A Review of Vascular Plant Endemisms in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil
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A review of vascular plant endemisms in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, highlights critical knowledge gaps and urgent need of conservation efforts Author(s): Gustavo HassemerPedro Maria Abreu FerreiraRafael Trevisan Source: The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, 142(1):78-95. Published By: Torrey Botanical Society https://doi.org/10.3159/TORREY-D-14-00033.1 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.3159/TORREY-D-14-00033.1 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. 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Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 142(1), 2015, pp. 78–95 A review of vascular plant endemisms in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, highlights critical knowledge gaps and urgent need of conservation efforts1 Gustavo Hassemer2 Programa de Po´s-graduac¸a˜o em Biologia Vegetal, Centro de Cieˆncias Biolo´gicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Floriano´polis, SC, Brazil Pedro Maria Abreu Ferreira Programa de Po´s-graduac¸a˜o em Botaˆnica, Instituto de Biocieˆncias, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil Rafael Trevisan Departamento de Botaˆnica, Centro de Cieˆncias Biolo´gicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Floriano´polis, SC, Brazil HASSEMER, G. (Programa de Po´s-graduac¸a˜o em Biologia Vegetal, Centro de Cieˆncias Biolo´gicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Floriano´polis, SC, Brazil), P. M. A. FERREIRA (Programa de Po´s- graduac¸a˜o em Botaˆnica, Instituto de Biocieˆncias, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil), AND R. TREVISAN (Departamento de Botaˆnica, Centro de Cieˆncias Biolo´gicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Floriano´polis, SC, Brazil). A review of vascular plant endemisms in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, highlights critical knowledge gaps and urgent need of conservation efforts. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 142: 78–95. 2015.—The State of Santa Catarina, located in southern Brazil, presents great diversity of topography, landscapes and vegetation types. It also harbors a very rich biodiversity, and many species are exclusive to this territory. As a consequence of the destruction of most of its original vegetation, a considerable part of this biodiversity is threatened. This work presents a survey of the vascular flora exclusive to Santa Catarina, based on a thorough literature review. The compilation provides information on the distribution, environments, latest recorded date of collection, and conservation status of these species with bibliographic references. This information has great potential value for biodiversity conservation. More taxonomic and conservation studies are warranted since our results present strong evidence that there are profound knowledge gaps on Neotropical biodiversity, even for allegedly well-studied areas, thwarting the implementation of effective conservation policies. Key words: conservation status, data deficient species, narrow endemism, Neotropics, threatened taxa. Tropical and Neotropical areas present vascular plant species are endemic to recognized impressive biodiversity and encompass widely hotspots, most of these hotspots have less than known hotspots for conservation priorities one third of their original habitats preserved (Myers et al. 2000, Ribeiro et al. 2011). (Brooks et al. 2002). Furthermore, recent work However, many plant species in the tropics are highlights the impact of biodiversity loss on the threatened by habitat loss or degradation, functioning of ecosystems (Hooper et al. 2012, overexploitation, and biological invasions (Sala Mouillot et al. 2013) and on humanity (Cardi- et al. 2000, Miller et al. 2012, Mouillot et al. nale et al. 2012). 