Since its establishment, the Biota Program has focused its efforts on filling knowledge gaps that are fundamental to understanding biodiversity. Fundamental knowledge is defined as knowledge related to the description and understanding of the functioning of biological systems at all levels of organization – from genes to ecosystems and landscapes – including the products of cellular metabolism. It takes into account different systems of knowledge, use and valuation of biodiversity, including in particular traditional, indigenous or local knowledge. It should be noted that these knowledge gaps take on an even more worrying dimension when one considers the rate at which our biomes are being destroyed and the growing number of species that are extinct or threatened with extinction.
With advances in technology and lower costs associated with genome sequencing, there has been an increase in the discovery and description of species, especially those that are more cryptic, showing that even for the most studied biomes, there is still a significant portion of biodiversity that is completely unknown. The increased ability to access biodiversity data through the incorporation of so-called omics techniques (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) is bringing a new perspective on the relationships between species, in particular endosymbiosis (when one organism lives in symbiosis inside the cells of another organism) and its role in the dynamics of ecosystems and their ability to respond to or withstand disturbances, i.e. ecosystem resilience.
This information is fundamental for supporting conservation and restoration efforts, promoting the sustainable use and enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and is therefore essential for supporting the other thematic axes of Biota 2030.
MAIN OBJECTIVE
To understand and know biodiversity, biologically, chemically and spatially, and to generate subsidies for its monitoring and conservation, restoration and sustainable use actions.
CHALLENGES TO BE ADDRESSED
- Characterize Brazilian biodiversity at different levels of biological organization, spatial and temporal scales;
- Understand the processes that generate (evolutionary) and maintain (e.g. physiological, self-ecological, ecological) biodiversity;
- Knowledge of the mechanisms that regulate the functioning of ecosystems to enable modeling of changes caused by anthropogenic actions;
- Understanding the importance of biodiversity for the socio-ecological system;
- Define indicators to assess the conservation status of species, habitats and ecosystems;
- Developing new strategies and tools to document biodiversity and ecosystem services;
- Developing and analyzing scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services to support the conservation, restoration and use of biodiversity.
ACTIONS
- Support projects focused on understanding the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity, including research in taxonomy, systematics, ecology, microbiology, and natural product chemistry, among others;
- Promote the continuous technical improvement and feeding of the Biota Program Information System, Sinbiota https://sinbiota.biota.org.br/) and the Biota Atlas https://sinbiota.biota.org.br/ atlas/), as well as the creation, maintenance and improvement of molecular databases (e.g. chemical, extract libraries, omics) of biodiversity;
- Supporting public policy and in situ conservation strategies, especially concerning research that supports management plans for conservation units or the planning of conservation networks.
OBJECTIVES
- Launch at least one Biota Discovery Call every two or three years aimed at understanding the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity (including fields such as taxonomy, systematics, ecology, microbiology, botany, zoology, chemistry and pharmacology of natural products, among others) and/or traditional knowledge of biodiversity;
- Attract at least two projects from young researchers per Biota Discovery Call in areas related to basic biodiversity knowledge;
- Establish, by 2030, at least two new partnerships with national or international agencies for the study, conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity, particularly in protected areas and/or their buffer zones;
- Establish at least two new partnerships with national or international organizations focused on the registration and protection of traditional knowledge related to biodiversity.
