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We are pleased to announce publishing of issue 10 of NeoBiota. It contains intriguing research and commentary papers. Two of the papers enjoyed also much additional interest thanks to the posted press releases:

Market transactions and economics in general affect biological invasions (downloaded by 2643 science journalists and media since 7 Oct 2011!)
Prague’s 88 nature reserves threatened by invasive plant species (downloaded by 1468 science journalists and media since 7 Oct 2011!)

Also, two important online databases on biological invasions (DAISIE and invasive.org) have been automatically connected to taxon names mentioned in the NeoBiota papers. For example, if one clicks on the species’ name Polycnemum arvense mentioned in the paper of Jarošík et al. (doi: 10.3897/neobiota.10.1262), then a dynamically created online taxon profile is created:

http://ptp.pensoft.eu/external_details.php?type=1&query=Polycnemum%20arvense

On the left bar of the profile, one can see the the logos and names of DAISIE and Invasive.org. If they are shown in bold font, this means they contain data on that taxon. If then you click on the links the program sends you direct to the species pages (or search links to them) on both sides:

DAISIE:
http://ptp.pensoft.eu/externalLink.php?taxon_name=Polycnemum%20arvense&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.europe-aliens.org%2FspeciesSearch.do%3FspeciesPhrase%3DPolycnemum%2520arvense

Invasive.org:
http://www.invasive.org/search/results.cfm?cx=004971884014326696348:lwck86z8tsg&ie=UTF-8&cof=FORID:10&ie=UTF-8&q=Polycnemum%20arvense&sa=GO&siteurl=www.invasive.org%2Fspecies.cfm#145

Ingolf Kuehn (Editor-in-Chief)
NeoBiota Editorial Office

Cities are generally regarded as hostile for wildlife, and urbanization as a dramatic form of destruction of natural habitats. Still, they are far from dead zones. Their biodiversity may even exceed that of surrounding landscapes. A new study – published in the open access journal Neobiota – found that much of the biodiversity in the nature reserves in the Czech capital Prague is due to invasive species, thus threatening local species.

“This is definitely the case of the city of Prague, Czech Republic”, says the lead author Prof. Vojtěch Jarošík of a new study published in the open access journal NeoBiota. “Prague contains spectacular natural features, rarely seen in other metropolitan areas of comparable size, protected in 88 nature reserves. Our analyses build on systematic surveys of vascular plants flora, carried out in these reserves in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. The reserves are important sanctuaries, hosting more than half of the plant species occurring in the Czech Republic.”

“On the other hand, it is alien species that contribute to this remarkably high species richness”, adds the Prof.  Petr Pyšek. “It has been repeatedly documented that urban environment and life style promote introductions of alien species. The conservation in cities focuses on the diversity of native species, and urban areas are therefore the place where these ‘two diversities’ come to a sharp conflict, resulting from the discrepancy between human efforts to protect natural biodiversity and, at the same time, by human activities that create ideal environment for invasions by alien species. Nature reserves in large urban agglomerations are therefore seen as a testing ground for exploring the patterns of resistance of natural vegetation against penetration of alien plants.”

The study found that archaeophytes, i.e. alien species introduced since the beginning of Neolithic agriculture at around 1500 A. D., are affected positively by the extent of arable land that was in place at the time of the reserve establishment at low altitudinal ranges. Though it may be questioned whether species of alien origin should be a part of red lists, endangered archaeophytes are perceived by botanists as elements of local nature, typical of traditional cultural landscapes in Europe and considered as species of cultural and historical importance. This suggests that for endangered archaeophytes it might have been difficult to adapt to changing agricultural practices, and shrubland might act as a refugium for them.

Forty-six of the 155 neophyte species (introduced after 1500 A.D.) recorded in the reserves are classified as invasive. The reserves thus harbour 67% of the 69 invasive neophytes recorded in the country, and particularly warning is that among the most invasive species are many shrubs and trees, life forms that are known to account for widespread invasions with high impacts. The results thus strongly suggest that in Prague’s nature reserves there is a warning potential for future invasions.

