espírito Santo (ES_3300) and São Paulo (SP_3300) respectively had the highest and lowest diversity among all the stations (LC95%, P < 0.05). Wood-fall macrofauna taxa composition was distinct in terms of depth (not significant) and among stations (significant), with xylophagid bivalves and polychaetes (Strepternos didymopyton and Pleijelius cf. longae) mainly responsible for these patterns. We found similar species of bivalves (Xyloredo nooi and Spiniapex gilsonorum) and polychaetes (Strepternos didymopyton) previously reported from the North-west Atlantic and North-east Pacific. Our experiment thus supports the idea that some wood-fall species might have wide distribution ranges. Since our wood logs were all the same size, our data supports the hypothesis that niche dynamics are the most important factor controlling the (beta) diversity of bathyal and abyssal wood-fall assemblages in the South-west Atlantic. Highlights • Wood-fall experiments in the SW Atlantic deep sea showed high diversity and widely distributed wood-fall fauna. • Wood-fall fauna were dominated by wood-boring bivalves (1500 m) and polychaetes gastropods (3300 m). • Macrofaunal communities were significantly different along SE Brazilian margins between 21S and 28S. • Macrofaunal communities were not significantly different between the bathyal and abyssal zones. • Niche dynamics probably control the beta diversity of deep wood-fall assemblages in SE Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently launched Brazilian “forest certificates” market is expected to reduce environmental compliance costs for landowners through an offset mechanism, after a long history of conservation laws based in command-and-control and strict rules. In this paper we assessed potential costs and evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the instrument when introducing to this market constraints that aim to address conservation objectives more specifically. Using the conservation planning software Marxan with Zones we simulated different scopes for the “forest certificates” market, and compared their cost-effectiveness with that of existing command-and-control (C&C), i.e. compliance to the Legal Reserve on own property, in the state of São Paulo. The simulations showed a clear potential of the constrained “forest certificates” market to improve conservation effectiveness and increase cost-effectiveness on allocation of Legal Reserves. Although the inclusion of an additional constraint of targeting the BIOTA Conservation Priority Areas doubled the cost (+95%) compared with a “free trade” scenario constrained only by biome, this option was still 50% less costly than the baseline scenario of compliance with Legal Reserve at the property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The significant biodiversity found in Brazil is a potential for the emergence of new zoonoses. Study in some places of the world suggest of the presence to hantavirus in tissues of bats. Researches of hantavirus in wildlife, out rodents, are very scarce in Brazil. Therefore we decided to investigate in tissues of different species of wild animals captured in the same region where rodents were detected positive for this virus. The present work analyzed ninety-one animals (64 rodents, 19 opossums, and 8 bats) from a region of the Atlantic forest in Biritiba Mirin City, São Paulo State, Brazil. Lungs and kidneys were used for RNA extraction. Findings: The samples were screened for evidence of hantavirus infection by SYBR-Green-based real-time RT-PCR. Sixteen samples positive were encountered among the wild rodents, bats, and opossums. The detection of hantavirus in the lungs and kidneys of three marsupial species (Micoureus paraguayanus, Monodelphis ihering, and Didelphis aurita) as well in two species of bats (Diphylla ecaudata and Anoura caudifer) is of significance because these new hosts could represent an important virus reservoirs. Conclusions: The analysis of nucleotide sequences of the partial S segment revealed that these genes were more related to the Araraquara virus strains. This work reinforces the importance of studying hantavirus in different animal species and performing a continued surveillance before this virus spreads in new hosts and generated serious problems in public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]