Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Humberto Nóbrega (humberto_nobrega@yahoo.com)
Academic editor: Gianniantonio Domina
Received: 24 Nov 2020 | Accepted: 07 Jan 2021 | Published: 18 Feb 2021
© 2021 Humberto Nóbrega, Gregório Freitas, M. A. Zavattieri, Carla Ragonezi, Miguel Pinheiro de Carvalho
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Nóbrega H, Freitas G, Zavattieri MA, Ragonezi C, Pinheiro de Carvalho MÂA (2021) Structure and floristic composition associated with an endangered species Beta patula Aiton (Amaranthaceae) in the Islands of Madeira Archipelago. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e61091. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e61091
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Twenty-two native Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) occur in specific dry environments of Madeira Archipelago, like Desembarcadouro islet in Ponta de São Lourenço and Chão islet in Desertas Islands. Nine of them share the same gene pool with crop species included in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Amongst them, Beta patula Aiton, an IUCN Critically Endangered species, has been studied in detail for in situ and ex situ conservation. The present paper summarises the information recorded during the Beta patula population assessment. Valuable information on plant communities associated with this species was obtained.
The data provides information of a vegetation census spanning 7 years, from 2014 to 2020, in two uninhabited islets where Beta patula occurs, Desembarcadouro and Chão islets. The collected dataset consists of 1,786 vegetation descriptions, where 31 species were recorded. All generated data have been published and will be used towards the implementation of conservation actions and to establish a middle term management protocol for Beta patula and other CWR in situ conservation in the framework of a genetic reserve. This work is part of a EU LIFE Project, LIFE RECOVER NATURA and was conducted by members of the ISOPlexis Center, University of Madeira.
associated communities, crop wild relative, floristic survey, Macaronesian endemism
Beta patula has been classified as a Critically Endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the Red List of Threatened Species (
Amongst these sites are the Chão islet, included in the Desertas Islands (Natura 2000 site PTDES0001) and the Desembarcadouro islet, part of the Ponta de São Lourenço Peninsula (Natura 2000 site PTMAD0003). The habitat type classification of Desembarcadouro islet and Desertas Islands belongs to: a) vegetated sea cliffs with endemic flora from Macaronesian coast (EUNIS code 1250) and b) thermo-Mediterranean and pre-desert shrub (EUNIS code 5330) (EUNIS, European Nature Information System) (source: http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/sites/PTMAD0003; https://eunis.eea.europa.eu/sites/PTDES0001). Both ecosystems are of extreme importance, according to the Habitats Directive (Fig.
General aspects of the studied habitats. The Chão islet has a flat plateau format arising from the sea (a and b); Desembarcadouro islet has an irregular terrain and a strong influence from North trade winds in its habitat.
Although Beta patula occurs in protected islets, it is threatened by introduced animals, particularly by rabbits and seagull populations, possibly causing a severe fragmentation of the population and a continuous decline in the extent and quality of its habitat. Therefore, there was a need for the development and implementation of a species action plan and a special site management plan (
This work condenses the results of a 7 year floristic study of all species associated with B. patula. The floristics analysis is still ongoing and it will continue, thus contributing to the permanent monitoring that aims to determine any signs of change in the diversity of these sites, due to climate change, animal pressure or any other interference in habitat that may affect diversity and long-term conservation of the endangered B. patula and other important endemisms in its distribution areas.
The LIFE RECOVER NATURA - Beta patula population assessment consisted in the use of previous information obtained during AEGRO project to monitor the populations dynamics and validate the established species baseline with the ultimate goal of implementing a genetic reserve and its management plan. With this work, it was also possible to make a vegetation classification, species trend analysis, distribution maps of plant communities and Natura 2000 habitat types for the occurrence areas of Beta patula (Suppl. material
LIFE RECOVER NATURA - LIFE12 NAT / PT / 000195
Humberto Nóbrega, Gregório Freitas and Miguel Ângelo Almeida Pinheiro de Carvalho.
The study area comprises two Nature 2000 sites located at the Madeira Archipelago, Portugal. The Chão islet, included in the Desertas Islands (PTDES0001) and the Desembarcadouro islet, a part of the Ponta de São Lourenço Peninsula (PTMAD0003). Both ecosystems are of extreme importance, with reference to the Habitats Directive 1250 - Scarps with endemic flora from Macaronesian Coastlines and 5330 - Pre Desertic thermo-mediterranean Shrubland.
The objective of Action A6 was to determine occurrence areas and effective population size for the endangered and endemic Beta patula Aiton species. This action was part of a LIFE Project entitled LIFE RECOVER NATURA – Recovery of the species and land habitats of the Natura 2000 sites of Ponta de São Lourenço and Desertas Islands.
This Project was funded by the EU LIFE Programme
To collect the floristic data, 15 areas were selected, taking into consideration that these areas are within the Beta patula distribution range and have a good resolution for herbaceous and small bush plants, being that the floristic composition falls in such criteria (Fig.
Location of the 15 quadrants established for species survey, sampling and monitoring. Sampling sites DI1 to DI12 correspond to the Desembarcadouro islet and CI1 to CI3 are indicated for the Chão islets. Soil types in the Desembarcadouro islet are described. No information exists on the soil types for Chão islet. On both islets, the colours attributed to the circles for each sampling site correspond to a mean density of B. patula plants (plants X square metre).