2013). Even though nearly half of the world’s Despite conservation efforts by governments and international organizations, the preserva- tion of natural environments is currently 1 The authors thank those who have sent taxo- insufficient in extension and quality to prevent nomic works that contributed to the preparation of the list: Pedro Joel da Silva Filho (UFRGS), Maria biodiversity loss (Rands et al. 2010, Dobro- de Lourdes Abruzzi Araga˜o de Oliveira (FZB-RS) volski et al. 2011). The successful conservation and Erika Werner (Instituto Darwinion). Thanks of rare or endangered species, which are almost are also due to two anonymous reviewers for their always the most threatened (Mouillot et al. valuable help in improving the text of this article. GH also thanks the Coordenac¸a˜o de Aperfeic¸oa- 2013), depends on the effective incorporation of mento de Pessoal de Nı´vel Superior (CAPES) for the political, economic, and biological factors in scholarship granted. management strategies (Schemske et al. 1994, 2 Author for correspondence, E-mail: gustavonaha@ Werff and Consiglio 2004), and on the avail- gmail.com Received for publication April 21, 2014, and in ability of reliable biogeographic information on revised form June 18, 2014. these species (Callmander et al. 2007, Miller 78 2015] HASSEMER ET AL.: VASCULAR PLANT ENDEMISMS IN SANTA CATARINA 79 and Morgan 2011). The lack of comprehensive STUDY AREA. Brazil has the richest flora of lists of species at risk of extinction is one of the any country in the world (Giulietti et al. 2005), greatest impediments to future efforts to ensure with 44,034 plant species currently recognized their survival (Miller et al. 2012). The delinea- (Lista de Espe´cies da Flora do Brasil 2014) tion of priority areas for conservation based on and is also the country with most vascular the number of endemic species has been shown plant species exclusive to its territory (Forzza to be an effective way to maximize the benefits et al. 2012). The area of study of this work is of the conservation efforts (Ferreira and the State of Santa Catarina (SC), which is Boldrini 2011). located in southern Brazil, between the lati- Narrow endemism is a kind of rarity, defined tudes 25u 579 and 29u 219 S, and occupies an by a spatially restricted distribution (Krucke- area of 95.483 km2 (Santa Catarina 1986). berg and Rabinowitz 1985, Cowling 2000, Elevation in SC ranges from sea level to 1827 m Knapp 2002, Ferreira and Boldrini 2011, Wer- asl, and mean temperature is 9.1 uC during neck et al. 2011). However, the concept of winter (with record low of –14u CinCac¸ador) endemism is often used arbitrarily and without and 27.4 uC during summer (with record high standardization (Ferreira and Boldrini 2011, of 44.6 uC in Orleans; CIRAM 2014). The state Werneck et al. 2011). An endemic species is has a wide variety of vegetation types, includ- restricted to a particular area due to historical, ing Atlantic rainforest (dense ombrophilous ecological, and/or physiological reasons (Fer- forest), araucaria forest (mixed ombrophilous reira and Boldrini 2011, Silva 2011, Werneck forest), deciduous seasonal forest, cloud forest, et al. 2011). As suggested by Ferreira and coastal restingas and mangroves, and high- Boldrini (2011), the term ‘‘endemic to’’ should elevation grasslands. Some species occur in be used to indicate the restriction to natural more specialized environments, such as on boundaries, as in ‘‘endemic to Trindade Island’’ rocky outcrops, which are present amidst or ‘‘endemic to high-elevation grasslands’’, and almost all vegetation types in SC, being not for political boundaries that do not coincide particularly frequent in the high-elevation with natural boundaries. In such cases, we grasslands areas, and the rheophytes species, recommend the use of ‘‘exclusive to’’, as in which vegetate in river rapids. This impressive ‘‘exclusive to the State of Santa Catarina’’. environmental variety is mainly the result of its However, a species exclusive to a political area subtropical climate and the wide variation of is still endemic to a narrower natural area elevation within its territory, thus making included within this larger, artificial area. possible a considerable diversification of its Because of this, we can refer to ‘‘endemisms’’ flora, and the development of many specialized as the ensemble of endemic species occurring in species with very restricted distribution, some a given area, be it natural or artificial. In this of which exclusive to its territory. sense, both ‘‘endemic’’ and ‘‘exclusive’’ species The Atlantic rainforest is well known to are restricted to a certain area and do not occur harbor high plant species richness, but other spontaneously (without human cultivation) formations in SC also stand out by their elsewhere. species richness and endemism. Worth men- Endemic species with very restricted distri- tioning are the high-elevation grasslands, a butions (hereafter referred to as ‘endemic’) are vegetation type that under the current climate naturally