The study of biotic interactions in the Brazilian Cerrado as a path to the conservation of biodiversity

Abstract

As a focus for conservation efforts, biodiversity has received increased attention in the last fifty years. Searching for patterns in biodiversity, researchers have suggested studies including: ecological communities, cladistics classifications, hierarchical compositions of different levels of organization, and groups of taxonomically related species. Here, we propose that the study of the biodiversity of interactions may present a new perspective in the efforts to conserve biodiversity, especially in endangered ecosystems like the tropical savannas. We suggest that Cerrado, like other tropical savannas, is a particularly important ecosystem in which we can direct efforts to explain what determines the major part of variation in the outcomes of species interactions.