Plant Science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
23
Scopus Publications
1077
Scholar Citations
12
Scholar h-index
13
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Mechanisms influencing network topology in plant–hummingbird pollination networks Ricardo Sánchez-Martín, Elisa Barreto, Melina F. Maxwell, Francois Duchenne, Holger Beck, et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 2025 Ecological communities result from complex species interactions, often summarized in interaction networks. The structure of these networks is described by metrics that provide insight into community assembly, ecosystem functioning and coevolutionary processes. Despite advances in measuring and mapping network structure, the mechanisms underlying its formation remain less explored. Network metrics may vary across communities owing to changes in species diversity and environmental conditions. However, network metrics may remain invariant if mechanisms influencing interactions (linkage rules) are independent of species composition and environmental conditions and instead influenced by traits. We investigated whether changes in taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity along elevation gradients influence network modularity, nestedness, connectance and specialization across 32 sites in Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador. Despite elevation’s impact on diversity, we found that it had no effect on network structure, which remained consistent across elevations. Instead, trait-based mechanisms, specifically the matching between hummingbird bills and flower corollas, emerged as a consistent driver of network structure. Species showing strong trait matching contributed more to modularity and specialization, but less to nestedness and connectance than expected by chance. These results suggest that trait matching influences the invariant structure of plant–hummingbird networks, persisting despite shifts in diversity across biogeographical regions and elevational gradients.
Hummingbird flower visitation rates vary with species traits, floral abundance and phenology across bioregions Elisa Barreto, François Duchenne, Holger Beck, Carolina Bello, Rafaela Bobato, et al. Oikos, 2025 A myriad of factors influence species interactions, and determining their relative importance is a major challenge in community ecology. Here, we explored the multiple factors influencing hummingbird visitation rates to flowers by considering pollinator and floral traits alongside the broader ecological context (i.e. phenology and floral abundance). Our data were collected from 32 systematically surveyed sites within native vegetation across three distinct Neotropical bioregions, each characterized by unique species composition and evolutionary histories. In total, we sampled 6423 flowering individuals, representing 404 plant species and 68 hummingbird species. At the community level, we found that hummingbirds primarily visit flowers with long, tubular corollas, aligning with predictions from pollination syndromes, and that visitation is also higher to flowers with straight corollas. At the species level, visitation frequency was associated with specific characteristics of the hummingbird species, such as its bill length and foraging behavior, where species often forage on flowers with matching morphological traits. Further, our findings extended beyond the expected trait preferences, revealing that visitation rates are also the outcome of the ecological context; particularly, the abundance of conspecific, but not heterospecific, flowers. The effect of conspecific abundance varied across bioregions, suggesting that from the plant perspective, intraspecific competition and facilitation could prevail in different regions. Additionally, we found that plant species whose floral morphology was more distinct from the other co‐flowering species tended to attract more visits, but only if they were abundant enough to stand out within the floral community. These findings highlight how plant and pollinator traits, modulated by the ecological context, jointly shape pollination dynamics.
A Probabilistic View of Forbidden Links: Their Prevalence and Their Consequences for the Robustness of Plant–Hummingbird Communities François Duchenne, Elisa Barreto, Esteban A. Guevara, Holger Beck, Carolina Bello, et al. Ecology Letters, 2025 The presence in ecological communities of unfeasible species interactions, termed forbidden links, due to physiological or morphological exploitation barriers has been long debated, but little direct evidence has been found. Forbidden links are likely to make ecological communities less robust to species extinctions, stressing the need to assess their prevalence. Here, we used a dataset of plant–hummingbird interactions, coupled with a Bayesian hierarchical model, to assess the importance of exploitation barriers in determining species interactions. We found evidence for exploitation barriers between flowers and hummingbirds across the 32 studied communities; however, the proportion of forbidden links changed drastically among communities because of changes in trait distributions. The higher the proportion of forbidden links, the more they decreased network robustness because of constraints on interaction rewiring. Our results suggest that exploitation barriers are not rare in plant–hummingbird communities and have the potential to limit the rescue of species experiencing partner extinction.
