The pattern of high plant diversity of Neotropical inselbergs: highlighting endemic, threatened and unique species

Abstract

Understanding how multiple drivers shape plant community diversity across environmental gradients is one of the most important issues in plant ecology and biodiversity conservation. We aimed to analyse plant community structure and diversity in four inselbergs in Espírito Santo State, Brazil. We evaluated species diversity, floristic composition and similarity, phytosociological structure, occurrence, and conservation status of rupicolous flora in the inselberg communities. We used field expeditions and plant inventory data from 370 sampling units. We estimated floristic similarity and compared diversity indexes among inselbergs. We observed marked differences in community structure and diversity among inselbergs, where the southern region had the highest number of taxa and higher values of diversity indices. There were also notable differences in floristic composition and phytosociological structure, with a decrease in similarity as geographical distance increased. This finding demonstrated the existence of differences in the patterns of dominance and vegetation cover along the latitudinal gradient, as well as differences in endemic, threatened, and exclusive species, and represents a first step toward establishing criteria for biodiversity conservation for inselbergs in Espírito Santo State.

Contribution of Pseudobombax aff. petropolitanum to Nutrient Cycling in Woody Vegetation from a Neotropical Inselberg

“…(exotic Poaceae) and Pteridium arachnoideum (Kaulf.) Maxon (native Dennstaedtiaceae), besides coffee and Eucalyptus plantations (Pinto-Junior et al, 2020).…”

“…Pedra dos Pontões has a high richness and diversity of endemic endangered species, besides low similarity in terms of floristic composition when compared to other inselbergs in state (Couto et al, 2017;Pinto-Junior et al, 2020), for which it has been recognized as a priority conservation area (Couto et al, 2016(Couto et al, , 2017. The inselberg woody vegetation has a prominent presence of sparse stands of PP (Figure 1D), with some tall individuals for the area (average height of 7.7 m ± 3.3 and average diameter at breast height of 46.4 cm ± 31.9), forming small groups in some cases (Couto et al, 2016).…”

“…Inselbergs are Precambrian granitic and gneissic rocky outcrops, usually monolithic and are critical spots for conservation of plant diversity (Porembski, 2007;Hopper et al, 2016). In southeastern Brazil, inselbergs within the Atlantic Rainforest biome represent a global hotspot of rupicolous plants, whose beta diversity, i.e., species turnover between individual inselbergs, is unusually high due to high degree of habitat specialization even when comparing inselbergs in the same region that increase as the geographical distance increases (Porembski, 2007;Couto et al, 2016;Pinto-Junior et al, 2020).…”

Diversity of Tephritidae and Agromyzidae (Diptera: Brachycera) in Flower Heads of Asteraceae in the Chaco

“…Manoel A. Uchoa 1 *, Anderson S. Fernandes 1 and Jimi N. Nakajima 2 1 Laboratory of Taxonomy and Systematics of Tephritidae (LabTaxon), Universidade da Grande Dourados (UFGD), Dourados, MS, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil *Address all correspondence to: uchoa.manoel@gmail.com…”

“…In Neotropical Region, the species of Asteraceae, depending on the biome evaluated, use to be the first or sencond plant Family in the rank of species richness, as pointed out for the Atlantic Forest on Espirito Santo state, Brazil [2]. The studies about the florivore insects are important for both: to expand scientific knowledge, as well as to solve environmental problems in food production systems.…”