Combining Niche Modelling, Land-Use Change, and Genetic Information to Assess the Conservation Status ofPouteria splendensPopulations in Central Chile

Abstract

To assess the conservation status of a species with little ecological information is usually a challenging process.Pouteria splendensis an endemic shrub of the coastal range of Central Chile currently classified as lower risk (LR) by IUCN (version 2.3). Knowledge about this species is extremely limited. CurrentlyP. splendensis only found in two small and isolated populations, which are thought to be remaining populations of an originally large metapopulation. However, there is no evidence to support this hypothesis, limiting our ability to gauge the real current conservation status of this species. In this study we combine niche modelling, land-use information, and genetic techniques to test the metapopulation hypothesis and reassess the conservation status ofP. splendensusing the IUCN criteria. We also evaluated the potential effects of climate change in the species distribution. Our results support the hypothesis of a large metapopulation that was recently fragmented. Future climate could increase the range ofP. splendens; however the high level of fragmentation would preclude colonization processes. We recommend reclassifyingP. splendensas Endangered (EN) and developing strategies to protect the remaining populations. Similar approaches like the presented here could be used to reclassify other species with limited ecological knowledge.

Leaf litter is essential for seed survival of the endemic endangered tree <i>Pouteria splendens</i> (Sapotaceae) from central Chile

“…Sotes et al: Leaf litter is essential for seed survival of Pouteria splendens (Sapotaceae) or pollen flow in the species. Morales et al (2015), suggest that the genetic population pattern found might be the result of a recent process of habitat fragmentation and loss. Genetic variation among adult tree plants may reflect prefragmentation effect, whereas contemporary gene flow patterns will be observable among seedlings (Yineger et al, 2014).…”

“…Small population size and restricted gene flow might be associated with loss of genetic variation and inbreeding depression (Menges, 1991;Keller and Waller, 2002). Despite this, Morales et al (2015) demonstrated that remaining P. splendens populations still maintain a high level of intra-population genetic diversity, and a notably low genetic differentiation between populations compared with other native tree species. Our results contribute to reject the hypothesis of high gene flow by seed dispersal; however, we cannot discard the idea of the maintenance of high levels of pollen-mediated gene flow.…”

“…The Chilean lúcumo was supposed to be more abundant in the past, but actually only a few isolated populations remain (Morales et al, 2015). It is considered a species seriously endangered (Squeo et al, 2001;Hechenleitner et al, 2005); however, the populations are not protected by the National Public System of Protected Areas (SNASPE) (Muñoz and Serra, 2006).…”

Potential Range Map Dataset of Indian Birds

“…Species distribution models have become one of the most common ways to infer distributions from presence-only data provided by citizen science initiatives. Numerous studies have used SDMs to estimate species ranges and inhabited areas for IUCN Red List evaluations [4,17,[27][28][29][30][31]. Several countries have published national-level biodiversity assessments using SDMs [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] with only a small number of species or groups in India have their distribution evaluated for various applications; including; for example for birds [4,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], for plants [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64], for mammals [65][66][67][68][69]…”

Local Actions to Tackle a Global Problem: A Multidimensional Assessment of the Pollination Crisis in Chile

“…With the floral resource reduction, this rapid deterioration of the natural vegetation puts native pollinators in check, negatively impacting native plant species pollination and indirectly impacting crop pollination. A dramatic example of this situation is the relict tree Pouteria splendens, a narrow endemism of coastal Mediterranean-type ecosystem in Chile [111], which was severely impacted by a prolonged drought [112], causing a drastic reduction in the number of flowers produced and impacting the flower visitor insects (CJP unpublished data).…”