Climatic affinities of Neotropical species of Capparaceae: an approach from ecological niche modelling and numerical ecology

Abstract

In the Neotropics, the distribution of Capparaceae has been historically associated with seasonally dry forest (NSDF), but recent taxonomic studies have questioned this assumption. Given the environmental co-occurrence of species and the need to understand their relationships with the ecosystem, we use ecological niche modelling and numerical ecology methods to better describe the distribution patterns of Capparaceae and their climatic affinities with NSDF. We used the Maxent algorithm to model the ecological niches of 104 species of Capparaceae, which gave maximum values of the response curves for climatic suitability. These values were used to carry out multivariate statistical analyses [principal components analysis (PCA), non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and discriminant analysis (DA)] to identify ecological associations based on climatic similitude among species. Both PCA and NMDS showed that annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest quarter and precipitation of the driest quarter were the most important climatic variables shaping distributions of species and their associations with NSDF, moist tropical forest (MTF) and wet tropical forest (WTF). Although we found 72 species associated with NSDF as previously reported, DA revealed an overlapping pattern among the three ecological/climatic assemblages (NSDF, MTF and WTF). This confirms the existence of transition zones and species with wider niches. Our results provide an important biogeographical framework of ecological patterns for species associated with NSDF, opening new lines of research on the reconstruction of distribution in future climatic scenarios or palaeo-distributions.

Diversidad y estructura fisionómica en dos fragmentos de bosques riparios asociados a ecosistemas secos en el Caribe colombiano (Montes de María -Sucre)

“…En cuanto a El principio, Tabernaemontana grandiflora también obtuvo altos valores de importancia; sin embargo, a diferencia de las especies anteriores, esta puede hallarse en áreas de bosques secos, húmedos y zonas con vegetación perturbada entre 0 y 1200 m, características compatibles con las áreas de estudio [57], y por lo tanto, explicaría su importancia en las áreas de estudio. Capparidastrum frondosum también presentó gran abundancia en El Principio, y de acuerdo con Mercado-Gómez, et al [30] esta especie puede tolerar diferentes ambientes tanto secos como húmedos; de hecho, dentro de los bosques secos, se halla principalmente en las zonas riparias [64].…”

Climate‐driven shifts in the diversity of plants in the Neotropical seasonally dry forest: Evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas

“…7488 species, including all life forms) in the NSDF (Dryflor et al., 2016), we decided to focus on plant species from the families Zygophyllaceae, Capparaceae, Cactaceae, Malvaceae, and Fabaceae. Because of their abundance, dominance, and endemism within the NSDF, these taxa are considered representative of the biome (see Dryflor et al., 2016; Mercado‐Gómez et al., 2019, 2020; Pennington et al., 2009). These families include three primary life forms: herbs, shrubs, and trees.…”

What Do Butterflies Tell Us about an Intermediate Disturbance in a Dry Tropical Forest Context?

“…Butterflies are an important model group to understand how human activities have influenced the community structure of tropical dry forest biota since they are highly sensitive to ecosystem changes [17][18][19][20][21]. Butterflies as model groups would be a strategy to generate information on the relationship of adjacent areas on the faunal diversity within dry forests without the need to explore all the biological groups, i.e., from an autoecological perspective [22][23][24]. In butterflies, e.g., diversity increases significantly as disturbance frequency increases [20,21].…”