Forestry control in the Brazilian Amazon II: charcoal anatomy of 21 species

IAWA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Marcelo Mendes Braga Júnior ◽  
Fernanda Ilkiu Borges de Souza ◽  
Luiz Eduardo de Lima Melo

Abstract The production of illegal charcoal, associated with other local human practices, is responsible for the degradation of native forests, especially in the Brazilian Amazon. The need for market control and charcoal production is accompanied by the lack of comparative charcoal materials from the Amazon. Here, we describe charcoal samples of 21 Brazilian species and provide SEM images that can facilitate the charcoal identification. It is possible to distinguish the species on the basis of anatomy. Features such as vessel groupings, vessel–ray pitting, perforation plates, axial parenchyma, ray cellular composition, storied structure and secretory elements were chosen as primary diagnostic features for the identification of species. We highlight vessel groupings, axial parenchyma type and in some cases even perforation plates, which were easily observed in low magnification SEM images and can assist in the supervision by government agents. From our descriptions, evaluations and photomicrographs, it will be possible to compare charcoal from commercial species from the Amazon.

2004 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 739
Author(s):  
Imogen Poole ◽  
Richard W. Barnes

Qualitative and quantitative wood anatomical data are given for two narrow Queensland endemic Eucryphia species, E. wilkiei B.Hyland and Eucryphia jinksii P.I.Forst. Comparisons of wood anatomy of all extant Eucryphia taxa show that E. jinksii and E. wilkiei are distinct from each other, and other Eucryphia species. However, for both species characters relating to perforation plates, helical thickening (E. wilkiei only) and fibres are shared with the South American species, whereas the presence of crystals in the axial parenchyma is shared only with the Australian species. These data suggest that, based on wood anatomy, E. jinksii and E. wilkiei are basal among Australian species.


2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Whinder ◽  
Kerri L. Clarke ◽  
Nigel W. M. Warwick ◽  
Peter E. Gasson

Acacia s.s. comprises approximately 1020 species (i.e. just under one-third of all mimosoid legumes) and is almost entirely restricted to, although widespread, on the Australian continent. We investigated variation in the wood anatomy of 12 species from temperate New South Wales in a study concentrating on four recognised taxonomic sections (Botrycephalae, Juliflorae, Phyllodineae and Plurinerves), to elucidate which characteristics are consistent within the sections, having removed climatic effect as much as possible. The sections had great utility in species identification, whereas none of the wood characters reflected the hypothesised phylogeny of the genus. The main consistent difference among species was in ray width (uniseriate versus 1–3 cells wide). All species had distinct growth rings. The vessels had alternate vestured pitting and simple perforation plates. Fibres were generally thick-walled, and many fibres had a gelatinous inner wall (tension wood fibres) and were inconsistently distributed. Axial parenchyma was mainly paratracheal, ranging from vasicentric to confluent and varied greatly in abundance. Prismatic crystals were usually present in chambered fibres and axial parenchyma strands, and also varied in abundance. The variation in these qualitative characters obscures taxonomic differences, but may allow inferences to be made about environmental adaptation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thaís A. P. Gonçalves ◽  
Julia Sonsin-Oliveira ◽  
Silvana Nisgoski ◽  
Carmen R. Marcati ◽  
Adriano W. Ballarin ◽  
...  

Brazil has one of the richest biodiversities in the world. The Brazilian savanna is a hotspot for conservation priorities and its deforestation is of global concern. Conservation in this biome is threatened by unsustainable use of forests, such as illegal logging for charcoal production. Thus, government agents need to verify whether charcoal loads follow the Document of Forestry Origin (DOF). To improve charcoal identification, our study presents the microscopic description of 10 Cerrado species and provides an identification key to aid government agents during surveillance. We analysed charcoal samples with a scanning electron microscope. The method of carbonisation simulated real conditions. We chose species with similar wood anatomy (sparse axial parenchyma and narrow rays), which increases misidentification by forest controllers because of their difficulty to identify these features. Also, paratracheal scanty, diffuse and diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma were harder to recognise in charcoal than in wood. Other features, such as vessels, rays and abundant axial parenchyma, were easily identified. The present work can be used as a part of a charcoal anatomy database focussed on preventing deforestation in Brazil and in other countries with similar problems.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4729 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-144
Author(s):  
FLAVIO ROBERTO DE ALBUQUERQUE ALMEIDA ◽  
FERNANDO DA SILVA CARVALHO-FILHO ◽  
ALEXANDER KNYSHOV ◽  
JOSE ANTONIO MARIN FERNANDES