Vascular plants of Reserva Biológica do Tinguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: leveraging herbarium databases to address knowledge gaps in the Atlantic Forest Thuane Bochorny, Alexandre Quinet, Ana Carolina Castello, Anderson Alves-Araújo, Andrea Costa, et al. Biodiversity Data Journal, 2025 The Reserva Biológica do Tinguá is a protected area located in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. It is part of the Atlantic Forest domain and primarily features Dense Ombrophilous Forest, ranging from lowland to submontane, montane, and highland vegetation types. The Reserva Biológica do Tinguá is critically important for conservation, ranking among the priority areas for protecting the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest, as well as local water supply. Understanding and accessing the floristic list within the regions is essential to developing effective conservation strategies. We utilize herbaria databases to create a comprehensive list of plant species based on revised taxonomic data. The updated list of vascular plants recorded in Rebio Tinguá is available in the “Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil” and is presented here with additional details on species richness, endemism, and conservation status. The Reserva Biológica do Tinguá contains 1,301 species of vascular plants, including 1,133 angiosperms, one gymnosperm, and 167 are ferns and lycophytes. Of these species, 52,2% are endemic to the Atlantic Forest. There are 97 threatened species, of which five are considered Critically Endangered (CR), 57 Endangered (EN), and 36 Vulnerable (VU) at national level. Among the threatened species, 86 are endemic to the Atlantic Forest. The number of records and species richness in this area are notably high, comparing to Atlantic Forest standards. Protecting areas like the Reserva Biológica do Tinguá in densely populated urban centers presents considerable challenges due to environmental degradation, including air and water pollution and extraction of natural resources. Recognizing the ecological significance and promoting floristic studies of the remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest is essential for biodiversity conservation ensuring overall environmental integrity.
Macroevolution of the plant–hummingbird pollination system Elisa Barreto, Mannfred M. A. Boehm, Ezgi Ogutcen, Stefan Abrahamczyk, Michael Kessler, et al. Biological Reviews, 2024 Plant–hummingbird interactions are considered a classic example of coevolution, a process in which mutually dependent species influence each other's evolution. Plants depend on hummingbirds for pollination, whereas hummingbirds rely on nectar for food. As a step towards understanding coevolution, this review focuses on the macroevolutionary consequences of plant–hummingbird interactions, a relatively underexplored area in the current literature. We synthesize prior studies, illustrating the origins and dynamics of hummingbird pollination across different angiosperm clades previously pollinated by insects (mostly bees), bats, and passerine birds. In some cases, the crown age of hummingbirds pre‐dates the plants they pollinate. In other cases, plant groups transitioned to hummingbird pollination early in the establishment of this bird group in the Americas, with the build‐up of both diversities coinciding temporally, and hence suggesting co‐diversification. Determining what triggers shifts to and away from hummingbird pollination remains a major open challenge. The impact of hummingbirds on plant diversification is complex, with many tropical plant lineages experiencing increased diversification after acquiring flowers that attract hummingbirds, and others experiencing no change or even a decrease in diversification rates. This mixed evidence suggests that other extrinsic or intrinsic factors, such as local climate and isolation, are important covariables driving the diversification of plants adapted to hummingbird pollination. To guide future studies, we discuss the mechanisms and contexts under which hummingbirds, as a clade and as individual species (e.g. traits, foraging behaviour, degree of specialization), could influence plant evolution. We conclude by commenting on how macroevolutionary signals of the mutualism could relate to coevolution, highlighting the unbalanced focus on the plant side of the interaction, and advocating for the use of species‐level interaction data in macroevolutionary studies.
