Diversity and conservation of legumes in the Gran Chaco and biogeograpical inferences.

ABSTRACT: The Gran Chaco is a wide ecologic-geographic region comprising northern Argentina, western Paraguay, southern Bolivia and the southwestern extreme of Brazil. This region exhibits extreme temperatures, annually regular frosts, and sedimentary soils; it has been dramatically threatened by agriculture expansion in recent decades. Therefore, increasing knowledge of plant diversity is critical for conservation purposes. We present a Legume checklist of the Gran Chaco ecoregion including conservation status of its endemic species. Leguminosae is the third most diverse plant family in the Neotropics. Assuming a rigorous spatial definition of the Gran Chaco, we recorded 98 genera, 362 species, and 404 specific and infraspecific taxa. Endemic/typical taxa were 17%, comparable to adjacent tropical p

SUBMITTER: Morales M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6693842 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature