Plant diversity patterns in neotropical dry forests and their conservation implications

Seasonally dry tropical forests are distributed across Latin America and the Caribbean and are highly threatened, with less than 10% of their original extent remaining in many countries. Using 835 inventories covering 4660 species of woody plants, we show marked floristic turnover among inventories and regions, which may be higher than in other neotropical biomes, such as savanna. Such high floristic turnover indicates that numerous conservation areas across many countries will be needed to protect the full diversity of tropical dry forests. Our results provide a scientific framework within which national decision-makers can contextualize the floristic significance of their dry forest at a regional and continental scale.

• Fecha de publicación: 2016
• Institución: Universidad del Rosario
• Repositorio: Repositorio EdocUR - U. Rosario
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.urosario.edu.co:10336/23275
• Acceso en línea: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf5080; https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/23275
• Palabra clave: Biodiversity; Conservation planning; Dry forest; Floristics; National planning; Neotropical region; Plant community; Savanna; Species diversity; Species inventory; Article; Environmental protection; Neotropical dry forest; Neotropics; Nonhuman; Phylogeny; Priority journal; Rain forest; Savanna; Species diversity; Species endemicity; Species richness; Tropical rain forest; Vegetation; Woody plant; Biodiversity; Caribbean; Decision making; Environmental protection; Forest; Grassland; Procedures; Season; South and central america; Tree; Tropic climate; Wood; Caribbean islands; Latin america; Biodiversity; Caribbean region; Conservation of natural resources; Decision making; Forests; Grassland; Latin america; Seasons; Trees; Tropical climate; Wood
• License: Abierto (Texto Completo)