RESEARCH
LIFEPLAN: A Planetary Inventory of Life
ARAÇÁ is a contributor to Project Lifeplan, which is the most ambitious and comprehensive worldwide collection of biodiversity data to date. Lifeplan's primary goal is to evaluate the current global state of biodiversity through systematically collecting data on a wide range of taxonomic groups, and to use this knowledge to make accurate predictions and gain important insights into future changes. The project employs standardised sampling methods that do not require taxonomic expertise from the data collectors, resulting in directly comparable data from sites distributed across the globe.
Collaborators: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Read more at: www.helsinki.fi/en/projects/lifeplan
Optimising biodiversity and carbon recovery in Neotropical forests
There is an urgent need to understand and optimise the recovery of biodiversity and carbon stocks in natural ecosystems to contribute to the delivery of international biodiversity targets and climate agreements. In this project, we are integrating the latest developments in remote sensing and biodiversity assessments for estimating current levels of biodiversity and carbon and for predicting the recovery potential of candidate restoration sites. We will generate high-resolution carbon and biodiversity data from selected sites across the mega-diverse but highly fragmented Atlantic Forest. This will be analysed within an artificial intelligence framework to test the predictive power of the methodology and identify the best way to restore sites to maximise biodiversity and carbon storage under a constrained budget.
Collaborators: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK; University of Gothenburg, Sweden; ETH Zurich, Switzerland; R-Evolution / Hexagon, Sweden; Cambridge University, UK; Imperial College London, UK; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria; among others.
The Fig Tree Project
The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, but we currently lack fine-scale environmental and ecological data, and current knowledge is skewed towards birds, bromeliads and orchids. To begin to dig down into the fine-scale detail, we have initiated the Fig Tree Project. The Alto da Figueira reserve is home to a remarkable old-growth fig tree, Ficus cestrifolia, that is interlinked with a mature Sloanea garckeana. In collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK, we are working to understand everything we can about the diversity associated with the fig tree. Using comprehensive sampling methods, we have extracted DNA from leaves, bark and epiphytes in all parts of the canopy, along with root samples, and are using a metabarcoding approach to assess the diversity of organisms present.
Collaborators: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK; University of Campinas, Brazil; Bangor University, UK; Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium; Ghent University, Belgium.
The Red List Project
ARAÇÁ is actively partnering with The Red List Project (TRLP) to pioneer a novel approach to global plant conservation, which is essential to heal our planet and restore natural ecological and evolutionary processes. TRLP is a non-profit collective that collaborates with industry partners in the consumer products sector to raise philanthropic donations and generate conservation funding. These collaborations are grounded in scientific consensus and global biodiversity conservation concepts. As part of these partnerships, TRLP is developing fragrances and fragranced products using floral signatures of endangered plant species identified in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Additionally, they are creating new products based on the plant communities that define the 36 accepted global biodiversity hotspots.
Find out more at: www.theredlistproject.org/