Flora da Bahia: Leguminosae – Centrosema (Papilionoideae: Phaseoleae)

The taxonomic treatment of Centrosema (Leguminosae) from the State of Bahia, Brazil, is presented. Fifteen species are recognized, which represents 50% of the Centrosema species recorded in Brazil. The treatment includes keys to identification, descriptions, illustrations, general notes and geographic distribution maps for the species in Bahia.É apresentado o tratamento taxonômico do gênero Centrosema (Leguminosae) para o estado da Bahia, Brasil. São reconhecidas 15 espécies, o que representa 50% das espécies de Centrosema registradas no Brasil. O tratamento inclui chaves de identificação, descrições, ilustrações, comentários gerais e mapas de distribuição geográfica das espécies na Bahia

Composição florística de um fragmento florestal no distrito de Jaguara, Feira de Santana, Bahia

The municipality of Feira de Santana is located in the Agreste region and, therefore, its flora presents species of the Atlantic Forest and Caatinga phytogeographical domains. The vegetation from the municipality is heavily fragmented and the few remnants lack floristic studies. In order to contribute to the knowledge of the flora of Agreste at the municipality of Feira de Santana, this work presents a floristic survey of a forest fragment in the Jaguara district, comprising a tropical semi-deciduous lowland broadleaf nanoforest (‘caatinga’) and a riverine forest (‘mata ciliar’). We found 113 species of vascular plants, of which 99 were found in the caatinga and 35 in the mata ciliar. The floristic composition and the vegetation physiognomy were similar to most of the reported for the Agreste vegetation, with Leguminosae (25 species), Euphorbiaceae (8), Malvaceae (6), Rubiaceae (5) and Plantaginaceae (4) appearing as the most species-rich families. The forest fragment surveyed is probably under regeneration and there is a need for actions that promote its conservation.O município de Feira de Santana está localizado na região do Agreste e, portanto, sua flora apresenta espécies dos domínios fitogeográficos da Mata Atlântica e da Caatinga. A vegetação do município encontra-se bastante fragmentada e os poucos fragmentos remanescentes carecem de estudos florísticos. Com o objetivo de contribuir para o conhecimento da flora do Agreste no município de Feira de Santana, este trabalho apresenta o levantamento florístico de um fragmento florestal no distrito de Jaguara, compreendendo uma nanofloresta latifoliada estacional semideciduifólia tropical de baixada (caatinga) e uma floresta ripícola (mata ciliar). Foram amostradas 113 espécies de plantas vasculares, sendo 99 na caatinga e 35 na mata ciliar. A composição florística e a fisionomia da vegetação de caatinga são semelhantes às da maioria das áreas do Agreste, sendo Leguminosae (25 espécies), Euphorbiaceae (8), Malvaceae (6), Rubiaceae (5) e Plantaginaceae (4) as famílias mais ricas em espécies. A floresta estudada encontra-se provavelmente em processo de regeneração, havendo a necessidade da adoção de medidas que permitam a sua conservação

The fate of Holoregmia, a monospecific genus endemic to the Brazilian Caatinga, under different future climate scenarios

Background and aims – Climatic fluctuations during the Pleistocene altered the distribution of many species and even entire biomes, allowing some species to increase their range while others underwent reductions. Recent and ongoing anthropogenic climate change is altering climatic patterns very rapidly and is likely to impact species’ distributions over shorter timescales than previous natural fluctuations. Therefore, we aimed to understand how Pleistocene and Holocene climatic fluctuations might have shaped the current distribution of Holoregmia and explore its expected distribution under future climate scenarios. Material and methods – We modelled the potential distribution of Holoregmia viscida (Martyniaceae), a monospecific plant genus endemic to the semi-arid Caatinga Domain in Brazil. We used an ensemble approach to model suitable areas for Holoregmia under present conditions, Paleoclimatic scenarios, and global warming scenarios in 2050 and 2090. Key results – Holocene climates in most Caatinga were too humid for Holoregmia, which restricted its suitable areas to the southern Caatinga, similar to its current distribution. However, under global warming scenarios, the Caatinga is expected to become too dry for this lineage, resulting in a steady decline in the area suitable for Holoregmia and even its possible extinction under the most pessimistic scenario modelled. Conclusion – The predicted extinction of the ancient and highly specialized Holoregmia viscida highlights the possible consequences of climate change for some species of endemic Caatinga flora. Invaluable phylogenetic diversity may be lost in the coming decades, representing millions of years of unique evolutionary history and consequent loss of evolutionary potential to adapt to future environmental changes in semi-arid environments

