Are long-distance dispersal syndromes associated with the conservation status of plant species? The Canary Islands as a case study

  1. Coello, Alberto J.
  2. Leo, María
  3. Arjona, Yurena
  4. Vargas, Pablo
Journal:
Mediterranean Botany

ISSN: 2603-9109

Year of publication: 2018

Volume: 39

Issue: 2

Pages: 105-110

Type: Article

DOI: 10.5209/MBOT.60071 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Mediterranean Botany

Abstract

Dispersal is the process that allows organisms to reach new suitable territories and expand their area of occupancy. In plants, long-distance dispersal (LDD) of diaspores is related to the presence of morphological structures (dispersal syndromes) that favor mobility by wind (anemochorous), sea currents (thalasochorous) and animals (epizoochorous and endozoochorous). The relationship between these LDD structures and the distribution of plant species is related to characteristics of different archipelagoes. Previous studies in several archipelagoes found that the Canary Islands showed the strongest positive relationship between dispersal syndromes and species distributions. It has been long hypothesized that species without specialized structures for dispersal have more difficulties in expanding their areas of occupancy and consequently these species are more threatened because of limited distribution. Nevertheless, the effect of the dispersal ability of plant species on the degree of threat has never been tested in oceanic archipelagoes. In this study, we selected the 262 lowland endemic plant species of the Canary Islands and evaluated the relationship between the presence/absence of the four LDD syndromes and their threat status. A considerable number of threatened (154 spp.) and non-threatened (108 spp.) species were observed, of which 93 had LDD syndromes and 169 did not. Our analyses failed to find statistically significant differences between the number of threatened species with and without LDD syndromes and their IUCN threatened status. In sum, this study shows a poor contribution of dispersal abilities in the degree of threat of endemic plant species in the Canary Islands

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Funding information

We are very grateful to Juan Carlos Moreno for his kindness providing us the most accurate and current data for the endangered plants of Spain and his comments and suggestions as editor. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that allowed us to improve the quality of the manuscript. This study is part of the project CGL2015-67865-P, which has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity. A.J.C. was financed (FPU16/05681) by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. M.L. and Y.A. were financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (BES-2016-077655 and BES-2013-062843, respectively).

Funders

    • FPU16/05681
    • BES-2016-077655

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Data source: Dialnet