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Fern and lycophyte communities at contrasting altitudes in Brazil’s subtropical Atlantic Rain Forest

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Abstract

Ferns and lycophytes are a species-rich group in Brazil’s Atlantic Rain Forest, but studies on richness and diversity patterns on a regional scope are scarce. We investigated communities at different altitudinal belts in the Atlantic Rain Forest in southern Brazil, spanning from lowland and submontane to montane and upper montane forest formations. We tested the hypotheses that each forest formation differed in its fern and lycophyte community composition and that species richness peaked in montane forests. Species composition, from the ground level to the phorophyte canopy, was studied at five sites per belt (together 120 plots of 10 × 10 m). Species were according to substrate types (epiphytic, rupicolous and terrestrial species). Analyses were conducted for the entire species set, and for the epiphytic, terrestrial and rupicolous component separately. We found a total of 139 species of ferns and lycophytes, of which Polypodiaceae was the family with the highest species number. Overall composition differed among altitudes and for the three substrate types. Richness was highest in the montane and upper montane formations. The study indicated the presence both of species with high habitat specificity and of species with broad ecological amplitude along the gradient. Altogether, our study reduces the lack of information ferns and lycophytes communities at a regional scale and confirms the high diversity of this group for biodiversity in the Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by FAPERGS (grant 1960-2551/13- 8 to GEO). PGW and GEO acknowledge CNPq fellowships and MHN a PhD scholarship by CAPES. Special thanks go to the Boff family, the Nervo family and Dr. Cristiano Roberto Buzatto for their support. We thank Sandra Cristina Müller, Jorge Luiz Waechter and Blanca León for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Botânica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Michelle Helena Nervo, Paulo Günter Windisch & Gerhard Ernst Overbeck

  2. Curso de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Frederico Velho da Silva Coelho

  3. Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Gerhard Ernst Overbeck

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  1. Michelle Helena Nervo
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  2. Frederico Velho da Silva Coelho
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  3. Paulo Günter Windisch
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Correspondence to Michelle Helena Nervo.

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Nervo, M.H., da Silva Coelho, F.V., Windisch, P.G. et al. Fern and lycophyte communities at contrasting altitudes in Brazil’s subtropical Atlantic Rain Forest. Folia Geobot 51, 305–317 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9253-0

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