title: Circumscribing campo rupestre - megadiverse Brazilian rocky montane savanas.
abstract: Currently campo rupestre (CR) is a name accepted and used internationally by botanists, zoologists, and other naturalists, usually applied to a very specific ecosystem, despite the lack of a consensual published circumscription. We present a tentative geographic circumscription of the term, combining data on climate, geology, geomorphology, soil, flora, fauna and vegetation. The circumscription of campo rupestre proposed herein is based on the following premises: (1) the classification of vegetation is not an exact science, and it is difficult to attain a high degree of consensus to the circumscription of vegetation names; (2) despite this, vegetation classification is useful for conservation and management. It is thus desirable to circumscribe vegetation types with the greatest attainable precision; (3) there is a need to preserve all montane and rocky vegetation types, regardless of classification, biome, etc; (4) the CRs are formed by a complex mosaic of vegetation types including rock-dwelling, psammophilous, aquatic, epiphytic, and penumbral plant communities. Campos rupestres stricto sensu are a Neotropical, azonal vegetation complex endemic to Brazil, forming a mosaic of rocky mountaintop "archipelagos" inserted within a matrix of zonal vegetation, mainly in the Cerrado and Caatinga provinces of the Brazilian Shield (southeastern, northeastern and central-western regions), occurring mainly above 900 m asl. up to altitudes exceeding 2000 m, having measured annual precipitation between 800 and 1500 mm, and an arid season of two to five months.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro ? UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: R J V
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Botânica), Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro ? UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro ? UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Botânica, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro ? UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Medeiros
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D001938:Brazil; D014197:Trees / Q000145:classification*