The cataloging of the vascular plants of the Americas has a centuries-long history, but it is only in recent decades that an overview of the entire flora has become possible. We present an integrated ...assessment of all known native species of vascular plants in the Americas. Twelve regional and national checklists, prepared over the past 25 years and including two large ongoing flora projects, were merged into a single list. Our publicly searchable checklist includes 124,993 species, 6227 genera, and 355 families, which correspond to 33% of the 383,671 vascular plant species known worldwide. In the past 25 years, the rate at which new species descriptions are added has averaged 744 annually for the Americas, and we can expect the total to reach about 150,000.
Aim
The climate variability hypothesis (CVH) predicts that locations with reduced seasonal temperature variation select for species with narrower thermal ranges. Here we (a) test the CVH by assessing ...the effect of latitude and elevation on the thermal ranges of Andean vascular plant species and communities, and (b) assess tropical alpine plants vulnerability to warming based on their thermal traits.
Location
High tropical Andes.
Taxon
Vascular plants.
Methods
Temperature data for 505 vascular plant species from alpine communities on 49 summits, were extracted from 29,627 georeferenced occurrences. Species thermal niche traits (TNTs) were estimated using bootstrapping for: minimum temperature, optimum (mean) temperature and breadth (maximum‐minimum). Plant community‐weighted scores were estimated using the TNTs of their constituent species. CVH was tested for species, biogeographical species groups and communities. Vulnerability to global warming was assessed for species, biogeographical species groups and communities.
Results
Species restricted to the equator showed narrower thermal niche breadth than species whose ranges stretch far from the equator, however, no difference in niche breadth was found across summits’ elevation. Biogeographical species groups distributed close to the equator and restricted to alpine regions showed narrower niche breadth than those with broader ranges. Community‐weighted scores of thermal niche breadth were positively related to distance from equator but not to elevation. Based on their TNTs, species restricted to equatorial latitudes and plant communities dominated by these species were identified as the most vulnerable to the projected 1.5°C warming, due to a potentially higher risk of losing thermal niche space.
Main conclusions
Our study confirms that the CVH applies to high tropical Andean plant species and communities, where latitude has a strong effect on the thermal niche breadth. TNTs are identified as suitable indicators of species’ vulnerability to warming and are suggested to be included in long‐term biodiversity monitoring in the Andes.
We compare the numbers of vascular plant species in the three major tropical areas. The Afrotropical Region (Africa south of the Sahara Desert plus Madagascar), roughly equal in size to the Latin ...American Region (Mexico southward), has only 56,451 recorded species (about 170 being added annually), as compared with 118,308 recorded species (about 750 being added annually) in Latin America. Southeast Asia, only a quarter the size of the other two tropical areas, has approximately 50,000 recorded species, with an average of 364 being added annually. Thus, Tropical Asia is likely to be proportionately richest in plant diversity, and for biodiversity in general, for its size. In the animal groups we reviewed, the patterns of species diversity were mostly similar except for mammals and butterflies. Judged from these relationships, Latin America may be home to at least a third of global biodiversity.
BIOGEOGRAPHIC BARRIERS IN THE ANDES Quintana, Catalina; Pennington, R. Toby; Ulloa, Carmen Ulloa ...
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
11/2017, Volume:
102, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We investigate whether the Amotape–Huancabamba zone in the Andes acts as a barrier or corridor for plant species migration. We test this hypothesis based on data on trees, shrubs, and herbs collected ...in dry inter-Andean valleys (DIAVs) of Ecuador. We found that 72% of the species cross the Amotape–Huancabamba zone in a north–south direction and 13% of the species cross the Andes in an east–west direction. Southern DIAVs concentrate the highest numbers of endemic species. At the regional level we found that 43% of the species are exclusively Andean, while the remaining 57% are found in the Pacific lowlands, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. These results showing many species crossing the Amotape–Huancabamba zone in a north–south direction and also frequently found in neighboring lowland and highland ecosystems suggest that the Amotape–Huancabamba zone acts as a corridor for species migration of dry inter-Andean flora.
Human impacts outpace natural processes in the Amazon Albert, James S; Carnaval, Ana C; Flantua, Suzette G A ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2023, Volume:
379, Issue:
6630
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Amazonian environments are being degraded by modern industrial and agricultural activities at a pace far above anything previously known, imperiling its vast biodiversity reserves and globally ...important ecosystem services. The most substantial threats come from regional deforestation, because of export market demands, and global climate change. The Amazon is currently perched to transition rapidly from a largely forested to a nonforested landscape. These changes are happening much too rapidly for Amazonian species, peoples, and ecosystems to respond adaptively. Policies to prevent the worst outcomes are known and must be enacted immediately. We now need political will and leadership to act on this information. To fail the Amazon is to fail the biosphere, and we fail to act at our peril.
In Memoriam: James L. Zarucchi (1952–2019) Ulloa Ulloa, Carmen; Charron, Tammy; Kuhl, Jennifer
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
09/2019, Volume:
104, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Trees of Amazonian Ecuador Andino, Juan Ernesto Guevara; Pitman, Nigel C. A.; Ulloaulloa, Carmen ...
