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Euphorbiaceae responses to chronic anthropogenic disturbances in Caatinga vegetation: from species proliferation to biotic homogenization

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Abstract

Chronic anthropogenic disturbances (CAD) have posed tangible threats to biodiversity-relevant tropical biotas, but community- and ecosystem-level impacts still remain poorly understood. Here we address a 152 km2 Caatinga landscape in northeast Brazil in order to investigate how Euphorbiaceae species and these seasonally dry tropical plant assemblages respond to a CAD gradient. Woody plant species were recorded across 26 0.06 ha spatially independent plots exposed to CAD. Euphorbiaceae species accounted for 78.9% of all plants and 21.5% of all species, with some species reaching up to 283 individuals per 0.06 ha or 92% of all recorded plants. Despite such contributions, Euphorbiaceae total and relative abundance, as well as total and relative richness, did not correlate with disturbance intensity at plot scale. At species level, some Euphorbiaceae species responded positively to disturbance, while others declined or did not exhibit a consistence response (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral responses). CAD intensity affected patterns of community similarity considering the whole plant assemblage as follow: first, plot-level disturbance correlated positively with NMDS scores; second, C. sonderianus experienced a 100% increment in terms of relative abundance along the disturbance gradient, and its plot-level abundance correlated positivity with NMDS scores; and finally, cross-plot similarity correlated positively with cross-plot geographical distance. Among others, our results suggest that CAD may favor some particular species (i.e., proliferating taxa), leading to community-level changes, including biotic homogenization as disturbance increases.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE; process 04-2.05/08) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; process 772902009-4). K.F. Rito thanks CNPq for a master scholarship and MT and IRL for productivity grants. We would like to thank the Estação de Agricultura Irrigada de Parnamirim (UFRPE) for the use of their infrastructure, Centro de Pesquisas Ambientais do Nordeste (CEPAN) for logistical support and the landowners for giving us the permission to work on their properties. We would also like to thank L.C. Leal, G. Burle, and J.D. Ribeiro Neto for their help with field work.

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  1. Kátia F. Rito

    Present address: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Patzcuaro No. 8701, Ex-Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

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  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, Recife, PE, 50690-901, Brazil

    Kátia F. Rito

  2. Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, Recife, PE, 50690-901, Brazil

    Marcelo Tabarelli & Inara R. Leal

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Rito, K.F., Tabarelli, M. & Leal, I.R. Euphorbiaceae responses to chronic anthropogenic disturbances in Caatinga vegetation: from species proliferation to biotic homogenization. Plant Ecol 218, 749–759 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-017-0726-x

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