ABSTRACT

Knowing how and to what extent environmental parameters affect threatened species facilitates the understanding of their specific microhabitat requirements. In this study, we examined the response patterns of four threatened tropical plant species to variations in temperature, precipitation, and physiographic variables, and analyzed the relative contributions of environmental variables to the observed distributions of the species. The studied species are Bursera coyucensis, Cryosophila argentea, Guatteria anomala, and Vatairea lundellii and are cataloged into specific risk categories in the Mexican Official Standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT. Our findings suggest differences in ranges of temperature and precipitation (for example, C. argentea exhibited narrower ranges compared to G. anomala and V. lundellii in precipitation) and similarity in ranges of slope across species distributions. We also found that most species distributions respond non-linearly to variations in environmental variables. These results contribute to defining the environmental spaces of these species. The partial and combined effects of climatic variables, and the range of environmental distributions reported here, have intrinsic implications for the adaptation capacity, plasticity, and survival of these species to environmental variation. This information could be useful to promote conservation activities such as the creation of microhabitats with optimal environmental preferences through sustainable silviculture.

摘要

了解环境参数如何以及在何种程度上影响受威胁物种有助于了解它们特定的微生境要求。在这项研究中，我们检查了四种受威胁的热带植物物种对温度、降水和地理变量变化的响应模式，并分析了环境变量对观察到的物种分布的相对贡献。研究的物种是Bursera coyucensis、Cryosophila argentea、Guatteria anomala和Vatairea lundellii，并在墨西哥官方标准 NOM-059-SEMARNAT 中被归类为特定风险类别。我们的研究结果表明温度和降水范围存在差异（例如，C. argentea与G. anomala和V. lundellii相比，降水范围更窄）和跨物种分布的斜率范围相似。我们还发现大多数物种分布对环境变量的变化呈非线性反应。这些结果有助于确定这些物种的环境空间。气候变量的部分和综合影响，以及此处报告的环境分布范围，对这些物种对环境变化的适应能力、可塑性和生存具有内在影响。这些信息可能有助于促进保护活动，例如通过可持续造林创造具有最佳环境偏好的微生境。