The road to 2020 targets and the learnings from the emblematic South American plant genus Nassauvia (Asteraceae)

Abstract

The elaboration of a comprehensive database about the distribution of the South American genus Nassauvia has allowed investigate its conservation biogeography. The combined use of historical (Dispersal Vicariance Analysis) and ecological (UPGMA) biogeographical approaches has led to detecting past, present and future critical areas in the evolution and persistence of the genus. According to the size of distribution areas, number of locations, environmental niche models, and predicted shifts of these spatial characteristics following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts for the next decade, it has been possible to award the level of global and national risk for all species of the genus and assign their corresponding IUCN categories. Severe gaps in legal and in situ conservation policies have been detected within the region, making it urgent the adoption of measures aimed at preventing the extinction of the most endangered species. We identify a future dramatic loss of Nassauvia species in the Andes and conversely a species increase in Patagonia. Patagonia has emerged as the cradle of the genus and could be its refuge in the future according the predictions targeted by climate change. Communicated by Daniel Sanchez Mata. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Biodiversity Conservation and Reserves.

Assigning conservation value and identifying hotspots of endemic rattan diversity in the Western Ghats, India

“…On the other hand, the grid-based approach is appropriate if one is looking at larger areas and more widespread species where a larger grid size is desirable. Hence, the usefulness depends on the number of data points and the grid size ( Grossi et al., 2017 ). For species that have a narrow distribution range, are point endemic and have few distribution records, a smaller grid is preferred.…”

“…ENM has been used widely to model species ranges with limited data points in biodiversity-rich areas ( Cardoso et al., 2011 , Pena de Castro et al., 2014 , Grossi et al., 2017 ). Of late, ENM has been used to model species distribution for a number of endemic and economically important plant species in the Western Ghats ( Priti et al., 2016 , Sen et al., 2016 ).…”

The future scenario of an iconic tree from the Brazilian Cerrado: perspectives on Eremanthus Less. (Asteraceae) conservation

“…Population distribution analyses show that over short distances populations are genetically similar and genetic assessments in species populations under anthropogenic in uence help to identify priority conservation areas (Pádua et al 2021). Integrating different methodologies can be very useful in conservation assessment (Peterson 2011;Grossi et al 2017;Neves et al 2018). Some Eremanthus species are included in endangered species lists (e.g., Centro Nacional de Conservação da Flora (six species), Lista O cial das Espécies Endêmicas da Flora Ameaçadas de Extinção do Estado da Bahia (two species) e Lista das Espécies Ameaçadas de Extinção da Flora no Estado de Minas Gerais (two species)).…”

The two South American dry diagonals

“…Kelt et al (2000) showed high similarity of small mammal faunas within the wSADD, though no species were shared between the geographically extreme areas of the Atacama Desert and Patagonia, perhaps because the Andes act as a geographical barrier within the wSADD (see Ab'Sáber 1977, Luebert andWeigend 2014). While most of the endemisms are restricted to portions of it, several plant groups that occupy the entire wSADD are also present in other neighboring regions, such as Ephedra, (Ephedraceae; Ickert-Bond et al 2009), Leucheria (Asteraceae; Jara-Arancio et al 2017), Montiopsis (Montiaceae; Hershkovitz 2019), Nassauvia (Asteraceae; Grossi et al 2017) and Proustia (Asteraceae; Sancho et al 2018). Unlike the eSADD, it is questionable that the wSADD has acted as a corridor for arid adapted taxa.…”