Is there variation in ten woody species reproductive phenology within the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot?

ABSTRACT

Understanding reproductive phenology in tropical and subtropical forests is challenging. Thus, there are scarce large-scale phenological studies for those forests. Digitized herbarium collections can provide valuable information for understanding biological rhythms, e.g. timing of reproduction. Our aim was to verify the geographical variability of flowering and fruiting patterns and the effects of local climate on the reproductive phenology of woody species in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We used herbarium records compiled from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility – GBIF, speciesLink, JABOT, and the “Portal de Datos de Biodiversidad Argentina” as a main source of data to assess differences in reproductive phenology for 10 species with wide geographical distribution in the Atlantic Forest. Contrary to our expectations, we observed a non-seasonal reproductive phenology of all species and relations with temperature in the northern forests and to precipitation in the southern forests. When considered individually, there was no obvious relationship between phenophases and climatic factors. We expected that species occurring in a broad geographic distribution would change their biological rhythms related to local environmental factors, but it is likely that widely distributed species are abundant exactly because they are less dependent on biophysical characteristics of the environment. This is the first study comparing species located in the northern and southern regions of the Atlantic Forest using herbarium data, highlighting its importance to understand large scale ecological rhythms in tropical biomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Flowering
• fruiting
• herbarium records
• large scale phenology
• tropical rainforest

Acknowledgments

VDM would like to thank the Research project (FAPESP Process 2019/19529-8) for the TT-3 scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

VDM, RAFL and KGM conceived and designed the analysis; RAFL collected data; VDM and KGM performed the analysis; VDM, RAFL and KGM wrote and reviewed the paper.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, VDM, upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/23818107.2024.2382137

Additional information

Funding

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP – TT-3 scholarship number 2020/15218-5) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq – Process 309541/2022-0).

Notes on contributors

Vanessa Danielle Magalhães

Vanessa Danielle Magalhães PhD student at University of São Paulo, working with plant extracts with biological effects for the development of biomaterials.

Renato A. Ferreira de Lima

Renato A. Ferreira de Lima PhD in Ecology, Professor at University of São Paulo, working with plant ecology.

Klécia Gili Massi

Klécia Gili Massi PhD in Ecology, Professor at São Paulo State University, working with restoration and conservation.