Original Source:
Jarošík V, Pyšek P, Kadlec T (2011) Alien plants in urban nature reserves: from red-list species to future invaders? NeoBiota 10: 27-46. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.10.1262

Biological invasions, i.e. the spread of introduced, non-native species, not only serve as ecological model systems, but also bring out the importance of economic activities on ecological processes. Two recent books have shown the extent and variety of the interaction of economics with invasion science and also the variety of approaches to tackling these problems.

Three researchers, lead by Mark Williamson from the University of York, England, argue in the latest issue of the open access journal NeoBiota that the ecological and economic dimensions of the problem of invasive species are connected at different levels. Many of the changes that lead ecosystems to be more vulnerable to the impact of invasive species are direct consequences of economic behaviour. This is because these impacts are externalities of the market transactions; they are not taken seriously by those making the transactions perhaps because they are not held legally responsible for the impacts nor are the markets directly affected by these impacts. Instead these impacts are often borne by those who receive little or no benefit from the market transactions.

Furthermore, Williamson, Meyerson & Auge point out that biological invasions are good models for studying more general processes in ecology. In particular, the behaviour of ecosystems that are not in or close to equilibrium can be studied easily in biological invasions. On the one hand, biological invasions help us to understand mechanisms of spread, which is  important for native weedy species and colonization of new habitats, much better. On the other hand, they serve as a study system on how ecosystem functions. This knowledge is crucial to predict impacts of Global Change on ecosystem services beneficial to society.

Original Source:
Williamson M, Meyerson LA, Auge H (2011) Invasion science, ecology and economics: seeking roads not taken. NeoBiota 10: 1-5. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.10.2194

A team of researchers from the Capital Normal University in Beijing (China) and the Institute of Biology and Soil Sciences in Vladivostok (Russia) has discovered a remarkable silky lacewing insect from the Mesozoic of China. The study has been published recently in the open access journal ZooKeys and is available for free download.

The extant silky lacewings (the family Psychopsidae) may be recognized by their broad wing shape, dense venation, spectacularly patterned and hairy wings. Today, this family is very small, restricted only to southern Africa, southeastern Asia and Australia, but in the Mesozoic, it was much more widely distributed.

The new fossil silky lacewing – Undulopsychopsis alexi – was found from in the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning Province, one of the most productive Mesozoic fossil-bearing horizons in China. The species is characterized by the undulate wing margin, a unique condition amongst known Psychopsidae, and a number of unusual characters of the wing venation.

"The most important trait of this fossil is that it shares the features of two different families of neuropteran insects, the extant Psychopsidae (known also from the Mesozoic) and the extinct Mesozoic Osmylopsychopidae", said the author Vladimir Makarkin.

This discovery is expected to shed light on the evolutionary history of lacewings related to the family Psychopsidae.

Original source:
Peng Y, Makarkin V, Wang X, Ren D (2011) A new fossil silky lacewing genus (Neuroptera, Psychopsidae) from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. ZooKeys 130: 217-228. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1576

The examination of insects in Burmese amber by researchers at the University of Cologne, Germany and National Museums Scotland revealed a new genus of caddisfly, which has been named Palerasnitsynus.

The discovery, based on two specimens, constitute the first record of the living family Psychomyiidae in Burmese amber and the oldest known member of this family in the fossil record. Burmese amber is 100 million years old, from the Cretaceous Period, so this discovery adds to our understanding of the caddisfly fauna in that part of the world at that time.

Original source:
Wichard, W., Ross, E. & Ross, A.J. (2011) Palerasnitsynus gen. n. (Trichoptera: Psychomyiidae) from Burmese amber. 130 : 323-330, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1449

The fossil beetle discovered in the 16-23 million years old sediments of the Irtysh River in southern Siberia belongs to the modern species Helophorus sibiricus, a member of the water scavenger beetles (Hydrophiloidea), which is at present widely distributed in Eurasia and reaches even North America. The species was originally described in 1860 by the Russian entomologist Victor Motschulsky based on specimens collected at Lake Baikal. It is aquatic and inhabits various kinds of standing waters, predominantly the grassy temporary pools. Larvae are unknown so far, but are supposed to be terrestrial and predaceous, preying on various invertebrates, as in most other species of the genus.

