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Baja California peninsula showing the geographic and floristic position of Greater San Quintín near the southern end of the California Floristic Province and just north of the Vizcaíno desert; modified from Cartron et al. (2005). Inset photo of Greater San Quintín taken from the tip of Monte Mazo looking north.
Source publication
The plants of San Quintín (Baja California, Mexico) were documented through intensive fieldwork and the collection of herbarium specimens to create a checklist of species. This region is home to a diverse flora with high levels of local endemism and many rare plants. The flora documented in this study was compared to historical records from the reg...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... study is focused on the area between parallels 30 and 31 on the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, here referred to as ''Greater San Quintín'' (Fig. 1). Greater San Quintín lies near the southern end of the California Floristic Province (CFP), a rich floristic region that is also one of the most critically endangered ecosystems on Earth. The CFP has been recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000). Such hotspots are defined by the presence of more than 1500 endemic ...
Context 2
... association with dominant vegetation and/or soil type; however, these four broad habitats are easily distinguished visually, and each includes many plant species. The vegetation has been similarly categorized by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, México (INEGI), although INEGI distinguishes upper salt flats from inundated marshes (Fig. ...
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Citations
... In the context of the semi-arid climate of NW Baja California, the environmental impact of groundwater overdraft is a particularly significant problem for indigenous plants (Zektser et al. 2005) thus a serious concern for conservation efforts in the region. Many abandoned agricultural fields can be seen locally (Vanderplank 2010) and in adjacent regions (Castellanos et al. 2005), likely as a direct result of salt water intrusion. For economic development in this region, aquaculture (e.g., of oysters, abalone) is a more sustainable alternative to agriculture (Aguirre-Muñoz et al. 2001). ...
... Despite the threat from human activities, the San Quintín region continues to supports several fragile plant communities that are globally rare. The unusual mix of CFP species with plants from more xeric regions to the south make the regiona floristically rich area with 435 taxa documented in recent years in an area of 360 km 2 , Greater San Quintín (GSQ) (Vanderplank 2011). One hundred and twenty-four plant taxa (35 %) of the native flora of GSQ are rare and/or locally endemic (67 of these are endemic or near-endemic to NW Baja California) according to the classification of O'Brien et al. (in press). ...
... Thirty-five collecting trips totaling 75 field days were conducted, during which more than 1,600 plant specimens were collected. As a means to ensure that all areas with vegetation were included in the survey, the site was gridded into km 2 and every grid square with habitat suitable for plant growth was surveyed on the ground (Vanderplank 2010). These data (excluding Isla San Martín) were compared to historical specimen data to determine which plant species have been extirpated from the flora. ...
Modern agricultural practices pose serious threats to biodiversity worldwide. Species losses from habitat conversion are well documented, but indirect impacts such as reduced water availability to adjacent ecosystems are less known. San Quintín is an important agricultural valley in the mediterranean climate region of Baja California, Mexico. The region is also a hotspot of plant species richness and endemism. Plant species in the region are here analyzed by comparison of the contemporary flora to historical botanical collections to identify extirpations. Historical collections indicate that habitat loss to agriculture has been a direct cause of species losses. As importantly, the unsustainable extraction of groundwater has apparently led to salt water intrusion, resulting in the loss of 22 native plant taxa, including 13 rare plants. Seventy-eight percent of all the vernal pool taxa have been lost from the flora (including 85 % of the rare taxa) and 11 % of plants of riparian and pond habitat (including 25 % of the rare taxa) are no longer found in the region. Unsustainable agricultural practices continue to threaten fragile coastal ecosystems and are a serious challenge to current and future conservation efforts. Ironically, these same practices frequently result in abandonment of cultivated areas. Owing to indirect impacts, conservation of biodiversity and large-scale agricultural operations are even less compatible on a regional scale than indicated by direct impacts. It is vital that sustainable agricultural practices be adopted locally and globally to avoid further losses of biodiversity.
... In the Mediterranean-climate region of Baja California, where winter rainfall is sufficient for soil development and the weathering of shells, the effect of these prehistoric middens on contemporary vegetation is noticeable along low, sedimentary coasts (Vanderplank 2010). Meigs (1938) suggested that studies on the vegetation of the middens of northwestern Baja California could uncover patterns of movements of people historically or successional patterns in the flora, because he observed the presence of Ambrosia chenopodiifolia (syn. ...
