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Identification of priority areas for conservation in an arid zone: application of parsimony analysis of endemicity in the vascular flora of the Antofagasta region, northern Chile

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Abstract

Endemic taxa are those restricted to a specific area, and could bedefined as the exclusive biodiversity of a region. An area of endemismcontains taxa found nowhere else and could be catalogued as irreplaceable and of highpriority for conservation. proposed the parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) as a tool to detect areas ofendemism. PAE, a method of historical biogeography, is analogous to cladisticmethods used in phylogenetics analysis, and unites areas (taxa in cladistics)based on their shared species (characters in cladistics) according to the mostparsimonious solution. In this paper we determined with PAE, prioritary areasfor conservation on the basis of concentrations of endemic species in the aridregion of Antofagasta, northern Chile, and compared the results with theirrepresentation in the current Chilean National Parks and Reserves System. Wefound two areas suggested as priorities, one located in the north Andean zone ofthe region, and another at the coast. The area with the higher biodiversity andconcentration of endemics was that located at the coast. However, coastalecosystems are currently under-represented in the Chilean National Parks andReserves System. The establishment of a new protected area in the coastal zoneof the region of Antofagasta is currently under consideration, coinciding withthe area suggested with PAE as priority. This new area would not only allowconserving species with evident problems of conservation, but also preserving anarea where higher levels of endemism exist.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Botánica, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile

    Lohengrin A. Cavieres, Clodomiro Marticorena, Oscar Matthei & Roberto Rodríguez

  2. Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Research on Biodiversity, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Chile

    Mary T.K. Arroyo

  3. Museo de La Plata, Argentina

    Paula Posadas

  4. Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, Chile

    Francisco A. Squeo & Gina Arancio

Authors
  1. Lohengrin A. Cavieres
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  2. Mary T.K. Arroyo
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  3. Paula Posadas
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  4. Clodomiro Marticorena
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  5. Oscar Matthei
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  6. Roberto Rodríguez
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  7. Francisco A. Squeo
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  8. Gina Arancio
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Cavieres, L.A., Arroyo, M.T., Posadas, P. et al. Identification of priority areas for conservation in an arid zone: application of parsimony analysis of endemicity in the vascular flora of the Antofagasta region, northern Chile. Biodiversity and Conservation 11, 1301–1311 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016001714358

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