Flora of the cangas of the Serra dos Carajás, Pará, Brazil: history, study area and methodology

Abstract Back in 1960 researchers from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG) began to study the Serra dos Carajás, resulting in an important series of collections, giving interesting insights in the local flora. During the last decades, intensification of expeditions to the FLONA Carajás was driven by the discovery of a high number of endemic species, coupled with mining pressure in the area. The project "Flora das cangas da Serra dos Carajás" was established in 2014 through the collaboration between MPEG and Vale Institute of Technology - Sustainable Development (ITVDS), which aimed to record systematically the knowledge of the flora associated with the cangas of the Serra dos Carajás. Nearly fifteen thousand exsiccatae currently held at several herbaria (MG, BHCB, HCJS, INPA, IAN, NY and RB) served as the base for the compilation of this flora that includes, so far, 151 families including bryophytes, ferns and seed plants. Here we present a short history of the botanical studies carried out in the region, as well as the characterization of the study area and the methodology followed by this project. This introductory chapter heads the first volume of the Flora of the cangas of the Serra de Carajás, presenting the first 55 plant families, four of bryophytes (two of mosses and two liverworts), two of lycophytes, eight of ferns, one gymnosperm and 40 families angiosperms, treating 139 genera and 248 species.