Recent Changes in Plant and Animal Distribution in the Southern Extreme of the Paranaense Biogeographical Province (Northeastern
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by El Servicio de Difusión de la Creación Intelectual Rev. Mus. Argentino Cienc. Nat., n.s. 18(1): 9-30, 2016 ISSN 1514-5158 (impresa) ISSN 1853-0400 (en línea) Recent changes in plant and animal distribution in the southern extreme of the Paranaense biogeographical province (northeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina): Ecological responses to climate change? Elián Leandro GUERRERO1 & Federico Lisandro AGNOLIN2, 3 1División Plantas Vasculares Dr. Ángel L. Cabrera, Herbario LP. Museo de La Plata. La Plata, Argentina. [email protected]; 2Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”. Buenos Aires, Argentina; 3Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Antropología, Fundación de Historia Natural “Félix de Azara”, Universidad Maimónides. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Abstract: The Northern region of Buenos Aires province, in Argentina, suffered an uninterrupted increase in rainfall and temperature values during the last decades. The aim of the present contribution is to analyze the ef- fects of such climatic change in the distribution of local flora and fauna. The analysis resulted in the recognition of distributional shifts in a total of 115 species. These changes represented the progressive southern expansion of species typically present in subtropical areas. Because all these changes have a similar orientation and direction, and included a large number of plant and animals with different ecological requirements, it is here postulated that those geographical changes are probably a response to climatic alteration. Key words: Buenos Aires; climate change; riparian forest; species distribution. Resumen: Cambios recientes en la distribución geográfica de plantas y animales en el extremo sur de la provincia biogeográfica Paranaense (noreste de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina): ¿Respuestas ecológicas al cambio climático? La región norte de la provincia de Buenos Aires, en la Argentina, sufrió un incremento ininterrumpido de los valores de precipitación y temperatura durante las últi- mas décadas. El objetivo de esta contribución es analizar los efectos de dicho cambio climático en la distribución de la flora y fauna locales. El análisis resultó en el reconocimiento de corrimientos en la distribución de un total de 115 especies. Estos cambios representaron una expansión progresiva hacia el sur de especies presentes típica- mente en áreas subtropicales. Como todos estos cambios tienen una orientación y dirección similares, e incluyen un gran número de plantas y animales con diferentes requerimientos ecológicos, se postula que estos cambios de distribución geográfica son probablemente una respuesta a la alteración climática. Palabras clave: Buenos Aires; cambio climático; bosques en galería; distribución de especies. _____________ INTRODUCTION of distribution alongside large rivers to the La Plata River latitude (Cabrera, 1971; Figure 2). Buenos Aires province is located in East- From an Ecoregional framework, Burkart et al Central Argentina. It is biogeographically in- (1999) named this complex “Delta and Paraná tegrated within the Pampean biogeographi- Islands Ecoregion”. Riparian rainforest’s plants cal province, of the Chacoan dominion in the belong to the Paranaense biogeographical prov- Chacoan sub-region (Cabrera, 1971; Morrone, ince (Cabrera & Dawson, 1944; Cabrera, 1971) 2014; Figure 1). Most of Buenos Aires prov- whereas coastal-forest plants and animals are ince is characterized by grasslands (locally widespread in Chaco and Paranaense provinces named “pampas”) and Celtis ehrenbergiana xe- (Ringuelet, 1955). Then, in northeastern Buenos rophytic woods (locally named “talares”) both Aires province, Paranaense flora and Subtropical typical of the Pampas biogeographical province fauna intergrades with Pampean biota, forming (Morrone, 2014). However, subtropical gallery an ecotone (the “subtropical-pampásico” ecotone rainforests and coastal forests from northeast- sensu Ringuelet, 1961, 1981). ern Argentina have their southernmost limit Climatic change is largely known to affect 10 Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, n. s. 18(1), 2016 Fig. 1: Map of northeastern Argentina and bordering Fig. 2: Physical features of the study area and sites countries. A: Biogeographical units. In grey = mentioned in the text. Paraná River floodplain (Delta and Paraná Islands ecorregion of Burkart et al., 1999); Dotted = Pampa Biogeographical province sensu Morrone (2014). B: first, to show that geographical changes in spe- Political division. Argentinean provinces mentioned cies are not isolated and that there is