Check-list of vascular plant communities on ironstone ranges of south-eastern Brazil: dataset for conservation.

Rubens Da Mota,Claudia Jacobi,Luciana Kamino,Flavio Carmo

doi:10.3897/bdj.6.e27032

Abstract

BackgroundIronstone ranges are considered hotspots for higher plants α and β diversity. The lack of studies and the intense degradation of the ironstone ranges, due to mining, motivated us to compile, for the first time, a list of vascular plants collected on iron-rich derived substrates from ancient landscape of south-eastern Brazil. All existing records in the Brazilian Virtual Herbarium of Flora and Fungi for each of the 43 municipalities containing ironstone ranges were downloaded, resulting in 17,954 vouchers identified to the species level. We found 2,933 species belonging to 160 families and 818 genera.New informationFor the first time, we identified 148 species mentioned in endangered flora official lists and 48 narrow endemic species. Collecting efforts must still be supported to properly sample the vegetation since, for 143 sites, less than 10 records/site were found. This dataset will assist with the indication of dozens of plant species whose threat criteria must be urgently assessed to subsidise public policies on the use and conservation of the Brazilian flora.

Highlights

Ironstone ranges occur mainly in Brazil, Australia, South Africa and India and are predominantly comprised of rock blocks of banded iron formations - BIF - from the Archean and Paleoproterozoic ages (Souza and Carmo 2015, Hagemann et al 2016)
In south-eastern Brazil, ironstone ranges spread non-continuously over a 500 km-long north-south axis, in 43 municipalities distributed over three mineral provinces: Quadrilátero Ferrífero (QF) in the south; Serra da Serpentina-Morro do Pilar region (SS-MP) at the centre; and the Peixe Bravo River Valley region (VPB) in the north (Fig. 1)
We found 17,954 records identified to the species level, originating predominantly from specimens collected in the QF ironstone ranges (93%), followed by samples from SS-MP (4%) and VPB (3%), see Fig. 4

Summary

Introduction

Ironstone ranges occur mainly in Brazil, Australia, South Africa and India and are predominantly comprised of rock blocks of banded iron formations - BIF - from the Archean and Paleoproterozoic ages (Souza and Carmo 2015, Hagemann et al 2016). Flora knowledge of these ancient ecosystems is still incipient. Collecting efforts must still be supported to properly sample the vegetation since, for 143 sites, less than 10 records/site were found This dataset will assist with the indication of dozens of plant species whose threat criteria must be urgently assessed to subsidise public policies on the use and conservation of the Brazilian flora

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Conclusion