The genus Voragocoris Weirauch, 2012 is composed of Voragocoris schuhi Weirauch, 2012 and Voragocoris amrishi Makhan, 2013, previously recorded from Peru and Suriname, respectively. In this paper, a new species, Voragocoris weirauchae sp.n., is described based on specimens collected in the Brazilian Amazon, representing the first record of the genus from Brazil. We provide diagnosis, description, photographs of habitus, and scanning electron micrographs of the diagnostic features. A key to species based on males of Voragocoris is also presented. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Gustavo de Castro Canani ◽  
Rebecca da Silva Fraia ◽  
Sérgio de Melo

Abstract Aim The aim of this study is to present the Actinella species found in periphytic samples collected from an Environmental Protection Area in Santarém (PA, Brazil), to comment on their morphology by comparing them with existing records, and to increase knowledge of the distribution of the genus in Pará State. Methods Ten periphytic samples were collected from seven sampling stations in the Alter do Chão Environmental Protection Area (Santarém, Pará, Brazil) in October 2015 and February and July 2016. Dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity and water temperature were measured in the field at sites from which samples were collected in 2016. Samples were oxidized and analyzed by light microscopy. Results The sampled water bodies presented low conductivity and an acidic pH. We identified 12 Actinella taxa, several of which had originally been described from samples collected from the Amazon in the mid-20th century, mainly in the lower Tapajós River region. Actinella rionegrensis is recorded for the first time in the State of Pará, outside of its type locality (Negro River, near Manaus, AM, Brazil), and the species habitus (wisp-shaped colonies) is recorded for the first time. Conclusion Our results indicate that the Environmental Protection Area has been effective in conserving the aquatic ecosystem, since Actinella species identified in the mid-20 th century are still present. Taxonomic issues for some species of this genus need clarification and revision, since overlapping diagnostic features occur among species and with species belonging to the genus Eunotia.


IAWA Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Soledad Ramos ◽  
Mariana Brea ◽  
Romina Pardo

This paper describes the first record of Peltophoroxylon (Ramanujam) Müller-Stoll et Mädel 1967 from the late Pleistocene of Argentina. The fossil specimens were recovered from the Colonia Ayuí and Punta Viracho fossil localities of the El Palmar Formation, located in the middle part of the Uruguay Basin, eastern Argentina. The diagnostic features are: growth ring boundaries demarcated by marginal parenchyma, medium-sized vestured intervessel pits, vessel-ray parenchyma pits similar in size and shape to intervessel pits, vasicentric to lozenge type aliform axial parenchyma, biseriate (70%) and uniseriate (30%) homocellular rays, non-septate and septate fibers, and long chains (10+) of prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells. These features suggest a relationship with Peltophorum (Vogel) Benth. (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae). The vessel diameter and vessel density of the El Palmar woods are consistent with the temperate-warm, humid-semiarid climate inferred for this region during the late Pleistocene.


IAWA Journal ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-41
Author(s):  
Babu Lal Sharma ◽  
R. Vijendra Rao ◽  
S. S. Bisen ◽  
R. Dayal

Although there have been some reports of occurrence of scalariform and modified scalariform types of perforation in vessels of some members of the Rutaceae, no such observation has so far been made in the woods of Euodia species. In two species, E. elleryana and E. lunuankenda, besides the scalariform type, irregular and regular reticulate types of perforation have been observed. Additionally, silica bodies have also been noticed in vessels, fibres and axial parenchyma.


IAWA Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oris Rodriguez-Reyes ◽  
Peter Gasson ◽  
Carolyn Thornton ◽  
Howard J. Falcon-Lang ◽  
Nathan A. Jud

ABSTRACTWe report fossil wood specimens from two Miocene sites in Panama, Central America: Hodges Hill (Cucaracha Formation; Burdigalian, c. 19 Ma) and Lago Alajuela (Alajuela Formation; Tortonian, c. 10 Ma), where material is preserved as calcic and silicic permineralizations, respectively. The fossils show an unusual combination of features: diffuse porous vessel arrangement, simple perforation plates, alternate intervessel pitting, vessel–ray parenchyma pits either with much reduced borders or similar to the intervessel pits, abundant sclerotic tyloses, rays markedly heterocellular with long uniseriate tails, and rare to absent axial parenchyma. This combination of features allows assignment of the fossils to Malpighiales, and we note similarities with four predominantly tropical families: Salicaceae, Achariaceae, and especially, Phyllanthaceae, and Euphorbiaceae. These findings improve our knowledge of Miocene neotropical diversity and highlight the importance of Malpighiales in the forests of Panama prior to the collision of the Americas.


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