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Lovett, Jon C.; Rudd, Stephen; Taplin, James; Frimodt-Moller, Christian

doi:10.1023/a:1008956529695

Cited by 54 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The relative dominance of plant growth forms varies in space across tropical Africa (Sosef et al, 2017). However, few studies have compared plant distribution patterns within Africa across growth forms (but see Lovett, Rudd, Taplin, & Frimodt-Moller, 2000) and none have been conducted at a continental scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond trees: Biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa

Droissart

Dauby

Hardy

et al. 2018

Journal of Biogeography

109

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Aim To delineate bioregions in tropical Africa and determine whether different plant growth forms (trees, terrestrial herbs, lianas and shrubs) display the same pattern of regionalization, diversity and endemism as the whole flora. Location Tropical Africa (excl. Madagascar), from 20° N to 25° S. Taxon Vascular plants. Methods Analyses were based on occurrences of 24,719 vascular plant species distributed across tropical Africa extracted from the RAINBIO database. The majority of species (93%) were classified into four growth forms: terrestrial herbs, trees, shrubs and lianas. Biogeographical regions (bioregions) were delimited using a bipartite network clustering approach on the whole dataset and then separately for each growth form. Relationships among bioregions were investigated using non‐metric multidimensional scaling ordination, flora nestedness and endemism patterns. Results Analyses of the whole dataset identified 16 bioregions and 11 transition zones. These were congruent with most of the currently recognized phytogeographical classifications, and also highlighted previously under‐recognized bioregions. Bioregion endemism rates were lower and species richness higher when compared to estimates from the White/Association pour l'Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale (AETFAT) classification. Analysed separately, plant growth forms showed contrasting geographical patterns. Bioregionalization was better resolved for closed forest types using trees and lianas and for open vegetation types using terrestrial herbs, while shrubs showed good discriminative power in all vegetation types. Main conclusions We show that distribution patterns based on solely trees are not sufficient to define floristic bioregions in tropical Africa. Analyses of spatial patterns using different growth forms are complementary, likely reflecting different evolutionary processes and ecological relationships. The contribution of growth forms to delimit geographical floristic patterns across tropical Africa is of critical importance for land use planning and management, and for selecting priority conservation areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond trees: Biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa

Droissart

Dauby

Hardy

et al. 2018

Journal of Biogeography

109

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“…In general, two different data-type approaches are possible to map and analyze global richness gradients (22). First, studies may be based on single-species occurrence data in the form of locality records or expert range maps (23)(24)(25). Unfortunately, this approach is limited by the relatively small fraction of all species for which such data are available.…”

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confidence: 99%

Global patterns and determinants of vascular plant diversity

Kreft

Jetz²

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

1,161

1,205

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Plants, with an estimated 300,000 species, provide crucial primary production and ecosystem structure. To date, our quantitative understanding of diversity gradients of megadiverse clades such as plants has been hampered by the paucity of distribution data. Here, we investigate the global-scale species-richness pattern of vascular plants and examine its environmental and potential historical determinants. Across 1,032 geographic regions worldwide, potential evapotranspiration, the number of wet days per year, and measurements of topographical and habitat heterogeneity emerge as core predictors of species richness. After accounting for environmental effects, the residual differences across the major floristic kingdoms are minor, with the exception of the uniquely diverse Cape Region, highlighting the important role of historical contingencies. Notably, the South African Cape region contains more than twice as many species as expected by the global environmental model, confirming its uniquely evolved flora. A combined multipredictor model explains Ϸ70% of the global variation in species richness and fully accounts for the enigmatic latitudinal gradient in species richness. The models illustrate the geographic interplay of different environmental predictors of species richness. Our findings highlight that different hypotheses about the causes of diversity gradients are not mutually exclusive, but likely act synergistically with water-energy dynamics playing a dominant role. The presented geostatistical approach is likely to prove instrumental for identifying richness patterns of the many other taxa without single-species distribution data that still escape our understanding.biodiversity ͉ historical contingency ͉ latitudinal gradient ͉ macroecology ͉ species richness

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“…If species distributions are represented using a grid system, endemism, expressed as a range-size rarity (RSR), can be calculated by counting the number of quadrats in which each species occurs, taking its inverse, and summing the total for each quadrat, as follows (Kerr 1997, Lovett et al 2000, La Ferla et al 2002:…”

Section: Range-size Rarity and Weighted Endemismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endemism in historical biogeography and conservation biology: concepts and implications

Fattorini¹

2017

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Untitled

Cited by 54 publications

References 24 publications

Beyond trees: Biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa

Beyond trees: Biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa

Global patterns and determinants of vascular plant diversity

Endemism in historical biogeography and conservation biology: concepts and implications

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