Abstract
The Mexican state of Veracruz has suffered very high deforestation rates in the last few decades, and despite the establishment of protected areas and conservation projects, primary forest is now mainly persisting in mostly small, scattered, fragmented remnants. New species of Magnolia section Talauma in this state have been described with little to no reference to the already existing ones, potentially resulting in over-splitting, obscuring their taxonomic delineation and conservation status, and consequently conservation programs. To study the conservation units and their genetic diversity, we here employ 15 microsatellite markers on a highly representative sampling of 254 individuals of what are presumed to be five Magnolia species. The results support at least three species and maximum five main conservation units. We propose downgrading the latter to four, given morphological, ecological, demographical, and geographical considerations. Two out of the three sympatrically occurring species in the rainforest in the Los Tuxtlas volcanic area have weak genetic evidence to be considered separate species. Similarly, the individuals in the Sierra de Zongolica in central Veracruz, who bear a very high morphological and genetic similarity to Magnolia mexicana, have weak genetic evidence to be recognised as a separate species. Nonetheless, the individuals could be identified as Magnolia decastroi based on morphology, and further research including the full range of this species is recommended.
Highlights
Biodiversity is being lost at an accelerated rate, often referred to as the sixth mass extinction [1,2]
Results from the discriminant principal component analysis (DAPC) analysis from the complete dataset (Figure 3A) revealed three main groups: the localities containing individuals identified as M. decastroi–M. mexicana and M. lopezobradorii–M. zoquepopolucae were clustered closely together according to the two most explanatory axes in the ordination space, while a third group is composed of the localities containing individuals identified as M. sinacacolinii
When analyzing the Southern Zone separately excluding the clearly differentiated localities identified as M. sinacacolinii, the localities of M. zoquepopolucae formed a different group from M. lopezobradorii (Figure 4C), whereby the 5 retained principal components (PC) explained 40.3% of the total variance
Summary
Biodiversity is being lost at an accelerated rate, often referred to as the sixth mass extinction [1,2] This is striking in plant diverse countries such as Mexico, which span a wide variety of ecosystems [3,4]. In the state of Veracruz, there are 271 families, 1956 genera, and 8497 vascular plant species, of which 238 are endemics, representing around 27% of the national diversity, being the third most diverse state in terms of plants [5,6,7] This plant biodiversity is threatened mainly by land conversion, which has resulted in the loss of. Any study carried out in these areas is of vital importance in order to propose conservation strategies that mitigate the effects of anthropogenic development
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