A comprehensive floristic knowledge of a fragment of Semideciduous Seasonal Forest [Parque Estadual da Serra da Concórdia], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Lara Deccache, Claudine Mynssen, Claudio Fraga, Eduardo Fernandez, Elsie Guimarães, et al. Biodiversity Data Journal, 2024 The "Serra da Concórdia" is part of the Atlantic Forest phytogeographical domain in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro and it has a predominant phytophysiognomy of Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. This region underwent intense habitat loss and fragmentation during the 19th century, due to coffee plantations and later pastures. With the decline of these activities, the areas were abandoned, triggering secondary succession. In 2002, the "Parque Estadual da Serra da Concórdia" was established in this region to preserve the remaining forest fragments. The updated list of vascular plants recorded in this protected area, published in the "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil", is presented here, along with information on richness, endemism, and conservation status. The "Parque Estadual da Serra da Concórdia" houses 231 vascular plant species, of which 90% are angiosperms, 10% ferns and lycophytes, and 27% endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Ten species are threatened with extinction, three are categorized as Endangered, and seven as Vulnerable. Although there have been expeditions in the "Parque Estadual da Serra da Concórdia", they have been limited, resulting in a low number of records and the species richness for a protected area. This is notable considering the 2,130 Brazilian native vascular plant species recorded in the semideciduous seasonal forest of Rio de Janeiro. Our data indicates that floristic inventories of Brazilian protected areas could help highlight gaps in flora knowledge and support the proposal of effective conservation actions.
ATLANTIC POLLINATION: a data set of flowers and interaction with nectar-feeding vertebrates from the Atlantic Forest Joice Iamara‐Nogueira, Natália Targhetta, Gina Allain, Adriano Gambarini, Alessandra R. Pinto, et al. Ecology, 2022 Flowering plant species and their nectar-feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats and non-flying mammals as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often acting as pollinators and contributing to seed output of flowering plants. We present a dataset containing information on flowering plants visited by nectar-feeding vertebrates sampled at 166 localities in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. This dataset provides information about 1902 unique interactions among 515 species of flowering plants and 129 species of potential vertebrate pollinators and the patterns of species diversity across latitudes. All plant-vertebrate interactions compiled were recorded through direct observations of visits, and no inferences of pollinators based on floral syndromes were included. We also provide information on the most common plant traits used to understand the interactions between flowers and nectar-feeding vertebrates: plant growth form, corolla length, rate of nectar production per hour in bagged flowers, nectar concentration, flower color and shape, time of anthesis, presence or absence of perceptible fragrance by human, and flowering phenology as well as status of plant's threat status by IUCN classification. For the vertebrates, status of threat by IUCN classification, body mass, bill or rostrum size are provided. Information on the frequency of visits and pollen deposition on the vertebrate's body are provided when available on the original source. The highest number of unique interactions is recorded for birds (1771) followed by bats (110). For plants, Bromeliaceae contains the highest number of unique interactions (606), followed by Fabaceae (242) and Gesneriaceae (104). It is evident the geographical bias of the studies throughout the southeast of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and the highest efforts directed to flower-hummingbird interactions. However, it reflects a worldwide tendency of more plants interacting with birds than other vertebrate species. The lack of similar protocols among studies to collect basic data limit comparisons among areas and generalizations. Nevertheless, this dataset represents a notable effort to organize and highlight the importance of vertebrate pollinators on this hotspot of biodiversity on Earth and represents the data currently available. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications or scientific events.
Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network Janaína Gomes‐da‐Silva, Fabiana L.R. Filardi, Maria Regina V. Barbosa, José Fernando A. Baumgratz, Carlos E.M. Bicudo, et al. Taxon, 2022 The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of aworking list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world ’ s known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis , concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highlycollaborativeproject that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overviewof the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world ’ s most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “ scientific reductionism ” , with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora. Supporting Information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.