Ecology,
12/2019, Volume:
100, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We compiled a data set for all tree species collected to date in lowland Amazonian Ecuador in order to determine the number of tree species in the region. This data set has been extensively verified ...by taxonomists and is the most comprehensive attempt to evaluate the tree diversity in one of the richest species regions of the Amazon. We used four main sources of data: mounted specimens deposited in Ecuadorian herbaria only, specimen records of a large‐scale 1‐hectare‐plot network (60 plots in total), data from the Missouri Botanical Garden Tropicos® database (MO), and literature sources. The list of 2,296 tree species names we provide in this data set is based on 47,486 herbarium records deposited in the following herbaria: Alfredo Paredes Herbarium (QAP), Catholic University Herbarium (QCA), Herbario Nacional del Ecuador (QCNE), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO), and records from an extensive sampling of 29,768 individuals with diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥10 cm recorded in our plot network. We also provide data for the relative abundance of species, geographic coordinates of specimens deposited in major herbaria around the world, whether the species is native or endemic, current hypothesis of geographic distribution, representative collections, and IUCN threat category for every species recorded to date in Amazonian Ecuador. These data are described in Metadata S1 and can be used for macroecological, evolutionary, or taxonomic studies. There are no copyright restrictions; data are freely available for noncommercial scientific use (CC BY 3.0). Please see Metadata S1 (Class III, Section B.1: Proprietary restrictions) for additional information on usage.
ABSTRACT Amazonia (defined herein as the Amazon basin) is home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on Earth, providing unique genetic resources and ecological functions that contribute to ...ecosystem services globally. The lengthy and complex evolutionary history of this region has produced heterogeneous landscapes and riverscapes at multiple scales, altered the geographic and genetic connections among populations, and impacted rates of adaptation, speciation, and extinction. In turn, ecologically diverse Amazonian biotas promoted further diversification, species coexistence, and coevolution, with biodiversity accumulating over tens of millions of years. Important events in Amazonian history included: (i) late Cretaceous and early Paleogene origin of major rainforest plant and animal groups; (ii) Eocene-Oligocene global cooling with rainforests contracting to tropical latitudes separating Atlantic coastal and Amazonian rainforests; (iii) Miocene uplift of central and northern Andes that separated Pacific coastal and Amazonian rainforests, spurred formation of mega-wetlands in the western Amazon, and contributed to the origin of the modern transcontinental Amazon River; (iv) late Neogene formation of the Panamanian Isthmus that facilitated the Great American Biotic Interchange; (v) Pleistocene climate oscillations followed by late Pleistocene-Holocene human colonization and megafaunal extinctions; and (vi) modern era of widespread anthropogenic deforestation, defaunation, and ecological transformations of regional landscapes and global climates. Amazonian conservation requires decade-scale investments into biodiversity documentation and monitoring to leverage existing scientific capacity, and strategic habitat planning to allow continuity of evolutionary and ecological processes now and into the future.
RESUMEN La Amazonía (definida como la cuenca amazónica) concentra la mayor biodiversidad de la Tierra, proporcionando recursos genéticos y funciones ecológicas únicas que contribuyen a los servicios ecosistémicos a nivel mundial. La compleja historia evolutiva de esta región produjo paisajes heterogéneos a múltiples escalas geográficas, alteró las conexiones geográficas y genéticas entre las poblaciones e influyó en las tasas de adaptación, especiación y extinción. Las biotas amazónicas, ecológicamente diversas, promovieron una mayor diversificación, coexistencia de especies y coevolución, acumulando biodiversidad a lo largo de decenas de millones de años. Acontecimientos importantes en la historia de la Amazonía incluyeron: (i) orígenes durante el Cretácico tardío y el Paleógeno temprano de los principales grupos de plantas y animales; (ii) enfriamiento global del Eoceno-Oligoceno, contrayendo los bosques a latitudes tropicales y separando los de la costa Atlántica de los amazónicos; (iii) levantamiento de los Andes centrales y del norte en el Mioceno, separando las selvas tropicales de la costa del Pacífico y de la Amazonía, estimulando la formación de megahumedales en la Amazonía occidental y contribuyendo al origen del moderno Río Amazonas transcontinental; (iv) formación del istmo de Panamá durante el Neógeno tardío, facilitando el Gran Intercambio Biótico Americano; (v) oscilaciones climáticas del Pleistoceno seguidas por la colonización humana y las extinciones de megafauna; (vi) era moderna de deforestación antropogénica generalizada, defaunación y transformaciones ecológicas de paisajes regionales y climas globales. La conservación de la Amazonía requiere inversiones por décadas en la documentación y el seguimiento de la biodiversidad para impulsar la capacidad científica existente, así como la planificación estratégica del hábitat para permitir la continuidad de los actuales y futuros procesos evolutivos y ecológicos.
The Committee on Institutional Votes was established at the XIX International Botanical Congress (IBC), in Shenzhen in 2017, with the mandate to maintain a list of institutions and their allocated ...votes for the upcoming IBC, the next of which will be the XX IBC in Madrid in July 2024. Institutions worldwide were informed of the mechanism to apply for one or more institutional votes or to request a change in previously allocated votes. Forty applications were received by the Committee, of which 28 were from institutions new to the list, 9 requested an increase in allocated votes and 3 requested no change to allocated votes. All requests were accepted, two of them partly so. Adjustments were also made for two institutions that had been closed or transferred. The Committee sent a draft of this report together with the revised list for Madrid to the General Committee for final approval, as required by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. The General Committee approved the list, which is now presented here. The total number of institutions on the list is 572; the total number of institutional votes that could potentially be exercised is 970. Only 30.4% of institutions exercised their votes in Shenzhen in 2017. Institutions are urged to exercise their votes in Madrid in 2024, and instructions for this are provided.
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