Abstract
The aim of our study was to assess the importance of different Colombian bioregions in terms of the supply of useful plant species and the quality of the available distribution data. We assembled a dataset of georeferenced collection localities of all vascular plants of Colombia available from global and local online databases. We then assembled a list of species, subspecies and varieties of Colombia's useful plants and retrieved all point locality information associated with these taxa. We overlaid both datasets with a map of Colombia's bioregions to retrieve all species and useful species distribution records in each bioregion. To assess the reliability of our estimates of species numbers, we identified information gaps, in geographic and environmental space, by estimating their completeness and coverage. Our results confirmed that Colombia's third largest bioregion, the Andean moist forest followed by the Amazon, Pacific, Llanos and Caribbean moist forests contained the largest numbers of useful plant species. Medicinal use was the most common useful attribute across all bioregions, followed by Materials, Environmental uses, and Human Food. In all bioregions, except for the Andean páramo, the proportion of well-surveyed 10×10 km grid cells (with ≥ 25 observation records of useful plants) was below 50% of the total number of surveyed cells. Poor survey coverage was observed in the three dry bioregions: Caribbean deserts and xeric shrublands, and Llanos and Caribbean dry forests. This suggests that additional primary data is needed. We document knowledge gaps that will hinder the incorporation of useful plants into Colombia's stated plans for a bioeconomy and their sustainable management. In particular, future research should focus on the generation of additional primary data on the distribution of useful plants in the Amazon and Llanos (Orinoquia) regions where both survey completeness and coverage appeared to be less adequate compared with other regions.
Highlights
With 26,134 plant species documented [1], the flora of Colombia is the second most diverse within the Americas [2, 3]
In order to provide a broader context to our results, we focused our study on useful plants as a subset of all Colombian vascular plants
The largest bioregions, Andean, Amazon, Pacific, Llanos and Caribbean moist forests contained the highest numbers of species, of all vascular plants and useful plants
Summary
With 26,134 plant species documented [1], the flora of Colombia is the second most diverse within the Americas [2, 3]. As in the vast majority of tropical countries, traditional knowledge about plants in Colombia is under-documented [7]. Colombia has a long history of ethnobotanical studies that have covered most of its territory, except for the Orinoquia [8]. These studies provide information on plant taxonomy and distribution, and on traditional uses of plants by local communities. The importance of different ecosystems as sources of useful plants for Colombia has not been evaluated in a comparable way, the knowledge base being the result of independent and unconnected studies limited to single regions or subregions [12,13,14]
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