Centres Of Species Endemism Research Articles

The vascular plant species endemic or nearly endemic to Puebla, Mexico

Background: Knowledge of endemism in a region (natural or political) is fundamental to determining natural biogeographic regions and establishing conservation priorities.
 Questions: How many vascular plant species are endemic to the state of Puebla? What is the geographic distribution of endemism in the state? Are there centers of phylogenetic endemism?
 Studied species: 356 species of vascular plants.
 Study site: State of Puebla, Mexico.
 Methods: Based on the literature review and botanical specimens in digitized databases, the vascular plant species endemic or nearly endemic to the state of Puebla, Mexico, was assessed. Using a grid cell 1° × 1° latitude and longitude size, the incidence of each species was assessed. With the above information and a phylogeny of the species, a spatial phylogenetic analysis was carried out to detect centers of phylogenetic endemism.
 Results: 82.6 % of the 356 endemic species to Puebla are distributed in only one to three grid cells. The spatial phylogenetic analysis revealed centers of high phylogenetic diversity and endemism as well as delineated centers of mixed and paleo-endemism.
 Conclusions: The state of Puebla contains areas that meet the criteria to be considered centers of species endemism. Strategies toward a better understanding of plant endemism, as here proposed, suggest a better comprehension of the chorology of Mexican endemism, and assess the true role of our natural protected areas in conserving endemic species.

Land Use Land/Cover Change Reduces Woody Plant Diversity and Carbon Stocks in a Lowland Coastal Forest Ecosystem, Tanzania

The East-African lowland coastal forest (LCF) is one of Africa’s centres of species endemism, representing an important biodiversity hotspot. However, deforestation and forest degradation due to the high demand for fuelwood has reduced forest cover and diversity, with unknown consequences for associated terrestrial carbon stocks in this LCF system. Our study assessed spatio-temporal land use and land cover changes (LULC) in 1998, 2008, 2018 in the LCF ecosystem, Tanzania. In addition, we conducted a forest inventory survey and calculated associated carbon storage for this LCF ecosystem. Using methods of land use change evaluation plug-in in QGIS based on historical land use data, we modelled carbon stock trends post-2018 in associated LULC for the future 30 years. We found that agriculture and grassland combined increased substantially by 21.5% between the year 1998 and 2018 while forest cover declined by 29%. Furthermore, forest above-ground live biomass carbon (AGC) was 2.4 times higher in forest than in the bushland, 5.8 times in the agriculture with scattered settlement and 14.8 times higher than in the grassland. The estimated average soil organic carbon (SOC) was 76.03 ± 6.26 t/ha across the entire study area. Our study helps to identify land use impacts on ecosystem services, supporting decision-makers in future land-use planning.

Quantitative approaches to identify floristic units and centres of species endemism in the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau, south‐western China

AbstractAimsTo determine floristic units and centres of plant species endemism using quantitative methods and different taxonomic groups.LocationThe Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau in south‐western China – the world's highest and geologically youngest plateau.MethodsThe plateau was divided into 260 grid cells, each 1° × 1°, and the numbers of different seed‐plant taxa, including genera, total species, endemic species and alpine species, were recorded in each cell. Hierarchical clustering and non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination were used to divide the flora quantitatively, and ANOSIM (analysis of similarities) was used to evaluate differences between the derived groups in the composition of taxa. The stress value was used to assess the fitness of the NMDS ordination. Species endemism was measured using corrected weighted endemism, and centres of species endemism were delimited on the basis of floristic units.ResultsThe plateau harbours a total of 12,058 seed‐plant species and infraspecific taxa in 1619 genera; 38.2% of the species are endemic to the plateau and 27.7% are alpine plants. When two or four groups were considered, cluster analysis based on genera gave the best definition, whereas when 12 groups were considered, analysis of endemic species gave the best definition. The flora of the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau represents two floristic subkingdoms, four floristic regions and 12 floristic subregions. Three centres of species endemism were identified, associated with five floristic subregions.Main conclusionsQuantitative analysis can reveal associations within a flora, and partly confirm intuitive classifications. Genera provide clear divisions of higher floristic ranks, and endemic species give the clearest classifications of lower floristic ranks. Alpine species are important taxa for classifying the flora of mountainous regions. A centre of species endemism based on a floristic unit can be conveniently identified and delimited, and the spatial scale of this centre is determined by the taxonomic rank used.

Plant species composition on two rock outcrops from the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India

The Western Ghats are full of high altitude plateaus/rock outcrops amidst mesic forests. Throughout the world, rock outcrops are isolated habitats and known for their uniqueness with respect to environmental variables and biodiversity and well known as centers of species endemism. In India such special habitats are geographically known but very less information is available about their floristic wealth. Available studies are occasional and limited to ecology. Due to a lack of appropriate information and errors in the study models of random sampling, important habitats may get misinterpreted and pose a threat to conservation. A comprehensive botanical study of two rock outcrops, Durgawadi Plateau (DP) and Naneghat Plateau (NP), on the escarpment of the northern Western Ghats revealed a very high within-site (360 taxa on DP and 249 taxa on NP) and between-site plant diversity totaling to 443 taxa of specific and infraspecific ranks. The individual outcrop areas are very small (2.8793km2 and 0.7524km2 respectively for DP and NP) but harbor a huge diversity of flowering plants. The commonly shared taxa are relatively low (37% of the taxa recorded) indicating that the two outcrops are floristically very distinct from each other. They are also distinct in terms of soil composition, though on the same crest line of Sahyadri and quite close to each other. The study emphasizes the need for micro-level inventories of smaller areas by taking intensive surveys for documentation of different aspects of the abiotic and biotic diversity as well as other environmental and anthropogenic variables.