The Siberian fossil provides new data for the long-lasting debate among scientists about the average duration of an insect species. It was originally estimated to be ca. 2-3 million years based on the available fossil record, but slowly accumulating data begin to show that such an estimate is an oversimplification of the problem. Recently, evolutionary trees dated using molecular clocks suggested that some insect species are rather young, originating during the Ice Ages, but others may have been able to survive the last 10-20 million years until today. The long-living species had to survive the massive changes of the Earth’s climate during the last millions of years – how they managed to do so is another question for scientists to address.

A large missing piece for the acceptance of long-living insects as a general phenomenon and for understanding the reasons for survival of the particular species is the scarcity of the fossils of such species. The reasons seem to be rather straightforward – the majority of the fossils bear too few details to allow a detailed comparison with living species, whose taxonomy is often based on the shape of male genitalia and other details. That is why the fossil discovered by the Czech-Russian-British team is so important: it bears enough details to allow its detailed comparison with the living species. Although the genitalia are not preserved in the fossil, the scientists were lucky that Helophorus beetles bear species-specific granulation on the pronotum which was readily seen on the fossil and allowed its reliable identification.

A life-style associated with an environment which remains stable over time, such as rotten wood, has been suggested as one of the possible ways in which long-living species may have survived from the past. The discovery of a long-living species of an aquatic beetle may indicate that temporary pools in which Helophorus sibiricus is mainly living today may be another example of such a stable environment – it is really not difficult to imagine that the conditions in a pool created in a modern grassland from the melting snow are very similar to those one would have found in such a pool 20 million years ago.

Original source:
Fikáček M, Prokin A, Angus RB (2011) A long-living species of the hydrophiloid beetles: Helophorus sibiricus from the early Miocene deposits of Kartashevo (Siberia, Russia). ZooKeys 130: 239-254. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1378

After being alerted by Alexandr Rasnitsyn (Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) to two unusual wasps in amber found in New Jersey, USA, Denis Brothers (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) has determined that they represent a new family of wasps, but with its closest relatives found in South America and South Africa. The study was published in a special issue of the open-access journal ZooKeys dedicated to the 75th birthday of Professor Rasnitsyn.

The new family has been named Plumalexiidae, and comprises one new species, Plumalexius rasnitsyni Brothers, the names honouring Alexandr Rasnitsyn, who is undoubtedly the world’s foremost authority on the diversity and fossil history of the Hymenoptera, the group of insects which comprises wasps, bees, ants, sawflies and their relatives, in commemoration of his 75th birthday.

The only known specimens are two small males found in Late Cretaceous amber from New Jersey, USA, dating from over 90 million years ago, which was apparently formed in a forested swampy environment. A detailed analysis during which they were compared with specimens of a variety of wasp groups, has shown that they are apparently most closely related to the family Plumariidae, now found only in the arid areas of South America and southern Africa and not known from any fossils. Although they share a few features with the Plumariidae, they also look very different, and so are considered best placed in a different family. The dissimilar habitats involved also indicate that their lifestyles and habits must have been different.

This finding raises many questions about the origins of the larger group of stinging wasps to which the new family belongs (the superfamily Chrysidoidea), the reasons for the apparently disjunct distributions of the grouping (Plumalexiidae in North America and Plumariidae in South America and southern Africa), and the biology of the new family (and even that of the Plumariidae, males and females of which have never been associated directly, and whose behaviour has not been observed in the field). These questions can only be answered satisfactorily once additional specimens, preferably from other localities, have been found.

Original source: Brothers DJ (2011) A new Late Cretaceous family of Hymenoptera, and phylogeny of the Plumariidae and Chrysidoidea (Aculeata). In: Shcherbakov DE, Engel MS, Sharkey MJ (Eds) Advances in the Systematics of Fossil and Modern Insects: Honouring Alexandr Rasnitsyn. ZooKeys 130: 515–542. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1591

Important changes that will affect the publication of new names in algae, fungi, and plants accepted by the XVIII International Botanical Congress are detailed in a paper that is being published simultaneously or will be published soon in a total of sixteen leading academic journals. The paper, co-authored by Sandra Knapp (London), John McNeill (Edinburgh) and Nicholas Turland (St. Louis), presents the draft text of new articles to the Code and some ideas for best practice for authors and publishers.