... The cultural landscape is more heterogeneous, favoring unique plant assemblages within the surrounding matrix-midden mosaic. Recent studies have shown that, in the San Quintín region, the percentage of endemic and rare plants is strongly correlated with overall plant species richness (Vanderplank 2010). Therefore, we can expect an increase in the number of endemic and rare plants that grow in the cultural landscape of the broader region because of increases in species diversity provided by the midden mosaic. ...
The highly productive Gulf of California exhibits high biodiversity and an abundance of small pelagic, schooling fishes, important both to the ecosystem and to fisheries. These fishes show wide fluctuations in abundance due to oceanographic–atmospheric phenomena such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation, constituting a problem for effective fisheries management. In this work we propose several parameters in the diet of three seabird species as useful predictors of the eventual commercial catch per unit effort (CPUE) of Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) and northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) in the Midriff Island Region of the Gulf of California. We found that seabirds are sensitive to fluctuations in the abundances of these fishes, their proportions in the diet becoming suitable predictors of future commercial CPUE. The precision of our prediction is high because the birds feed on pre-recruit fish, and the time between the sampling of the diets and the initiation of the fishing season is short, minimizing stochastic effects on recruitment and subsequent abundance due to environmental fluctuations.
... In the Mediterranean-climate region of Baja California, where winter rainfall is sufficient for soil development and the weathering of shells, the effect of these prehistoric middens on contemporary vegetation is noticeable along low, sedimentary coasts (Vanderplank 2010). Meigs (1938) suggested that studies on the vegetation of the middens of northwestern Baja California could uncover patterns of movements of people historically or successional patterns in the flora, because he observed the presence of Ambrosia chenopodiifolia (syn. ...
... The cultural landscape is more heterogeneous, favoring unique plant assemblages within the surrounding matrix-midden mosaic. Recent studies have shown that, in the San Quintín region, the percentage of endemic and rare plants is strongly correlated with overall plant species richness (Vanderplank 2010). Therefore, we can expect an increase in the number of endemic and rare plants that grow in the cultural landscape of the broader region because of increases in species diversity provided by the midden mosaic. ...
Natural and cultural heritage sites frequently have nonoverlapping or even conflicting conservation priorities, because human
impacts have often resulted in local extirpations and reduced levels of native biodiversity. Over thousands of years, the
predictable winter rains of northwestern Baja California have weathered calcium from the clam shells deposited by indigenous
peoples in middens along the coast. The release of this calcium has changed soil properties, remediated sodic and saline soils,
and resulted in a unique microhabitat that harbors plant assemblages very different from those of the surrounding matrix.
Native plant biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity are significantly increased on the anthropogenic soils of these shell
middens. Protection of this cultural landscape in the Anthropocene will further both archeological and biodiversity conservation
in these anthropogenic footprints from the Holocene. Along these coasts, natural and cultural heritage priorities are overlapping
and mutually beneficial.
... Calcitic shells (which sometimes include aragonitic layers) are more stable, and the shells degrade relatively slowly, whereas aragonitic species have shells that decompose more readily and release calcium carbonate into the environment (Harper 2000). In the Mediterranean-climate region of Baja California, where winter rainfall is sufficient for soil development and the weathering of shells, the effect of these prehistoric middens on contemporary vegetation is noticeable along low, sedimentary coasts (Vanderplank 2010). Meigs (1938) suggested that studies on the vegetation of the middens of northwestern Baja California could uncover patterns of movements of people historically or successional patterns in the flora, because he observed the presence of Ambrosia chenopodiifolia (syn. ...
... The cultural landscape is more heterogeneous, favoring unique plant assemblages within the surrounding matrix–midden mosaic. Recent studies have shown that, in the San Quintín region, the percentage of endemic and rare plants is strongly correlated with overall plant species richness (Vanderplank 2010). Therefore, we can expect an increase in the number of endemic and rare plants that grow in the cultural landscape of the broader region because of increases in species diversity provided by the midden mosaic. ...
