Effects of a Habitat Integrity Gradient on the Diversity of Odonates in the Legal Amazonia Zone of the Brazilian State of Maranhão.

The diverse ecosystems of the Amazon biome play a vital role in the maintenance of biodiversity and delivering essential ecosystem services at both local and global levels. Small-bodied generalist insects, such as those from the order Odonata, contribute significantly to these services and are recognized as sensitive bioindicators of environmental quality. The present study evaluated the diversity and distribution of adult odonates in the Legal Amazonia zone of the Brazilian state of Maranhão, to identify the key environmental drivers shaping local odonate communities.

How informative is the response of Ground Beetles' (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages to anthropogenic land use changes? Insights for ecological status assessments from a case study in the Neotropics.

Ground Beetles (Carabidae) have been suggested to be used as indicators of ecological status under the effects of anthropogenic land use and land cover changes in highly biodiverse regions such as the Neotropics. In this study Ground Beetles' assemblages from a region in the Brazilian Amazon were investigated for evaluating their applicability as disturbance indicators. Differences in assemblages between ecosystems, discriminated by complimentary methodologies, demonstrate a sensitive reaction from the most pristine forests to increasingly disturbed systems.