Biogeography and conservation of Amazon palms

Abstract

Palms are abundant in tropical forests and are recognized as effective bioindicators of hot climates. Moreover, play an important ecological and economic role for local populations. Though palms remain relatively well-conserved, they are under increasing pressure from deforestation. Therefore, endemicity is important for the delimitation of conservation areas. The purposes of the study is 1) to synthesize available information in the literature on species diversity, ecological aspects, use and conservation of Amazon palms (Chapter 1); to analyse palms species richness patterns relative to the latitudinal gradient, sample efforts, and deforestation in the Amazon region (Chapter 2); to compare richness and floristic similarities patterns among the Amazonian sub-regions (Chapter 2); to detect endemic areas for palms in the Amazon region (Chapter 3); and to determine whether the species that define these endemic areas are protected within conservation units (Chapter 3). Records of occurrences were extracted from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The final dataset consisted of 17,310 records, for 177 species of Amazonian palms. The areas with the greatest richness were in the western, central and northeastern Amazon, principally at latitudes 0–5ºS. Most palms species grow in different habitats, but the highest species richness are found in terra firme forest. Palms are widely used with different category of use according to the regions and species, principally are used for human consumption, elaboration of utensils and tools, and construction of houses. Highest rates of deforestation (>2000 km2) were found in the southern and eastern brazilian Amazon, which coincide with low species richness and gaps in records. Similarity analysis resulted in two groups of sub-regions: the first included the Amazon s.s., Andes and Guiana, and the other group included the Plateau and Gurupi sub-region. The combination of PAE and NDM-VNDM analyses resulted in eight endemic palm areas in western Amazon shared with Andean sub-region. Of the species that define the endemic areas, five are threatened with extinction in one of three IUCN categories (EN, VU, NT), and they are not protected in any conservation units. In conclusion, the western Amazon, besides having high palm richness, also has palm endemic areas, especially, near the Andean sub-region and the Peruvian Amazon, and areas with low species richness, especially those areas with data deficiency, need to be further researched for a better knowledge of their diversity and richness patterns.