In addition, the journals PhytoKeys and Mycokeys published the same paper translated into Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish in order to further disseminate these important changes to the wider community of scientists these changes will affect.

The XVIII International Botanical Congress held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2011 approved sweeping changes to the way scientists name new plants, algae, and fungi (previous press release: Electronic publishing ‘goes live’). The Melbourne Code (now re-named the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants) will allow online-only publication of names of new taxa – what is widely known as e-publication – from 1 January 2012. The mandatory requirement for a Latin diagnosis or description of new taxa of algae, fungi, and plants was changed to allow either English or Latin from the same date.

"Two important amendments to the Code affecting publication of new names – e-publication and the use of Latin and/or English rather than only Latin – will take effect on 1 January 2012, sooner than what would be the traditional timing of 1 January 2013. To prepare the community and journal publishers for these important steps that will come into effect very soon, we publish today a paper that focuses on what e-publication means for the different stakeholders in the process of naming new algae, fungi, and plants" said the lead author Dr Sandra Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London.

This highly important article was published or will be soon re-published in a total of sixteen leading academic journals: BMC Evolutionary Biology, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Brittonia, Cladistics, MycoKeys, Mycotaxon, New Phytologist, North American Fungi, Novon, Opuscula Philolichenum, PhytoKeys, Phytoneuron, Phytotaxa, Plant Diversity and Resources, Systematic Botany and Taxon.

In addition, the inaugural issue of the open access journal MycoKeys, which is published today, features a commentary paper by Professor David Hawksworth (Department of Plant Biology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, London) entitled "A new dawn for the naming of fungi: impacts of decisions made in Melbourne in July 2011 on the future publication and regulation of fungal names" in which the far-reaching changes affecting nomenclature of fungi are detailed. A critical change in nomenclatural rules for fungi is the adoption of the "one fungus, one name" principle, among others.

English: Knapp S, McNeill J, Turland NJ (2011) Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne – what does e-publication mean for you. PhytoKeys 6: 5-11. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1960

Chinese: Knapp S, McNeill J, Turland NJ (2011) Translation into Chinese of: "Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne – what does e-publication mean for you?". Translated by Li-Bing Zhang. PhytoKeys 6: 13-19. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1984

Portuguese: Knapp S, McNeill J, Turland NJ (2011) Translation into Portuguese of: "Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne – what does e-publication mean for you?". Translated by Jefferson Prado, Regina Y. Hirai, and Cíntia Kameyama. PhytoKeys 6: 21-28. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1985

Spanish: Knapp S, McNeill J, Turland NJ (2011) Translation into Spanish of: "Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne – what does e-publication mean for you?". Translated by Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, Lourdes Rico Arce, and Renée H. Fortunato. PhytoKeys 6: 39-49. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1990

Russian: Knapp S, McNeill J, Turland NJ (2011) Translation into Russian of: "Changes to publication requirements made at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne – what does e-publication mean for you?" Translated by Irina V. Belyaeva and Maria S. Vorontsova. PhytoKeys 6: 29-37. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.2001

Hawksworth DL (2011) A new dawn for the naming of fungi: impacts of decisions made in Melbourne in July 2011 on the future publication and regulation of fungal names. MycoKeys 1: 7-20. doi: 10.3897/mycokeys.1.2062

A new plant species that buries its seeds – the first in its family – was discovered in the Atlantic forest of Bahia, Brazil, by an international team of amateur and professional scientists.

José Carlos Mendes Santos (a.k.a. Louro) is a handyman in rural northeastern Bahia, Brazil – one of the areas of the world with the highest biodiversity. Two years ago, he found a tiny, inch-high plant with white-and-pink flowers in the backyards of the off-the-grid house of amateur botanist and local plant collector Alex Popovkin. The little plant was brought home to be grown on a window sill for closer observation. In parallel, work on its identification began. Thanks to solar power and a satellite connection, Popovkin had access to the Internet, and as was his habit, he uploaded some photographs of the plant to Flickr and contacted several taxonomic experts around the globe. The family (strychnine family, or Loganiaceae) and genus (Spigelia) of the plant were soon established, with a suggestion from a Brazilian botanist that it might be a new species.

