A Brazilian team led by biologist Vinicius Souza of the University of São Paulo (USP) will receive US$500,000 for placing third in the Xprize Rainforest competition, held near Manaus, Amazonas, in July. Two teams from the US—Limelight Rainforest and Map of Life—took first and second place and will receive US$5 million and US$2 million respectively. The winners were announced at the G20 Social event in Rio de Janeiro in November. Swiss team ETH BiodivX received a US$250,000 bonus from the competition’s judging panel. The challenge was to survey the biodiversity of a 100-hectare area of the Amazon rainforest in 24 hours using remote sensing equipment and to analyze the data within another 48 hours. Together, the six finalist teams, including one from Spain and another from the US, identified more than 800 plant and animal species and 80 million environmental DNA sequences (XPrize Foundation, November 18).
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Quickly mapping the rainforest
No centro da imagem, plataforma com armadilha para capturar insetos desenvolvida pela equipe brasileira, depositada na copa das árvores por meio de drones
