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Humidity, low temperature extremes, and space influence floristic variation across an insightful gradient in the Subtropical Atlantic Forest

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Abstract

The use of well-sampled regions and insightful environmental gradients can provide important theoretical knowledge for understanding the drivers of tropical forest patterns and processes, which are necessary for biological conservation. We investigated the variation in tree species composition across a vegetation gradient in the Subtropical Atlantic Forest, as well as various predictors that could impact such patterns. The exploratory and confirmatory analyses included 178 sampling units distributed among 13 different forest types containing binary occurrence records for 935 species from 25,546 trees. Confirmatory analyses were conducted considering spatial autocorrelation, a well-known factor responsible for type I error inflations. The floristic heterogeneity of the study area was revealed by clear patterns of floristic differentiation between vegetation types, as well as by the significant improvements in local models (GWR—geographically weighted regressions) over global models (OLS—ordinary least squares). We found that the observed floristic variation has most likely been driven by humidity from the Atlantic Ocean, low temperature extremes and geographic distance. The latter was revealed by the high contribution of spatial components to the partial models. These results from a shrinking biological hotspot, particularly those concerning the importance of temperature extremes, represent crucial data for identifying conservation priorities, especially considering the seriousness of the temperature shifts predicted by global climate change scenarios.

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Acknowledgments

We thank CAPES for the Master’s scholarship granted to the first author, CNPq for the grants awarded to the second, third and fourth authors, and FAPESC for supporting the IFFSC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30161-970, Brazil

    Vanessa Leite Rezende & Ary Teixeira de Oliveira-Filho

  2. Faculdade de Ciências Biológicas e Agrárias, Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Alta Floresta, MT, 78580-000, Brazil

    Pedro V. Eisenlohr

  3. Inventário Florístico Florestal de Santa Catarina, Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Rua São Paulo, 3250, Itoupava Seca, Blumenau, SC, 89030-000, Brazil

    Alexander Christian Vibrans

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  1. Vanessa Leite Rezende
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  2. Pedro V. Eisenlohr
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  3. Alexander Christian Vibrans
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  4. Ary Teixeira de Oliveira-Filho
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Correspondence to Pedro V. Eisenlohr.

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Rezende, V.L., Eisenlohr, P.V., Vibrans, A.C. et al. Humidity, low temperature extremes, and space influence floristic variation across an insightful gradient in the Subtropical Atlantic Forest. Plant Ecol 216, 759–774 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-015-0465-9

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