Journal
ANAIS DA ACADEMIA BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS
Volume 94, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ACAD BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS
DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765202220211019
Keywords
beta-diversity; biogeographical patterns; environmental gradients; human effects; macroecology; regionalization
Categories
Funding
- Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior - Brasil - (CAPES) [001]
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This study reexamined the bioregionalization of the woody flora in the Caatinga dry forest and woodland biome using abundance data, identifying 10 abundance subregions. Aridity, topography and soil, biome stability since the Pleistocene, and historical indigenous effects were found to be the main drivers of spatial distribution of plant subregions, explaining most of the abundance variability. The results confirm previous findings on the broad composition patterns of Caatinga woody flora and suggest the presence of dominant species oligarchies in different parts of the biome.
Despite growing knowledge on the distribution and functioning of dryland vegetation types, their internal biodiversity structure (i.e., subregions) is much less studied. In the delineation of subregions, the use of species occurrence or abundance data may reveal different aspects of metacommunity structure. We revisit the issue of the bioregionalization of the woody flora of the Caatinga, the largest block of the dry forest and woodland biome in Latin America, using abundance data. We also evaluated the drivers of the spatial distribution of plant subregions: historical, current environmental and human effects. Using a K-means partition on interpolated NMDS axes, we identified 10 abundance subregions. Aridity, topography and soil, biome stability since the Pleistocene, and historical indigenous effects were retained by a Multinomial Logistic regression model, and their combined fractions explained most of the abundance variability in subregions. The subregions we present may support spatialized conservation and management decisions in the lack of detailed local data. The present results confirm the Caatinga woody flora broad composition patterns uncovered using presence-absence data in previous studies. Additionally, we found larger subregions than those identified with presence and absence data, suggesting the existence of oligarchies of dominant species in distinct parts of the Caatinga biome.
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