SEASONALLY DRY FORESTS OF TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA: FROM FORGOTTEN ECOSYSTEMS TO A NEW PHYTOGEOGRAPHIC UNIT

By Darien E. Prado. 2000

317 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The Pleistocenic Arc, which must have originated from the climatic shifts in South America during the late Pleistocene, ranges from the Caatingas of north-eastern Brazil through south-eastern Brazil to the Paraguay and Parana rivers confluence, into south-western Bolivia and north-western Argentina, and extends sporadically into dry Andean valleys of Peru or coastal western Ecuador. It is regarded as a new phytogeographic unit for South America, here named the Tropical Seasonal Forests Region, as it is characterized by a considerable number of endemic plant taxa at both generic and species level. The paradigm of the arc is the distribution pattern of Anadenanthera colubrina ( Fabaceae ), which, when superimposed on those of other woody species of seasonal forests, permits a reasonably accurate mapping of the new region, which might also have biogeographic implications for endemic bird taxa. The plant communities of this newly recognized unit are unique in their nature and floristic composition, when compared with other floristic areas of the continent by means of classic phytosociological and numerical analyses (PCA). These ecosystems have remained submerged within other vegetation units in South American phytogeography (such as the Chaquenian or Amazonian regions), and have been particularly neglected in conservation policies. An urgent call is made for these areas to be preserved before they disappear, because they are located in areas with some of the best agricultural soils of tropical South America, and therefore subject to clearing for farming.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a06a376b817f80abb64592ee9909f611f9e89cf5

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Citations in the corpus

Neotropical Plant Evolution: Assembling the Big Picture (2013, unknown): “Prado DE. 2000.”
Differentiation between neotropical rainforest, dry forest, and savannah ecosystems by their modern pollen spectra and implications for the fossil pollen record. (2009, unknown): “Changes in the geographic distribution, and floristic and structural characteristics, 8 of Amazonia’s forests since the last glacial period have long been debated (e.g. 9 Colinvaux et al., 2000; Prado, 2000; Haffer and Prance, 2001; Cowling, 2004).”
A catalogue of the vascular plants of the Caatinga Phytogeographical Domain: a synthesis of floristic and phytosociological surveys (2014, background): “, Prado, D.E. & Pendry, C.A. (2000) Neotropical seasonally dry forests and Quaternary vegetation changes.”
Woody Plant Diversity, Evolution, and Ecology in the Tropics: Perspectives from Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (2009, background): “…throughout the neotropics or across the whole of tropical South America (Linares-Palomino et al. 2009), but SDTF may have indeed been more widespread across the more restricted area of northeast Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina (Caetano et al. 2008, Linares-Palomino et al. 2009, Prado 2000).”
A Phytogeographical Metaanalysis of the Semiarid Caatinga Domain in Brazil (2016, background): “Because of this focus on rainforests, other biomes such as semiarid formations were often neglected both from the point of view of conservation strategies and from that of scientific research (Castelletti et al., 2003; Moro et al., 2015a; Prado, 2000; Santos et al., 2011).”
The diversification of eastern South American open vegetation biomes: Historical biogeography and perspectives (2011, background): “…largest areas [also called Nuclei regions by Prado andGibbs (1993)] found in northeastern Brazil (the ‘Caatingas Nucleus’), along the Paraguay-Paraná rivers system (the ‘Misiones Nucleus’), and in southwestern Bolivia and northwestern Argentina (the ‘Subandean Piedmont Nucleus’) (Prado, 2000) (Fig.”
Global legume diversity assessment: Concepts, key indicators, and strategies (2013, background): “…diversity of Fabaceae is extremely high; legumes occur from tropics to arctic zones, from the seashore to alpine habitats, and in rain forests, mangroves, peat swamp forests, seasonal forests, savannas, and deserts (e.g., Prado, 1993; Prado & Gibbs, 1993; Pennington & al., 2000; Prado, 2000).”
The lizard assemblage from Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest enclaves in the Cerrado biome, Brazil, and its association with the Pleistocenic Arc (2006, methodology): “…the Caatingas nucleus in north-eastern Brazil, (2) the Misiones nucleus along the Paraguay-Paraná river, and (3) the ‘Subandean Piedmont nucleus’ in south-western Bolivia and north-western Argentina [for a fuller discussion see Prado & Gibbs (1993), Prado (2000) and Pennington et al. (2000)] (Fig.”