Press of flowers and fruits of Grias lucindoae in Serranía de Las Quinchas (Boyacá, Colombia) in ... [+]
A Colombian scientist has been studying the Brazil nut plant family (Lecythidaceae), including helping to describe a new species.
The trade in Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is worth $299 million but there's so many other species in the larger family, which includes about 215 species across Central and South America
Diana Medellín-Zabala, a Colombian biologist Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan, USA, explains that it is important to understand why this particular group of plants is found in unique ecosystems such as the Amazon basin, the Guiana Shield in northern South America, and Colombia's Choco biogeographic region along its Pacific coast.
"This group is one of the 20 most-species rich families of trees in the Amazon forest, and third in terms of biomass providing important ecological services such as carbon sequestration and food resources for pollinators and seed dispersers," she says, "Besides its center of diversification is in the Amazon basin, there are remarkable species occurring in other ecoregions like the inter-Andean valleys, the Chocó Biogeographic region, and even the Andes (about 2000 meters above sea level), which are regions with different geological history, climate variables, and biotic dynamics."
In a December 2023 paper, Medellin-Zabala was part of a team that described Gustavia montana, a new species of Lecythidaceae from the montane rain forests along the western slopes of Central Cordillera and the northeastern Western Cordillera in Colombia is formally described and illustrated.
"This type of project is important to fill gaps of knowledge about the Neotropical biodiversity and its dynamics across time and space," she says, adding that the geological pushing up of the Andes mountain range was crucial in the evolution of these landscapes, adding multiple pressures on organisms to adapt to changing conditions in a myriad of ways.
Medellin-Zabala explains that her aim is trying to understand the niche evolution and biome shifts on the main clades of the family, and the biogeographical processes that could explain its current geographic patterns in the Neotropics.
Diana Marcela Medellin Zabala with a Grias purpuripetala leaf at Río Ñambí Natural Reserve in ... [+]
A Hidden Passion For Biology in Colombia
Medellin-Zabala grew up in the middle of the Andes mountains, in Cajica, a town two hours outside Bogota, Colombia and felt social pressure to study chemical engineering, not the natural sciences she has a passion for.
"One day without telling anybody, not even to my parents, I applied for the biology program at Colombia's national university and secretly took the admission exam," she says, "When I found out I was admitted I was so happy!"
Medellin-Zabala explains that she had to study two degrees at the same time for one semester and at the beginning she didn't feel confident about being a scientist, given the economical limitations in this field.
"I made it until the end of the semester, and I realized that after taking my first courses in biology with my inspiring advisor, Lauren Raz, I finally found what I really wanted to do for a living: being a botanist — I quit as an engineer and kept happily studying biology," she says.
Medellin-Zabala explains that many countries in South America don't have enough funds for education or to support scientific research.
"Sadly, this limitation comes from the governments that do not recognize the importance of investing resources in the study and conservation of our biodiversity, specially under the current fateful scenarios of fragmentation and climate change," she says, "I consider that our participation from the South is crucial to try to find solutions to the global challenges we are constantly facing, since we grew up in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, and in this sense, we have developed a sense of belonging and protection for what we believe is naturally unique and irreplaceable."
Field work team, from left to right: Andrés Majín, Jeniffer Díaz, Diana Medellín and Lucindo Galvis ... [+]
Elsewhere in Colombia, Edicson Parra-Sanchez, a Colombian researcher based at the University of Sheffield in the UK is working to save new species of orchids from changing climate and land use.
Colombia's combination of lowland dry forests, wet forests, cloud forests and paramo (high-altitude meadows) have created a biodiversity hotspot: the South American country is home to more than 4200 species of orchid.
Parra-Sanchez was the lead author of a 2023 paper where researchers found 331 orchid species in just over half of their study plots, including 11 orchid species new to science found in forest habitat plots.
"Natural Andean habitats have a unique set of orchid species that cannot be found elsewhere and under climate warming or habitat loss, species might not be able to migrate (“disperse”) to new, more suitable areas, therefore, some species might face extinction," he says, adding that plants (unlike animals) must confront changes in temperatures, extreme events, or deforestation right where they have landed as seeds.