The forest along the coast of Bahia state, in northeastern Brazil, has been acknowledged as an area of endemism for several groups of organisms. The first study concerning endemic angiosperm species in this region, through which 395 taxa were registered, was conducted 15 years ago. However, this number is probably underrated. In this article, we present an updated checklist of angiosperm taxa in Bahia Coastal Forests (BCF) based on geographic distribution data available from the Brazilian Plant List (Flora do Brasil 2020). The records were checked in herbaria, recent taxonomic literature, and, when necessary, reviewed by experts. The final checklist consists of 547 taxa endemic to BCF, distributed in 69 families, with seven endemic genera: Bahiella (Apocynaceae), Santosia (Asteraceae), Harleyodendron (Fabaceae), Cubitanthus (Linderniaceae), Anomochloa and Parianella (Poaceae), and Andreadoxa (Rutaceae). The families with highest richness in endemic taxa were Bromeliaceae (108 spp.), Fabaceae (41 spp.) and Myrtaceae (32 spp.). This updated checklist shares only 143 taxa with a previous list published about 15 years ago. Those two lists differ mostly due to slightly different area limits, and to the large number of additional endemic species described since then. We hope our list will be used as a resource in future studies and contributes to the conservation of the highly diverse Bahia Coastal Forest.
Given the importance of understanding endemic species distribution for conservation strategies and the status of the Atlantic Forest as a conservation hotspot, we carried out a study to evaluate where are located the areas of endemism (AoE) at Bahia Coastal Forests (BCF), a threatened and species rich area of this hotspot. To achieve this aim, we recovered and filtered the occurrence data of 547 angiosperm taxa endemic to BCF and applied endemicity analyses using different grid cell sizes (5′ × 5′, 10′ × 10′, and 15′ × 15′) and data extrapolation options. A consensus rule was applied to the resulting areas, joining AoE that shared at least 40% of its species. Most of the recovered AoE are located in the central region of BCF, which might be related to a higher humidity compared to northern and southern areas, which had fewer areas recovered. These results could also reflect the higher sampling effort in the central region of BCF, as this area had most intensive botanical studies so far. The use of extrapolation options generated more AoE regardless of cell size; this technique indicated potential AoE that would not have been detected otherwise due to low sampling effort, such as the vicinities of Wenceslau Guimarães at northwestern BCF. We recommend that more botanical exploration should be done at BCF northern and southern areas to overcome sampling bias and define more accurately the number and limits of AoE, highlighting the need for more focused conservation strategies in this hot-point within the Atlantic Forest.
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