Expanding tropical forest monitoring into Dry Forests: The DRYFLOR protocol for permanent plots

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordSocietal Impact Statement Understanding of tropical forests has been revolutionized by monitoring in permanent plots. Data from global plot networks have transformed our knowledge of forests’ diversity, function, contribution to global biogeochemical cycles, and sensitivity to climate change. Monitoring has thus far been concentrated in rain forests. Despite increasing appreciation of their threatened status, biodiversity, and importance to the global carbon cycle, monitoring in tropical dry forests is still in its infancy. We provide a protocol for permanent monitoring plots in tropical dry forests. Expanding monitoring into dry biomes is critical for overcoming the linked challenges of climate change, land use change, and the biodiversity crisis.Newton FundNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São PauloCYTE

Floristic surveys of Restinga Forests in southern Bahia, Brazil, reveal the effects of geography on community composition

The Restinga forests of southern Bahia state, Brazil, grow on sandy coastal Quaternary sediments. As their floras are relatively poorly known, the present study assessed their floristic compositions. We surveyed four sites at Maraú and Itacaré and identified 302 angiosperm species belonging to 184 genera of 75 families. The most species rich families were: Fabaceae (35 species), Myrtaceae (25), Rubiaceae (21), Sapotaceae (13), Bromeliaceae (12), Annonaceae (11), Erythroxylaceae (10), Melastomataceae (9), and Apocynaceae (8). Local floras include elements with distributions restricted to the Atlantic Forest domain, those disjunct between the Amazon and Atlantic Forest domains, and those also occurring in moist forests and dry vegetation of central Brazil. The hypothesis that the floristic compositions of restinga forests are influenced by neighboring wet forests was tested using cluster and principal component analyses of eleven restinga forests and nine Atlantic wet forest sites. The results supported five main groups, with most of them including both restinga forests and their adjacent wet forest sites, thus corroborating the hypothesis that wet forests in geographical proximity greatly influence the floristic compositions of restinga forests

No one-size-fits-all solution to clean GBIF.

Species occurrence records provide the basis for many biodiversity studies. They derive from georeferenced specimens deposited in natural history collections and visual observations, such as those obtained through various mobile applications. Given the rapid increase in availability of such data, the control of quality and accuracy constitutes a particular concern. Automatic filtering is a scalable and reproducible means to identify potentially problematic records and tailor datasets from public databases such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; http://www.gbif.org), for biodiversity analyses. However, it is unclear how much data may be lost by filtering, whether the same filters should be applied across all taxonomic groups, and what the effect of filtering is on common downstream analyses. Here, we evaluate the effect of 13 recently proposed filters on the inference of species richness patterns and automated conservation assessments for 18 Neotropical taxa, including terrestrial and marine animals, fungi, and plants downloaded from GBIF. We find that a total of 44.3% of the records are potentially problematic, with large variation across taxonomic groups (25–90%). A small fraction of records was identified as erroneous in the strict sense (4.2%), and a much larger proportion as unfit for most downstream analyses (41.7%). Filters of duplicated information, collection year, and basis of record, as well as coordinates in urban areas, or for terrestrial taxa in the sea or marine taxa on land, have the greatest effect. Automated filtering can help in identifying problematic records, but requires customization of which tests and thresholds should be applied to the taxonomic group and geographic area under focus. Our results stress the importance of thorough recording and exploration of the meta-data associated with species records for biodiversity research