Vegetation suitability and rarities in the conservation of Patagonian gymnosperms.

QUIROGA MP; C. P. SOUTO

Congreso; II Meeting of Systematics, Biogeography, and Evolution; 2021

Biodiversity hotspots of the planet harbor 77% of all endemic plant species, havehigh levels of species richness, endemism and threats. High species diversity in thesehotspots is often attributed to an accumulation of narrow-ranged species via highspeciation rates and/or preservation of species over time, via low extinction rates, insuch a way that often host ancient and young species. Patagonian Temperate Forest(PTF) is a biodiversity hotspot, but over the past centuries, has been over-exploited,fragmented and replaced with exotic species plantations, lately also threatened byclimate change. Also, many of its species are considered as rarities, included in theIUCN red list, therefore, conservation actions are in need. We studied nine gymnospermspecies endemics to the PTF. Our aim is to better understand patterns of niche overlapof key dominant elements of the forest, complementing traditional approaches tobiodiversity conservation. Combining vegetation data bases, we extracted 3024occurrence data, we deployed ecological niche models, and classified species accordingto Rabinowitz?s type of rarity. We then compared the extent and overlap of their niches,and considered types of rarity in a spatial ecological context. Finally, we overlappedENM and protected areas. We generated ENMs for 9 Patagonian gymnosperms andfound that most niches overlap, and only one species displayed a unique niche.Surprisingly, we found that three species have divergent suitability of habitats across thelandscape. We showed that the rarer a species is the smaller niche volume tend to have,and that there are two unprotected suitable areas for key species of the PTF. Weobserved that protected areas are needed in Chile, in the northern-central coast toconserve gymnosperms? niches in the PTF. Our approach of overlapping habitatsuitability of multiple species, and types of rarity highlight that there are conservationgaps in the PTF. Suggesting that integrating ENM, niche overlap and estimation oflevels of rarity, can be a handy tool to identify potential areas for conservation planningof biodiversity hotspots