https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4333-4417
![Sample our Physical Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110819/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Physical-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Background: The forest-savanna habitat switching is thought to have been a recurrent event in evolutionary history. Notwithstanding, the centre of the Cerrado, a large biogeographic domain, may be hypothesised to be a region with historical climatic stability and thus is predicted to contain high richness of cerrado species and the presence of few species from adjacents domains.
Aims: We tested if today’s flora of the north-eastern cerrado (NC), a peripheral province of the domain, demonstrated an observable gradient in their distribution from centre of the Cerrado towards adjacents domains.
Methods: We compiled vegetation survey data for 178 sites in the cerrado of north-eastern Brazil. Distribution patterns of plant taxa were assessed using multivariate techniques.
Results: We recorded 1071 species in 390 genera and 85 families. Almost 40% were monogeneric families and ca. 50% were monospecific genera. The species composition in the NC followed a gradient related to the distance from the centre of the Cerrado towards its periphery.
Conclusions: We show that the NC flora is unique and much richer than previously thought and that it is likely to be an outcome of evolutionary processes and of today’s intermixing of species from adjacent formations.
Acknowledgements
This study represents the end of a 10 year-long project called Northeastern Marginal Cerrados – Biodiversity and Fragmentation of Ecosystems in the Northeastern Marginal Cerrados. This project was developed as part of the Biodiversity Program of the Northeastern Ecotonal Tropic (BioTEN) and sponsored by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) under the Brazilian Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER). We thank all the project members for the commendable field work. We also acknowledge the Conservation and Management of the Biodiversity of the Cerrado Biome (CMBBC; Ratter et al. Citation2011) for providing their floristic database online. The authors thank Espaço da Escrita/Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa/UNICAMP for the language services provided. Finally, we thank the two anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief for their constructive comments that improved the manuscript.
Authors contributions
A. A. J. F. Castro, F. R. Martins and L. T. A. Vieira planned and designed the research. J. M. C. P. Coutinho, S. R. Sousa, R. R. S. Farias and N. M. C. F. Castro conducted the fieldwork and carried out the database along the 10-year project. L. T. A. Vieira analyzed data and wrote the manuscript with F. R. Martins.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary material
The supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Leandro T. A. Vieira
Leandro T. A. Vieira is an ecologist, and his research interests include biogeography and community ecology of Cerrado and Atlantic Forest.
Antonio A. J. F. Castro
Antonio A. J. F. Castro is a botanist interested in Cerrado of Northeastern Brazil.
Joxleide M. C. P. Coutinho
Joxleide M. C. P. Coutinho is a biologist with research on the dynamics of savannas in the Brazilian Middle-North region.
Samara R. de Sousa
Samara R. de Sousa is a biologist with interest in conservation and sustainability of Cerrado.
Ruth R. S. de Farias
Ruth R. S. de Farias is a biologist with interest in conservation and sustainability of Cerrado.
Nívea M. C. F. Castro
Nívea M. C. F. Castro is a biologist with interest in Cerrado of Northeastern Brazil.
Fernando R. Martins
Fernando R. Martins is the group leader of plant ecology, and his research has been focusing on biogeography and community ecology.