Abstract
The Atlantic Forest is a hotspot for biodiversity conservation because of its high levels of ende- mism and threatened areas. Three main forest types, differentiated by their floras, compose the Atlantic Forest: 'Atlantic Forest' sensu strictu, 'Araucaria Mixed Forest' and 'Seasonal Forest'. The flora comprises taxa from the Amazon forest, Cerrado gallery forests and the Andean region, which makes the Atlantic Forest a relevant study system for ecologists and biogeographers. Here, we present data from 206 floris- tic checklists describing the occurrence of 1,916 species across the southern portion of the Atlantic For- est. This dataset can be useful for understanding mechanisms underlying plant community assembly processes and the historical relationships between different forest formations.
Highlights
The Atlantic Forest is the second largest tropical forest in South America
According to Oliveira-Filho and Fontes (2000), Atlantic Forest can be classified in two main forms, sensu strictu (s.s.) and sensu lato (s.l.)
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is considered a hotspot for biodiversity conservation
Summary
The Atlantic Forest is the second largest tropical forest in South America. It occurs along the Brazilian east coast and inwards as far as eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina, covering an area with high climatic variability (Oliveira-Filho and Fontes 2000) with a remarkable range of latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. Such heterogeneous environments capture climatic gradients related to annual rainfall (approximately 800–4,000 mm) and mean annual temperature (15–25°C), which influence species’ distributions (Scudeller et al 2001, Oliveira-Filho et al 2005, Marques et al 2011). According to Oliveira-Filho and Fontes (2000), Atlantic Forest can be classified in two main forms, sensu strictu (s.s.) and sensu lato (s.l.). The Atlantic Forest s.s. comprises the forests distributed close to the Brazilian coast, where local rainfall is influenced by ocean winds and mountain slopes.
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