Ecologia das Interações Planta-Visitante Floral na Mata Atlântica: Síntese e Lacunas de Conhecimento em Ecossistemas Abertos e Florestais J Hipólito, RJ Bonet, PJ Bergamo, SS Domingos, T Mahlmann, ... Boletim do Museu de Biologia Mello Leitão-Série INMA 2 (2), 71-90 , 2025 2025
Mechanisms influencing network topology in plant–hummingbird pollination networks R Sánchez-Martín, E Barreto, MF Maxwell, F Duchenne, H Beck, ... Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292 (2059) , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Hummingbird flower visitation rates vary with species traits, floral abundance and phenology across bioregions E Barreto, F Duchenne, H Beck, C Bello, R Bobato, E Brenes, D Bôlla, ... Oikos 2025 (9), e11354 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Vascular plants of Reserva Biológica do Tinguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: leveraging herbarium databases to address knowledge gaps in the Atlantic Forest T Bochorny, A Quinet, ACD Castello, A Alves-Araújo, AF Costa, ... Biodiversity Data Journal 13, e157961 , 2025 2025
A probabilistic view of forbidden links: their prevalence and their consequences for the robustness of plant–hummingbird communities F Duchenne, E Barreto, EA Guevara, H Beck, C Bello, R Bobato, D Bôlla, ... Ecology Letters 28 (1), e70073 , 2025 2025 Citations: 7
A comprehensive floristic knowledge of a fragment of Semideciduous Seasonal Forest [Parque Estadual da Serra da Concórdia], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil LSJ Deccache, CM Mynssen, CN de Fraga, EP Fernandez, EF Guimarães, ... Biodiversity Data Journal 12, e125979 , 2024 2024 Citations: 2
Macroevolution of the plant–hummingbird pollination system E Barreto, MMA Boehm, E Ogutcen, S Abrahamczyk, M Kessler, ... Biological Reviews 99 (5), 1831-1847 , 2024 2024 Citations: 53
A new species of Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) from southern Amazonia, Brazil M Kaehler, R da Silva Ribeiro Brittonia 76 (1), 74-79 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
A probabilistic view of forbidden links: their prevalence and their consequences for the robustness of mutualistic networks F Duchenne, E Barreto, EA Guevara, H Beck, C Bello, R Bobato, D Bôlla, ... bioRxiv , 2024 2024
Taxonomic revisions in Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) II: the “Neomacfadya” clade M Kaehler, LG Lohmann Willdenowia 52 (2), 247-271 , 2022 2022 Citations: 3
Taxonomic revisions in Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) II M Kaehler, LG Lohmann Willdenowia, 247-272 , 2022 2022
ATLANTIC POLLINATION J Iamara-Nogueira, N Targhetta, G Allain, A Gambarini, AR Pinto, AM Rui, ... Ecology 103 (2), 1-2 , 2022 2022
ATLANTIC POLLINATION: a data set of flowers and interaction with nectar‐feeding vertebrates from the Atlantic Forest J Iamara‐Nogueira, N Targhetta, G Allain, A Gambarini, AR Pinto, AM Rui, ... Ecology 103 (2), e03595 , 2022 2022 Citations: 7
Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network TBFG BFG Taxon 71 (1), 178–198 , 2022 2022 Citations: 168
Taxonomic revisions in Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) I: the “Acrodromous venation” and “Piriadacus” clades M Kaehler, LG Lohmann Willdenowia 51 (2), 181-194 , 2021 2021 Citations: 7
Environmental correlates of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in the Atlantic Forest A Paz, JL Brown, CLO Cordeiro, J Aguirre‐Santoro, C Assis, RC Amaro, ... Journal of Biogeography 48 (6), 1377-1391 , 2021 2021 Citations: 51
Taxonomic revision of Lundia DC.(Bignoniaceae, Bignonieae) M Kaehler, LG Lohmann American Society of Plant Taxonomists , 2021 2021 Citations: 5
Bignoniaceae Juss. LG Lohmann, M Kaehler, LHM Fonseca, R Farias-Singer, F Firetti, ... Coleção Flora do Brasil 2020, 1–618 , 2021 2021
Fridericia resinosa: a new species of Bignoniaceae from Brazil M Kaehler Phytotaxa 461 (2), 131–135-131–135 , 2020 2020 Citations: 2
Taxonomic Revision of Xylophragma (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) M Kaehler, LG Lohmann Systematic Botany 45 (3), 620-637 , 2020 2020 Citations: 5
