Plant species diversity in a neotropical wetland: Patterns of similarity, effects of distance, and altitude

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:53:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-01. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2019-10-09T18:29:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 S0001-37652018000100085.pdf: 732201 bytes, checksum: 8b993e8f77ff717514e91f3543ec4728 (MD5) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) The Brazilian Pantanal is an extensive wetland with heterogeneous habitats, primarily due to the riverfloodplain system and plants with differential adaptations and reproductive strategies. Factors such as altitude, distance among plant formations, and flood pulse must be considered to better understand its diversity. Aiming to assess the influence of biogeographic patterns in this system, we analyzed the floristic composition of six areas along the Paraguay River, including residual relieves, verifying the pattern of similarity, and effects of distance and altitude. We recorded 356 species in 87 families, mostly perennial (75%), and some annuals (15%) and pluriannuals (5%). Herbaceous plants were the most represented (48%), followed by arboreal (23%), shrubby (15%) and epiphytic (14%) habits, only 12% being endemic to Brazil. The studied areas showed low floristic similarity, but higher resemblance of species between neighboring areas, and no relation with altitude. The upper Paraguay River is diverse, with high spatial variability of species, predominantly perennial. The river-floodplain connectivity may be a determinant factor in species richness and occurrence of endemic species. Universidade Estadual Paulista/UNESP Instituto de Biociências Departamento de Botânica, Av. 24A, 1515, Bela Vista Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia/INPA Laboratório de Botânica, Av. André Araújo, 2936, Aleixo Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul/UFMS Laboratório de Produtos Naturais e Espectrometria de Massas Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Av. Costa e Silva, 549, Cidade Universitária Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul/UFMS Instituto de Biociências, Av. Costa e Silva, 549, Cidade Universitária Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso Instituto de Ciências Naturais Humanas e Sociais, Av. Alexandre Ferronato, 1200, Cidade Jardim Universidade Estadual Paulista/UNESP Instituto de Biociências Departamento de Botânica, Av. 24A, 1515, Bela Vista CAPES: 308793/2013-7