A collaboration was started with Lena Struwe, a specialist of the plant’s family at Rutgers University, who had previously described a species in the gentian family from the Andes named after Harry Potter (apparating moon-gentian, Macrocarpaea apparata), and another after the Inca tribe (the Inca ring-gentian, Symbolanthus incaicus). More collections were made, photographs uploaded and specimens deposited at the State University at Feira de Santana (HUEFS) in Bahia, while Mari Carmen Molina, a visiting scientist in Struwe’s lab from Spain, extracted the plant’s DNA. In collaboration with Katherine Mathews from Western Carolina University, it was confirmed that the genus was indeed Spigelia, to which pinkroot, an old North American herbal remedy against intestinal parasites, also belongs.

Only a few miniscule plants were found in the field the first year. They would die each dry season, only to reappear again at the beginning of the rain season. The plant growing on the window sill soon showed a particular and rare characteristic: after fruits were formed, the fruiting branches would bend down, depositing the capsules with seeds on the ground (and sometimes burying them in the soft cover of moss), thereby ensuring that the seeds would end up as close to the mother plant as possible, facilitating its propagation the following season. This phenomenon, called geocarpy, is a rare adaptation to growing in harsh or ephemeral environments. A famous example of geocarpy is the well-known peanut from the legume family that buries its fruits in the ground. The new species, appropriately named Spigelia genuflexa, is described in an open-access paper published this week by the five collaborators in the taxonomic journal PhytoKeys, from where the article can be downloaded for free.

Mr. Popovkin: This is my first botanical publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Hopefully, there will be more to follow. I had since early adolescence felt attraction to plants, especially tropical plants, when working as a volunteer at the greenhouses of the Botanic Garden of the University of St Petersburg, Russia. It took me 30 years to realize my dream of living in the tropics and studying its plants up close. My daily botanizing walks always bring personal discoveries. My help and local fellow collector Louro has also shown great interest in botany.

“It is very easy to think we have found and described most plant species of the world already, but this discovery shows that there are so much left out there without name and recognition”, says Struwe and adds, “This discovery shows that the most amazing living things can be found when you least expect it, during times and places when you really aren’t looking for something new, and suddenly it is right there in front of you. How many of us haven’t had the most brilliant ideas in the shower? The art of  taxonomy is finding as well as being able to recognize something as new or different, which is hard when the world is home to millions of species and very few species experts.”

This case shows that collaboration between amateurs and professional scientists, using both new molecular and traditional methods and making use of the facilities of the Internet can lead to new discoveries and new efficient ways of documenting the world’s biodiversity.

Photographs of Spigelia genuflexa taken by Alex Popovkin are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 2.0) from Flickr.

Original source: Popovkin AV, Mathews KG, Santos JCM, Molina MC, Struwe L (2011) Spigelia genuflexa (Loganiaceae), a new geocarpic species from the Atlantic forest of northeastern Bahia, Brazil. PhytoKeys 6: 47-65. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.6.1654

Uma nova espécie de planta que enterra as suas sementes – a primeira descoberta na família – foi encontrada na Mata Atlântica do litoral norte da Bahia, Brasil, por um grupo internacional de botânicos amadores e cientistas.

José Carlos Mendes Santos (de apelido “Louro”) é um caseiro na região rural do nordeste da Bahia, Brasil – uma das áreas do mundo com maior biodiversidade. Há dois anos, ele encontrou uma planta minúscula de apenas 3 cm de altura e com flores esbranquiçadas no quintal da casa do botânico amador e coletor local Alex Popovkin. A plantinha foi trazida para casa para ser cultivada na janela para uma observação cuidadosa. Em paralelo, o trabalho sobre a sua identificação começou. Graças à energia solar e uma conexão via satélite, Popovkin teve acesso à Internet, e como era seu hábito, ele enviou algumas fotos da planta para o Flickr e fez contato com diversos especialistas em taxonomia ao redor do mundo. A família (família da estricnina, ou Loganiaceae) e o gênero (Spigelia) da planta foram logo estabelecidos, com uma sugestão de uma botânica brasileira que poderia tratar-se de uma nova espécie.

