Predicting Extinction Risk of Brazilian Atlantic Forest Angiosperms |
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Authors: | TARCISO C C LEÃO CARLOS R FONSECA CARLOS A PERES MARCELO TABARELLI |
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Institution: | 1. Departamento de Botanica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, , Recife, PE, 50670–901 Brazil;2. Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, , St. Paul, MN, 55108 U.S.A.;3. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, , Natal, RN, 59072–970 Brazil;4. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, , Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom |
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Abstract: | Understanding how plant life history affects species vulnerability to anthropogenic disturbances and environmental change is a major ecological challenge. We examined how vegetation type, growth form, and geographic range size relate to extinction risk throughout the Brazilian Atlantic Forest domain. We used a database containing species‐level information of 6,929 angiosperms within 112 families and a molecular‐based working phylogeny. We used decision trees, standard regression, and phylogenetic regression to explore the relationships between species attributes and extinction risk. We found a significant phylogenetic signal in extinction risk. Vegetation type, growth form, and geographic range size were related to species extinction risk, but the effect of growth form was not evident after phylogeny was controlled for. Species restricted to either rocky outcrops or scrub vegetation on sandy coastal plains exhibited the highest extinction risk among vegetation types, a finding that supports the hypothesis that species adapted to resource‐limited environments are more vulnerable to extinction. Among growth forms, epiphytes were associated with the highest extinction risk in non‐phylogenetic regression models, followed by trees, whereas shrubs and climbers were associated with lower extinction risk. However, the higher extinction risk of epiphytes was not significant after correcting for phylogenetic relatedness. Our findings provide new indicators of extinction risk and insights into the mechanisms governing plant vulnerability to extinction in a highly diverse flora where human disturbances are both frequent and widespread. Predicción del Riesgo de Extinción de Angiospermas del Bosque Atlántico Brasileño |
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Keywords: | comparative method geographic range size growth form plant traits tropical flora vegetation types vulnerability Flora tropical forma de crecimiento mé todo comparativo rasgos vegetales tamañ o de rango geográ fico tipos de vegetació n vulnerabilidad |
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