Regional Department of Maranhão

The Maranhão Regional Department, coordinated by the State University of Maranhão (UEMA) was established in 2006, currently having sixteen researchers, ten of these being graduates, six of these with a Masters degree, in addition to four program scholarship students and a number of other graduate students. The project, submitted and approved through the Public Notice: “Research Program in Biodiversity (PPBIO) of the Eastern Amazonian region – an inventory of the biota of the Maranhense Amazon in the Gurupi Biological Reserve”, has the following objectives:

1) To establish an Amazonian biota inventory hub, and;

2) To qualify collections from the Maranhão Regional Department, including the following

Specific objectives:

I.       To establish and maintain the integrated and standardized collection site at the Gurupi Biological Reserve (REBIO);

II.       To implement basic protocols (climate, topography, vegetation structure);

III.       To implement biological protocols (birds, mammals, herpetofauna, flies and bees, vector insects, bryophytes and pteridophytes, fishes, trees and bushes);

IV.       To improve the conservation and qualification of the didactic collections so that they can fulfill their primary role of providing data on regional flora and fauna to the community, especially for basic and scientific educational requirements;

V.       To enable the Maranhão regional department to operate within the Amazonian biota standardized biological inventories hub or network.

The proposed grid is already being laid out, with two of the modules practically ready and the protocols being, or already having been tested, as follows:

Protocol 1: Insects associated with flowers and fruits;

Protocol 4: Predatory insects;

Protocol 8: Fishes;

Protocol 9: Birds;

Protocol 10: Herpetofauna;

Protocol 11: Mammals;

Protocol 13: Bryophytes;

Protocol 16 (Basic data): Topography and Cartography.

Other protocols, including Protocol 15 (Trees, Palms and Bushes), and Protocol 18 (Vegetation and biomass structures), will be initiated shortly.

 

Fish protocol sampling points at the Gurupi Biological Reserve (REBIO). The points in black show where collections were taken in June 2010. Points in yellow represent areas still to be prospected.

Images of the fish protocol sampling points.

Bryophyte collection at the Gurupi Biological Reserve.