Natural and cultural heritage sites frequently have nonoverlapping or even conflicting conservation priorities, because human impacts have often resulted in local extirpations and reduced levels of native biodiversity. Over thousands of years, the predictable winter rains of northwestern Baja California have weathered calcium from the clam shells deposited by indigenous peoples in middens along the coast. The release of this calcium has changed soil properties, remediated sodic and saline soils, and resulted in a unique microhabitat that harbors plant assemblages very different from those of the surrounding matrix. Native plant biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity are significantly increased on the anthropogenic soils of these shell middens. Protection of this cultural landscape in the Anthropocene will further both archeological and biodiversity conservation in these anthropogenic footprints from the Holocene. Along these coasts, natural and cultural heritage priorities are overlapping and mutually beneficial.
... Con el fin de encontrar relación entre variables bióticas (especies) y abióticas (propiedades del suelo) y entender la distribución de las especies (Mostacedo et al. 2006;Vanderplank, 2010) con relación a las propiedades del suelo, se aplicó el análisis de Componentes Principales (PCA) que es ampliamente utilizado en ecología para asociar variables ambientales y biológicas (Sánchez y López, 2003;Mostacedo et al. 2006), este método de ordenación multivariada pretende reducir el número variables en algunos factores que permitan observar y determinar el patrón entre variables. ...
... Quintín (Harper, 2007;Clark et al., 2008;Vanderplank, 2010); Pogogyne nudiuscula reportada para la región de Otay y sus alrededores, así como también dentro de la ciudad de ...
... Misión (Moran, 1984; la cual no fue explorada para el presente trabajo); en Mesa de Colonet y ejido Rubén Jaramillo al sur de Colonet (Moran 1984;Oberbauer, 1992;Clark et al. 2008;USFWS, 1998), donde las charcas ya estaban en un estado deteriorado, con señales de pastoreo y presencia de ganado que dificulta el acceso; en el ejido El Papalote cerca de San Quintín (Moran, 1984) previo a la documentada extirpación de este sitio (Vanderplank, 2010). Su escasa ocurrencia en EE.UU. ...
Vernal pools are ephemeral wetlands with rare and endemic plant species, in this research the distribution of nine plant species was explore along side with potential physical-chemical edaphic properties driving it’s distributions across North Western Baja California, Mexico
The arid Central Gulf Coast ecoregion, characterized mainly by sarcocaulescent scrub, is a poorly studied area. This paper addresses this knowledge gap with an annotated checklist of the vascular plants of the Mulegé area (Bahía Concepción to Punta Chivato; 397 km²), which was compiled over at least 267 field days during 15 field seasons between 2003 and 2019. The inventory presents 411 taxa (330 species, 81 infraspecies) in 82 families and 288 genera. There are 342 taxa native to the peninsula, of which 78 are endemic or near-endemic taxa. Six species are included on Mexico's protected species list (NOM-059) and two are on the IUCN Red List. The extensive loss of the mangrove thickets along the Mulegé estuary and the rapid spread of the invasive species Cenchrus ciliare L. (Poaceae) are immediate ecological concerns compounded by the more long term effects of climate change, sea level rise and development. While this study shares up to 74% of families and 66% of the genera of several other regional floras for the peninsula, at the species level it shares between just 23% and 63% with them, highlighting Mulegé's local floristic diversity.
The social and environmental effects of industrial agriculture in the San Quintín Valley of Baja California are closely related. An environmental history of the valley from European contact to the present demonstrates that modern schemes of globalized agricultural production erode biological diversity while fostering labor exploitation. A critical model drawing on the concept of environmental violence-historically structured asymmetrical power relations that are reproduced and maintained to foster capital accumulation describes how neoliberalism shapes and exploits agro-industrial landscapes and livelihoods in San Quintín to produce a crisis of underproduction.
Los efectos sociales y ambientales de la agricultura industrial en el Valle de San Quintín de Baja California están estrechamente relacionados. Una historia ambiental del valle, desde el contacto europeo hasta el presente demuestra que los esquemas modernos de producción agrícola globalizada erosionan la diversidad biológica al mismo tiempo que fomentan la explotación laboral. Un modelo crítico basado en el concepto de violencia ambiental (relaciones de poder asimétricas históricamente estructuradas que se reprodu-cen y mantienen para fomentar la acumulación de capital) describe cómo el neoliberalismo da forma a y explota los paisajes agroindustriales y los medios de vida en San Quintín, augurando hacia una crisis de subproducción.