The 16 m2 plots were set up at a minimum distance from each other of approximately 50 m. Final specimen counts represent the average results of two separate counts per site. If both counts were significantly different, a re-count was made. Each sampling plot was also marked with a coloured steel rod and geographic coordinates were taken with the help of a Global Positioning System (GPS) to facilitate the identification and retrieval of the plots for future monitoring. The target species B. patula and other beet CWR were particularly marked, as well as the Madeiran and Macaronesian endemisms. The species occurrence, floristic composition and structure were studied. The floristic composition of DI and CI sites are similar, due to geographic proximity and similar climate and soil conditions. Plant species were grouped in 13 families. Thirty-one distinct plant species were recorded during the study; 25 species were found in DI and 12 in CI. Five of these species, excluding the target species, B. patula, were common to both sites and recorded in occupancy areas, namely Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L., Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum L., Suaeda vera Forssk. ex J.F. Gmel, Spergula fallax (Lowe) E.H.L. Krause and Crepis divaricata (Lowe) F.W. Schultz. The species were also classified as introduced or probably introduced (three taxa) and native or probably native (19 taxa). Amongst the endemic species, nine taxa were present. Of those, five taxa are endemic to Madeira Islands and four taxa are endemic to the Macaronesia Region (Suppl. material
The tree map analyses the floristic composition and structure of the habitats where Beta patula occurs. Fig.
Tree map representation for Desembarcadouro and Chão islets for the number of occurrences for each species during the time period between 2014 and 2020. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is the predominant species on both islets, while Beta patula is the most dominant of the endemic species.
Fig.
Tree map representation for Desembarcadouro and Chão islets of the total number of species present in each family for the time period between 2014 to 2020. The two most dominant families are Aizoaceae and Amaranthaceae in both islets. The Amaranthaceae family dominates in Desembarcadouro islet and the Aizoaceae dominates in the Chão islet.
The general coverage area comprises two islets that are part of the Madeira Archipelago, Portugal. The Desembarcadouro islet is located on the eastern peninsula of Madeira Island (Ponta de São Lourenço) and the Chão islet is one of the three islets that compose the Desertas Islands.
32°34'30''N and 32°44'27.6''N Latitude; 16°40'44.4''W and 16°32'20.4''W Longitude.
The floristic composition of Desembarcadouro islet (DI) and Chão islet (CI) both Macaronesian sites, have similarities, due to their geographic proximity and similarity of soil composition and climate conditions. The flora composition of Desembarcadouro islet is part of the Mayteno umbellatae-Oleion maderensis Vegetation Series Complex (
Rank | Scientific Name | Common Name |
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kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
phylum | Tracheophyta | |
class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons |
class | Liliopsida | Monocotyledons |
order | Asparagales | |
order | Asterales | |
order | Brassicales | |
order | Caryophyllales | |
order | Fabales | |
order | Lamiales | |
order | Malpighiales | |
order | Malvales | |
order | Poales | |
family | Aizoaceae | |
family | Amaranthaceae | |
family | Asteraceae | |
family | Brassicaceae | |
family | Caryophyllaceae | |
family | Euphorbiaceae | |
family | Fabaceae | |
family | Frankeniaceae | |
family | Malvaceae | |
family | Plantaginaceae | |
family | Poaceae | |
family | Polygonaceae | |
family | Xanthorrhoeaceae |
Column label | Column description |
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id | Unique ID for each occurrence record. |
type | Type of the record, as defined by the Public Core standard. |
language | The language used in the observation details. |
licence | Reference to the licence under which the record is published. |
rightsHolder | The rights holder to whom the data belong. |
datasetID | A unique identifier to this dataset. |
institutionID | The identity of the institution publishing the data. |
ownerInstitutionCode | The code of the institution who owns publishing data rights |
institutionCode | The code of the institution publishing the data. |
datasetName | The name of this dataset. |
parentEventID | An identifier for the broader Event that groups this and potentially other Events. |
eventID | Identifier of the events, unique for the dataset. |
samplingProtocol | The sampling protocol used to observe the species. |
eventDate | The date-time or interval during which an Event occurred. For occurrences, this is the date-time when the event was recorded. |
sampleSizeUnit | The unit of measurement of the size of a sample in a sampling event. |
sampleSizeValue | A numeric value for a measurement of the size of a sample in a sampling event. |
habitat | A textual description of the habitat in which the taxon was observed. |
higherGeographyID | The code of the region in which the observation occurred. Here: http://vocab.getty.edu/tgn/7003831 |
higherGeography | A description of the region in which the observation occurred. |
georeferencedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people who determined the georeference for the Location. |
continent | The name of the continent in which the location occurs. |
country | The name of the country in which the location occurs. |
countryCode | The ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 country code. |
islandGroup | The name of the island group in which the location occurs. |
island | The name of the island in which the location occurs. |
stateProvince | The first-level administrative subdivision of the country in which the observation occurred. |
municipality | The name of the municipality in which the location occurs. |
locality | The name of the locality in which the location occurs. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude in decimal degrees of the geographic centre of a location. |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude in decimal degrees of the geographic centre of a location. |
geodeticDatum | The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based. Here: WGS84 |
minimumElevationInMetres | The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres | Indicator for the accuracy of the coordinate location, described as the radius of a circle around the stated point location in metres. Here: 3 metres |
footprintWKT | A Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of the shape that defines the location. |
footprintSRS | The spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based. Here: EPSG:4326 |
This work was possible due to the financial support of the Operational Programme Madeira, through the projects LIFE RECOVER NATURA - LIFE12 NAT / PT / 000195 and CASBio, M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000011. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Forestry and Rangers services of the Madeira Forestry and Nature Conservation Institute for their support and assistance during the team's fieldwork.
List of the species (Spermatophytes) surveyed between 2014 and 2020 in Desembarcadouro (DI) and Chão (CI) islets. The species are classified by their family affiliation and their status. Taxonomic names are in accordance with The Plant List 1.1 (2013) http://www.theplantlist.org/. The number of individuals counted per specie/year is also presented as well as the total number per islet in the 7 years of sampling.