Uma colaboração foi iniciada com Lena Struwe, especialista da família da planta na Universidade Rutgers, que já havia descrito uma espécie dos Andes da família das gencianas e nomeada após Harry Potter (Macrocarpaea apparata), e outra em homenagem à tribo Inca (Symbolanthus incaicus). Mais coletas foram feitas, mais fotografias detalhadas postas no Flickr e amostras da planta foram depositadas na coleção do Herbário da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (HUEFS) na Bahia. Enquanto isso, Mari Carmen Molina, uma cientista espanhola visitante no laboratório de Struwe, extraiu o DNA da planta, e em colaboração com Katherine Mathews da Western Carolina University no estado da Carolina do Norte confirmaram que o gênero era de fato Spigelia, ao qual também pertence o espigélia (pinkroot), um remédio natural contra parasitas intestinais conhecido há muito na América do Norte.

Somente algumas plantas minúsculas foram encontradas no campo durante o primeiro ano. Elas morrem a cada estação seca, e reaparecerem novamente apenas no início das chuvas. A planta cultivada na janela logo mostrou uma característica bem particular e rara: depois que os frutos são formados, os ramos da inflorescência com os frutos se dobram para baixo, depositando os frutos com sementes no solo (e às vezes enterrando-os sob a superfície macia de musgo), garantindo assim que as sementes acabem se estabelecendo o mais próximo possível da planta-mãe, facilitando a sua propagação na temporada seguinte. Este fenômeno, chamado geocarpia, é uma adaptação rara observada em plantas que geralmente crescem em ambientes rigorosos ou efêmeros. Um exemplo famoso de geocarpia é o bem conhecido amendoim da família das leguminosas, que enterra seus frutos no chão. A nova espécie, apropriadamente chamada Spigelia genuflexa, é descrita em um artigo de livre acesso que foi publicado esta semana pelos cinco colaboradores na revista taxonômica PhytoKeys, de onde o artigo poderá ser baixado gratuitamente.

Mr. Popovkin: Esta é minha primeira publicação botânica em uma revista profissional. Espero poder contribuir ainda mais em breve. Desde o início da minha adolescência, tenho tido uma grande atração pelas plantas, especialmente as plantas tropicais, quando comecei a trabalhar como voluntário nas estufas do jardim botânico da Universidade de São Petersburgo na Rússia. Levei 30 anos para realizar meu sonho de viver nos trópicos e estudar as plantas de perto. Minhas caminhadas diárias em busca por plantas sempre me proporcionam descobertas pessoais. Louro, o meu ajudante e companheiro local de coletas, tem também despertado o interesse pela botânica.

“É muito fácil pensar que já temos encontrado e descrito a maioria das espécies de plantas do mundo, mas esta descoberta mostra que ainda resta muito a ser reconhecido” diz Struwe, e acrescenta “Esta descoberta mostra que o mais fascinante das coisas vivas pode ser encontrado quando a gente menos espera, em lugares e momentos quando a gente realmente não está procurando por alguma coisa nova, e então de repente ela está exatamente ali em frente da gente. Quantos de nós não temos tido as mais brilhantes ideias quando estamos tomando banho? A arte da taxonomia é encontrar, bem como ser capaz de reconhecer algo como novo ou diferente, o que é difícil porque o mundo abriga milhões de espécies, mas pouquíssimas pessoas são especialistas nos diferentes grupos de plantas".

Este caso mostra que a colaboração entre amadores e profissionais cientistas, usando os novos métodos moleculares e os tradicionais e através das facilidades da Internet pode levar a novas descobertas e maneiras eficientes de documentar a biodiversidade mundial.

Fotos de Alex Popovkin estão disponíveis sob a licensa Creative Commons (Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plants_of_russian_in_brazil/sets/72157619216710603/with/4627080568/