Abstract
BackgroundThe Arc of Fire across southern Amazonia seasonally attracts worldwide attention as forests are cut and burned for agricultural expansion. These forests contain numerous wild relatives of native South American crops, such as peach palm.Methodology/Principal FindingsOur prospecting expeditions examined critical areas for wild peach palm in the Arc of Fire in Mato Grosso, Pará, Maranhão and Tocantins, as well as areas not previously examined in Amazonas and Amapá states. Recent digitization of the RADAM Brasil project permitted comparison among RADAM's parataxonomists' observations, previous botanical collections and our prospecting. Mapping on soils and vegetation types enabled us to hypothesize a set of ecological preferences. Wild peach palm is best adapted to Ultisols (Acrisols) in open forests across the Arc of Fire and westward into the more humid western Amazonia. Populations are generally small (fewer than 10 plants) on slopes above watercourses. In northern Mato Grosso and southern Pará soybean fields and pastures now occupy numerous areas where RADAM identified wild peach palm. The controversial BR-163 Highway is already eroding wild peach palm as deforestation expands.Conclusions/SignificanceMany of these populations are now isolated by increasing forest fragmentation, which will lead to decreased reproduction via inbreeding depression and eventual extinction even without complete deforestation. Federal conservation areas are less numerous in the Arc of Fire than in other parts of Brazilian Amazonia, although there are indigenous lands; these conservation areas contain viable populations of wild peach palm and require better protection than they are currently receiving. Ex situ conservation of these populations is not viable given the relative lack of importance of domesticated peach palm and the difficulty of maintaining even economically interesting genetic resources.
Highlights
The expansion of the agricultural frontier across southern Amazonia is a well-known phenomenon, with yearly reports on the rate of deforestation and the approximate number of square kilometers cleared and burned to make way for agriculture [1]
It is important to note that these forests are relatively new, having expanded to their present range during the Holocene, which started about 11,000 years ago [5]. This is important because it is the same time frame as the arrival of humans, their adaptation to these changing ecosystems, and the development of indigenous agriculture [6]
The Program on Biological Diversity (ProBio) expeditions for wild peach palm The first expedition proceeded along the Madeira River, Amazonas, from Borba south to Porto Velho, Rondonia
Summary
The expansion of the agricultural frontier across southern Amazonia is a well-known phenomenon, with yearly reports on the rate of deforestation and the approximate number of square kilometers cleared and burned to make way for agriculture [1]. It is important to note that these forests are relatively new, having expanded to their present range during the Holocene, which started about 11,000 years ago [5]. This is important because it is the same time frame as the arrival of humans, their adaptation to these changing ecosystems, and the development of indigenous agriculture [6]. Numerous projects within the Program on Brazilian Biodiversity (ProBio, Environment Ministry of Brazil) recently examined the distribution of the wild relatives of several important native crops [24]. Conservation is discussed in light of expanding deforestation, lack of resources for ex situ conservation throughout the developing world, and climate change
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