a common in the main-text: MI = Misiones; FOR = Formosa; tendency to extend the southern limit of sub- CORR = Corrientes; S. FE = Santa Fe; CORD = tropical plant and animal species; and second: Córdoba; E.R. = Entre Ríos; B.A. = Buenos Aires. to examine if the observed shifts on animal and plant species distribution could be attributed to plant and animal distribution, having diverse climatic change. effects on biotic communities and ecosystems (McCarty, 2001; Walther et al., 2002; Parmesan, MATERIALS AND METHODS 2006; Walther, 2010). Climatological studies in Argentina show that during the 20th century, Geographical settings Buenos Aires province suffered an uninterrupted We analyzed the northeastern sector of increase in precipitation and temperature values Buenos Aires province, where Paranaense ri- (Berbery et al., 2006; Menéndez, 2006; Servicio parian forests have their southernmost patches Meteorológico Nacional, 2015; Barros et al., along the coast of the Lower Paraná and La Plata 2015). Having in mind such large-scale climat- rivers (Figure 2). We restricted our research to ic change, a poleward shift in the geographical this area because it was largely considered as the distribution of plant and animal communities is best known region in Argentina from a biological expected. viewpoint, and because it was the focus of study In spite of that, an integrative study about the of several researchers during the 19th and 20th impacts of recent climate change on Argentinean centuries. Consequently, large biological collec- ecosystems is still lacking. Studies about changes tions are available from this area since historical in species geographical distribution related to cli- times. This allows comparison between old and matic variation were mainly conducted in mam- recent collections. We did not include central and mals (e.g. Udrizar Sauthier et al., 2005; Fracassi southern Buenos Aires province, even though et al., 2010), medically important snakes (Nori some recent cases of shifts on animal species et al., 2013), insects (Farina, 2006; Medone et distributions were probably caused by climate al., 2015), and arachnids (Guerrero, 2014a). change (e.g. Zamorano & Scillato-Yané, 2008; Furthermore, there is a single phenological study Doumecq-Milieu et al., 2012). This is because of changes in arriving times of a migratory swal- those areas were poorly sampled by researchers low (Spescha et al., 2004). Nevertheless, each in historical times. one of these works focus on single species or on a From north to southeast, Pergamino, San small taxonomic group of animals. On the other Nicolás, Ramallo, San Pedro, Baradero, Zárate, hand, plant species range shifts deserved almost Campana, Pilar, Zelaya, Tigre and San Isidro no attention. The aim of this paper is twofold: districts, together with Martín García Island Guerrero & Agnolin: Recent changes in plant and animal distribution 11 encompasse the northern boundary of Buenos seums (Acosta, 2014). Therefore, we infer that Aires province, including Paraná’s Delta and knowledge of haverstmen in this area is relative- slope talares; from Buenos Aires City to the ly good. Furthermore, in this part of the prov- southeast are located the districts of Avellaneda, ince several harvestmen that distribute along Quilmes, Berazategui, Ensenada, La Plata, the Argentinean Mesopotamia (the geographical Berisso, Magdalena and Punta Indio; Punta Lara area encompassed between Paraná and Uruguay Natural Reserve is placed between Berazategui rivers) have their southern limit of geographical and Ensenada districts, and Parque Costero del distribution (Ringuelet, 1959; Acosta, 2002). On Sur Natural Reserve in Magdalena and Punta the contrary, because the Araneae are not well Indio districts. studied on a zoogeographical point of view, only a brief analysis of two well-studied genera is Taxon selection added. Analyzed taxa were chosen under two main Lepidoptera distribution. Lepidoptera species criteria. Firstly, we selected relatively well-stud- were shown to be very useful in climatic change ied species from the biogeographical point of view. studies, with many responses to that phenom- On the other hand, we analyzed if a comparison enon (Kocsis & Hufnagel, 2011). During the last between old and recent researches was possible. decade, butterfly communities in northeastern Consequently, we analyzed selected vascular Buenos Aires province were analyzed in detail plants, harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones), spi- in some sparse localities (Núñez Bustos, 2007, ders (Arachnida, Araneae), Rhopalocera butter- 2008, 2009; Núñez Bustos et al., 2013). However, flies (Insecta, Lepidoptera), and some vertebrates, well-sampled old lepidopteran collections were including birds (Aves), chelonians (Testudines), made by researchers by late 19th