Beta-diversity in seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) in the Caatinga Biogeographic Domain, Brazil, and its implications for conservation

Apgaua, Deborah M. G.; Santos, Rubens Manoel dos; Pereira, Diego; Menino, Gisele Cristina de Oliveira; Pires, Gabriela Gomes; Fontes, Marco Aurélio Leite; Tng, David Y. P.

doi:10.1007/s10531-013-0599-9

Cited by 43 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Whereas beta diversity is increasingly used for conservation planning (Wiersma & Urban ; Apgaua et al. ; Rickbeil et al. ), most research focuses on describing and interpreting regional beta diversity patterns rather than on quantifying the contributions of individual sites (or as in our case, of individual sites at particular points in time) (Mouquet et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If communities in several sites are spatiotemporally nested in composition within a different site, then the umbrella site likely controls that metacommunity's source-sink dynamics. Whereas beta diversity is increasingly used for conservation planning (Wiersma & Urban 2005;Apgaua et al 2014;Rickbeil et al 2014), most research focuses on describing and interpreting regional beta diversity patterns rather than on quantifying the contributions of individual sites (or as in our case, of individual sites at particular points in time) (Mouquet et al 2013). Identifying key nodes in natural-area networks is critical to conservation prioritization and planning (Margules & Pressey 2000;Davidar et al 2001;Pressey et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interpreting beta‐diversity components over time to conserve metacommunities in highly dynamic ecosystems

Ruhí

Datry

Sabo

2017

Conservation Biology

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The concept of metacommunity (i.e., a set of local communities linked by dispersal) has gained great popularity among community ecologists. However, metacommunity research mostly addresses questions on spatial patterns of biodiversity at the regional scale, whereas conservation planning requires quantifying temporal variation in those metacommunities and the contributions that individual (local) sites make to regional dynamics. We propose that recent advances in diversity-partitioning methods may allow for a better understanding of metacommunity dynamics and the identification of keystone sites. We used time series of the 2 components of beta diversity (richness and replacement) and the contributions of local sites to these components to examine which sites controlled source-sink dynamics in a highly dynamic model system (an intermittent river). The relative importance of the richness and replacement components of beta diversity fluctuated over time, and sample aggregation led to underestimation of beta diversity by up to 35%. Our literature review revealed that research on intermittent rivers would benefit greatly from examination of beta-diversity components over time. Adequately appraising spatiotemporal variability in community composition and identifying sites that are pivotal for maintaining biodiversity at the landscape scale are key needs for conservation prioritization and planning. Thus, our framework may be used to guide conservation actions in highly dynamic ecosystems when time-series data describing biodiversity across sites connected by dispersal are available.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting beta‐diversity components over time to conserve metacommunities in highly dynamic ecosystems

Ruhí

Datry

Sabo

2017

Conservation Biology

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“…Lett. 12 (2017) 035002 for the specific reasons that could be leading to this pattern, the current disjunct distribution of TDFs, distinct vegetation domains, and regional species pools may explain the lack of shared species (Tscharntke et al 2012, Apgaua et al 2014, Banda-R et al 2016. Since Paraíba is the more distant site in our sampling, this could be responsible for the largest differences observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brazilian TDFs currently exist as disjunct fragments within the Cerrado, Caatinga and Atlantic forest biomes (Werneck et al 2011). These TDF fragments have low floristic similarity (Oliveira-Filho et al 2006, Apgaua et al 2014, Banda-R et al 2016, mainly due to environmental characteristics such as temperature and humidity rather than historical fragmentation and isolation (Neves et al 2015, Banda-R et al 2016.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant diversity in Brazilian tropical dry forests across multiple vegetation domains

Silva

Souza

Solar

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Understanding the environmental drivers of biodiversity persistence and community organization in natural ecosystems is of great importance for planning the conservation of those ecosystems. This comprehension is even more important in severely threatened ecosystems. In this context, we analyzed ant communities in tropical dry forests (TDFs) in Brazil. These forests are embedded within other biomes, such as Cerrado and Caatinga. In this study, we asked whether (i) ant species richness and composition changes between TDFs within different vegetation domains; (ii) whether ant species richness and b-diversity increase north-to-south, possibly related to changes in tree richness and tree density; and (iii) species replacement contributes relatively more to b-diversity than does nestedness. We found that species composition is unique to each TDF within different biomes, and that species richness and b-diversity differ among the vegetation domains, being smaller in the Caatinga. We also found that replacement contributes most to b-diversity, although this contribution is lower in Caatinga than in Cerrado. We show that regional context is the main driver of species diversity, which is likely to be driven by both historical and ecological mechanisms. By analyzing large spatial scale variation in TDF environmental characteristics, we were able to evaluate how ant diversity changes along an environmental gradient. The high levels of species replacement and unique species composition of each region indicates that, to fully conserve TDFs, we need to have various conservation areas distributed across the entire range of vegetation domains in which these forests can be found. Thus, we demonstrate that a landscape-wise planning is urgent and necessary in order to preserve tropical dry forests.

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“…In South America, dry forests are concentrated in “nucleus” areas (Linares‐Palomino, Oliveira‐Filho, & Pennington, ), and attain their greatest extent and continuity in semi‐arid regions in northeast and southeast Brazil (locally classified as a phytogeographic region known as the “Caatinga Domain”; Fernandes, ). These forests are typically seasonally deciduous with a discontinuous and uneven canopy cover, and occur on fertile soils (Apgaua et al., ; Pennington et al., ; Santos et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flooding regime drives tree community structure in Neotropical dry forests

Araújo

Tng

Apgaua

et al. 2019

J Vegetation Science

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Questions Riverine and associated vegetation communities are periodically affected by floods. However, there have been few quantitative studies on the structural responses of Neotropical tree communities in semi‐arid regions to this perturbance. Here, we ask whether flooding regimes and soil attributes affect tree species diversity, composition, community structure, and soil attributes in Neotropical dry forests. Locations Southeast Brazil. Methods We sampled 120 forest plots of 400 m² totaling 4.8 ha across four tributaries of the São Francisco River with plots situated in areas representing three flooding regimes: (a) annually flooded; (b) occasionally flooded; and (c) never subjected to flooding. Using linear mixed‐effects models, we modelled how flooding regime and soil properties (fertility and texture) affect vegetation diversity (species richness), species composition and structural attributes (abundance of individuals, above‐ground biomass [AGB], and a community‐weighted trait average of multistemness [CWMms]) of these forest plots. Results Species richness in the annually flooded forests was significantly lower than in occasionally flooded or never flooded forests, in agreement with our models, which showed that flooding regime was a significant predictor for this variable. Flooding regime was a significant predictor of CWMms, with plots in annually flooded forest sites having the highest CWMms values. Soil chemical attributes were a significant predictor of AGB across all plots but not between flooding regime categories. Conclusions In Neotropical dry forests, environmental filters established by flooding can lead to differences among distinct biomes in vegetation structure, diversity patterns as well as system productivity. Conservation strategies for dry forests should therefore take these factors into consideration. Our study also highlights annually flooded dry forest as a significant component of the regional diversity of dry forests deserving of management attention.

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Beta-diversity in seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) in the Caatinga Biogeographic Domain, Brazil, and its implications for conservation

Cited by 43 publications

References 34 publications

Interpreting beta‐diversity components over time to conserve metacommunities in highly dynamic ecosystems

Interpreting beta‐diversity components over time to conserve metacommunities in highly dynamic ecosystems

Ant diversity in Brazilian tropical dry forests across multiple vegetation domains

Flooding regime drives tree community structure in Neotropical dry forests

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