Priority areas for conservation of beach and dune vegetation of the Mexican Atlantic coast

Abstract

We modeled the potential distribution of plant species that grow on the beaches and dunes of the Mexican Atlantic coast in order to identify areas of high biodiversity. We used environmental layers in combination with georeferenced data, utilizing the MaxEnt algorithm, and produced four regional consensus maps according to the geographic distribution of the species: along the entire Mexican Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico; the Yucatan Peninsula and all species combined together on a single map. The largest number of widely distributed species in the Gulf of Mexico was concentrated in the northern and central regions, while biodiversity on the Yucatan Peninsula was likely to be concentrated in the north and on Cozumel island, which is the biggest island in the Mexican Caribbean. The map combining all species together revealed a potential concurrence of species in the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan Peninsula transition, where climatic characteristics converge within a small geographic area. In order to conserve beach and coastal dune plant biodiversity, special attention must be paid to the management plans of established protected areas and to the promotion of new protected areas consistent with the areas reported in this study, particularly in the central Gulf of Mexico and northern Yucatan Peninsula, where areas under protection are currently scarce.