Increasing biogeographical knowledge of Pleurophora pulchra (Lythraceae) with conservation biology approach

Abstract

Having been recently described (2015), knowledge of the biogeography of Pleurophora pulchra is limited, which made its inclusion in the first evaluation of Priority Areas for Conservation of the Flora of the Caatinga Domain (PACFCs) and Conservation Units (CUs) impossible. We describe the biogeographical potential of P. pulchra in the Caatinga using species distribution modeling (SDM), with the aim of broadening discussions about PACFCs and CUs. We used the Maxent algorithm to compute the final model (SDMf), and the Binomial test to evaluate their performance. We found that P. pulchra tends to occur in environments with high aridity, low annual precipitation, intense precipitation seasonality, stable temperatures in the colder months, and thin soils that range from poorly to well drained. The SDMf revealed areas with environmental suitability predominantly in the Southern Sertaneja Depression of the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Paraíba, as well as areas of the Borborema Plateau in Paraíba. The CUs APAs Cariri and Lago de Sobradinho, and the PACFCs Jatobá and Cariri Paraibano stood out as having environmental suitability values above 0.5. The binomial test exhibited good performance for SDMf (p < 0.001 t =1), reinforcing the possibility of new records of P. pulchra in the aforementioned areas.

Key words: extinction threat; conservation biology; SDM