October 26, 2022

09:10

Gabriel Abreu – Amazon Agency

MANAUS – An expedition of researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) will explore the Serra do Imeri, a set of mountains in the north of Amazonas, near the border with Venezuela. There will be a total of 17 days of incursion, between November 4 and 20, with a team of 14 researchers who intend to carry out a biodiversity census to find out what kinds of animals and plants live in the escarpments, and how they relate, or not, with the species that inhabit the lower parts of the biome.

Images taken by helicopters on reconnaissance flights by the Brazilian Army showed a landscape with green mountains crowned by clouds and surrounded by vast tracts of untouched rainforest, with no obvious sign of human interference, researchers say. A camp will be set up about 2,000 meters above sea level, on top of a hill next to the highest peak in the region, which exceeds 2,400 meters in altitude, according to Google Earth.

Images taken by helicopters on reconnaissance flights by the Brazilian Army showed a landscape with green mountains crowned by clouds and surrounded by vast tracts of untouched rainforest, with no obvious sign of human interference, researchers say. A camp will be set up about 2,000 meters above sea level, on top of a hill next to the highest peak in the region, which exceeds 2,400 meters in altitude, according to Google Earth.

The team of 14 researchers, including specialists in reptiles and amphibians (herpetology), birds (ornithology), mammals (mastozoology), plants (botany) and parasites. The group includes nine professors and graduate students from USP, plus five representatives from other institutions from Brazil and abroad, including the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), the Biological Station of Doñana (Spain) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France).

“We have no idea what we will find there, it is a completely unknown place. We know that there will be lots of bugs and lots of plants, but what kinds, I have no idea. We will only know when we get there”, said Professor Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues, from the Institute of Biosciences (IB) at USP, one of the most experienced zoologists in the country and leader of the expedition.

The researchers’ expectation is to find new species. The environmental and climatic conditions that characterize these high mountain environments are very different from those found in traditional forests at lower altitudes, and these mountains have been isolated from the rest of the Amazon – biogeographically speaking – for several million years. More than enough time for them to develop their own biodiversity that is unique to their domain (endemic, as the scientific vernacular puts it).

Support

The scientific team will have the support of 76 soldiers – 21 in the field and 55 in Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, about 100 kilometers to the south – who will be responsible for the logistics and security of the work.

“We are assigning high priority to this expedition. Despite all the budgetary limitations, it is a priority for us to maintain this support. Since April, the Army has already performed several overflights over the site for reconnaissance and planning of the expedition”, said General Guido Amin Naves, head of the Army’s Department of Science and Technology (DCT).

The team of researchers is largely the same that conducted the first scientific expedition to Pico da Neblina, the highest mountain in Brazil (at 2,995 meters), in 2017, also with support from the Army and Yanomami guides.

Geographically, both Pico da Neblina and its neighbor, Pico 31 de Março (the second highest mountain in the country, with 2,974 meters), are also considered part of the Serra do Imeri, but they are part of a different rocky massif, in the form of a plateau, physically separated and with very different characteristics from the mountain range that the researchers will travel now, 80 kilometers southeast of there. From an ecological point of view, they are like two distinct archipelagos, separated by a great sea of green forest.

Besides the presence of the Army, the region has two layers of legal protection: the Pico da Neblina National Park, managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), and the Yanomami Indigenous Land, managed by the National Indian Foundation (Funai).

The unit is home to around 27,000 indigenous people over its almost 100,000 square kilometers, but the region where the expedition will take place is mostly uninhabited. The nearest village is 13 kilometers northeast of the highest peak, and preliminary information is that not even indigenous people usually climb the mountains.

“We will probably step in places where no human being has stepped so far”, says researcher Taran Grant, an amphibian specialist and head of the Zoology Department at IB-USP – who was unable to go to Pico da Neblina in 2017, but will be on this new expedition.

The 14 researchers who will participate in the expedition are:

• Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues, professor at IB-USP (herpetology)
• Alexandre Reis Percequillo, professor at Esalq-USP (mastozoology)
• Ana Paula Carmignotto, professor at UFSCar (mastozoology)
• Lucia Garcez Lohmann, professor at IB-USP (botany)
• Luís Fábio Silveira, curator at MZ-USP (ornithology)
• Rafaela Campostrine Forzza, researcher at JBRJ (botany)
• Taran Grant, professor at IB-USP (herpetology)
• Agustin Camacho Guerrero, researcher, EBD/CSIC, Spain (herpetology)
• Antoine Fouquet, researcher, CNRS, France (herpetology)
• Renato Sousa Recoder, post-doc, IB-USP (herpetology)
• Bruno Rafael Fermino, post-doctoral fellow at ICB-USP (parasitology)
• Leandro João Carneiro de Lima Moraes, doctoral student at IB-USP (herpetology)
• Igor Ferreira de Alvarenga, volunteer biologist at MZ-USP (ornithology)
• José Mario Beloti Ghellere, biologist (herpetology)