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Brazilian Flora 2020: innovation and collaboration to meet Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) FLR Filardi, F Barros, JFA Baumgratz, CEM Bicudo, TB Cavalcanti, ... Rodriguésia 69, 1513-1527 , 2018 2018 Citations: 443
Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network TBFG BFG Taxon 71 (1), 178–198 , 2022 2022 Citations: 168
Polinização em uma comunidade de bromélias em Floresta Atlântica Alto-montana no Estado do Paraná, Brasil M Kaehler, IG Varassin, R Goldenberg Brazilian Journal of Botany 28 (2), 219-228 , 2005 2005 Citations: 98
Macroevolution of the plant–hummingbird pollination system E Barreto, MMA Boehm, E Ogutcen, S Abrahamczyk, M Kessler, ... Biological Reviews 99 (5), 1831-1847 , 2024 2024 Citations: 53
Environmental correlates of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in the Atlantic Forest A Paz, JL Brown, CLO Cordeiro, J Aguirre‐Santoro, C Assis, RC Amaro, ... Journal of Biogeography 48 (6), 1377-1391 , 2021 2021 Citations: 51
Fine tuning the circumscription of Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) M Kaehler, FA Michelangeli, LG Lohmann Taxon 68 (4), 751-770 , 2019 2019 Citations: 42
Plantas vasculares do Paraná M Kaehler, R Goldenberg, PHL Evangelista, OS Ribas, AOS Vieira, ... Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba. 198p , 2014 2014 Citations: 41
Estrutura foliar de seis especies do subosque de urn remanescente de Floresta Ombr6fila Mista MRT Boeger, M Kaehle, JCF de Melo Junio, MZ Gomes, ... 2006 Citations: 32
An inventory of the Bignoniaceae from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte highlights the importance of small herbaria to biodiversity studies B Colombo, M Kaehler, A Calvente Phytotaxa 178 (1), 19–28 , 2016 2016 Citations: 20
Phylogeny of Lundia (Bignoniaceae) based on ndhF and PepC sequences M Kaehler, FA Michelangeli, LG Lohmann Taxon 61 (2), 368-380 , 2012 2012 Citations: 15
Heterochromatin and numeric chromosome evolution in Bignoniaceae, with emphasis on the Neotropical clade Tabebuia alliance JMP Cordeiro, M Kaehler, LG Souza, LP Felix Genetics and Molecular Biology 43 (01), e20180171 , 2020 2020 Citations: 13
Plantas vasculares do Paraná PHE Labiak, M Kaehler, R Goldenberg, PH Labiak, OS Ribas, AOS Vieira, ... Aspectos fitogeográficos do Paraná, 7-22 , 2014 2014 Citations: 13
Karyotype analysis in Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae): chromosome numbers and heterochromatin JMP Cordeiro, M Kaehler, G Souza, LP Felix Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 89, 2697-2706 , 2017 2017 Citations: 12
Studies in regard to the classification and putative toxicity of Fridericia japurensis (Arrabidaea japurensis) in Brazil EF Lima, RMT Medeiros, D Cook, ST Lee, M Kaehler, JM Santos-Barbosa, ... Toxicon 115, 22-27 , 2016 2016 Citations: 9
A probabilistic view of forbidden links: their prevalence and their consequences for the robustness of plant–hummingbird communities F Duchenne, E Barreto, EA Guevara, H Beck, C Bello, R Bobato, D Bôlla, ... Ecology Letters 28 (1), e70073 , 2025 2025 Citations: 7
ATLANTIC POLLINATION: a data set of flowers and interaction with nectar‐feeding vertebrates from the Atlantic Forest J Iamara‐Nogueira, N Targhetta, G Allain, A Gambarini, AR Pinto, AM Rui, ... Ecology 103 (2), e03595 , 2022 2022 Citations: 7
Taxonomic revisions in Fridericia (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae) I: the “Acrodromous venation” and “Piriadacus” clades M Kaehler, LG Lohmann Willdenowia 51 (2), 181-194 , 2021 2021 Citations: 7
Bignoniaceae in Flora do Brasil 2020 LG Lohmann, M Kaehler, LHM Fonseca, R Farias-Singer, F Firetti, ... Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro. Disponível em: http://floradobrasil. jbrj … , 2020 2020 Citations: 7
Phylogeny of Lundia based on molecular and morphological characters MF Kaehler, F Michelangeli, LG Lohmann Taxon 61, 368-380 , 2012 2012 Citations: 6
Taxonomic revision of Lundia DC.(Bignoniaceae, Bignonieae) M Kaehler, LG Lohmann American Society of Plant Taxonomists , 2021 2021 Citations: 5
