Format: ORAL

Domingos Cardoso1,2, Rafaela Campostrini Forzza1,3

1 Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil 2 Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador-BA, Brazil 3 Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), Prado-BA, Brazil

Documenting the multiple dimensions (classification, distribution, ecological interactions, and evolutionary history) of the remarkable Amazonian plant biodiversity has been one of the greatest challenges of botanical science, especially in the face of global threats of tropical forest destruction and climate change. While the Amazon is recognized as the home to the worlds largest tropical rain forest biome and plays a crucial biogeochemical role in regulating the global climate through essential ecosystem services, little is known about the plant biodiversity itself, the leading player in the evolutionary theater of this majestic forest. For instance: how many different tree species are there throughout the Amazon? When and where did they evolve? What are the primary ecological and biogeographical processes driving their evolution? Addressing such questions requires a synergistic compromise between plant systematists and tropical ecologists. However, recent debates on the number of plant species across the Amazonian rain forests have relied heavily on model estimates, neglecting published taxonomically verified checklists. Ongoing taxonomic and floristic efforts across Latin America, such as the collaborative and dynamic web-based platform of the Flora e Funga do Brasil, are the best way to track progress and updates in near-real time. Detailed taxonomic monographic and phylogenetic works including newly collected specimens and genome-wide sequencing of specimens already held in global herbaria have revealed new species and genera, and how domestication has impacted their evolutionary history. Sustained investment in taxonomy, herbarium collections, virtual herbarium platforms, new collections through field work, and massive DNA sequencing are fundamental in order to document and answer large scientific questions on the origin, evolution, and ecology of the megadiverse Amazon flora in its entirety.