Aim
We tested whether species–area relationships of small islands differ among plant growth forms and whether this influences the prevalence of the small‐island effect (SIE). The SIE states that species richness on small islands is independent of island area or relates to area in a different way compared with larger islands. We investigated whether island isolation affects the limits of the SIE and which environmental factors drive species richness on small islands.
Location
Seven hundred islands (< 100 km²) worldwide belonging to 17 archipelagos.
Major taxa studied
Angiosperms.
Methods
We applied linear and breakpoint species–area models for angiosperm species richness and for herb, shrub and tree species richness per archipelago separately, to test for the existence of SIEs. For archipelagos featuring the SIE, we calculated the island area at which the breakpoints occurred (breakpoint area) and used linear models to test whether the breakpoint areas varied with isolation. We used linear mixed‐effect models to discern the effects of seven environmental variables related to island area, isolation and other environmental factors on the species richness of each growth form for islands smaller than the breakpoint area.
Results
For 71% of all archipelagos, we found an SIE for total and herb species richness, and for 59% for shrub species richness and 53% for tree species richness. Shrub and tree species richness showed larger breakpoint areas than total and herb species richness. The breakpoint area was significantly positively affected by the isolation of islands within an archipelago for total and shrub species richness. Species richness on islands within the range of the SIE was differentially affected by environmental factors across growth forms.
Main conclusion
The SIE is a widespread phenomenon that is more complex than generally described. Different functional groups have different environmental requirements that shape their biogeographical patterns and affect species–area and, more generally, richness–environment relationships. The complexity of these patterns cannot be revealed when measuring overall plant species richness.
To understand how traits and evolutionary history shape the geographic distribution of plant life on Earth, we need to integrate high-quality and global-scale distribution data with functional and phylogenetic information. Large-scale distribution data for plants are, however, often restricted to either certain taxonomic groups or geographic regions. For example, range maps only exist for a small subset of all plant species and digitally available point-occurrence information is strongly biased both geographically and taxonomically. An alternative, currently rarely used resource for macroecological and botanical research are regional Floras and checklists, which contain highly curated information about the species composition of a clearly defined area, and which together virtually cover the entire global land surface. Here we report on our recent efforts to mobilize this information for macroecological and biogeographical analyses in the GIFT database, the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits. GIFT integrates plant distributions, functional traits, phylogenetic information, and region-level geographic, environmental and socio-economic data. GIFT currently holds species lists for 2,893 regions across the whole globe including ~315,000 taxonomically standardized species names (i.e. c. 80% of all known land plant species) and ~3 million species-by-region occurrences. In addition, GIFT contains information about the floristic status (native, endemic, alien and naturalized) and takes advantage of the wealth of trait information in the regional Floras, complemented by data from global trait databases. Based on a hierarchical and taxonomical derivation scheme, GIFT holds information for 83 functional traits and more than 2.3 million trait-by-species combinations and achieves unprecedented coverage in categorical traits such as woodiness (~233,000 spp.) or growth form (~213,000 spp.). Here we present the structure, content and automated workflows of GIFT and a corresponding web-interface (http://gift.uni-goettingen.de) as proof of concept for the feasibility and potential of mobilizing aggregated biodiversity data for global macroecological and biogeographical research.
Evolutionary transitions from outcrossing to selfing can strongly affect the genetic diversity and structure of species at multiple spatial scales. We investigated the genetic consequences of mating system shifts in the North American, Pacific coast dune endemic plant Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia (Onagraceae) by assaying variation at 13 nuclear (n) and six chloroplast (cp) microsatellite (SSR) loci for 38 populations across the species range. As predicted from the expected reduction of effective population size (Ne) caused by selfing, small-flowered, predominantly selfing (SF) populations had much lower nSSR diversity (but not cpSSR) than large flowered, predominantly outcrossing (LF) populations. The reduction of nSSR diversity was greater than expected from the effects of selfing on Ne alone, but could not be accounted for by indirect effects of selfing on population density. Although selfing should reduce gene flow, SF populations were not more genetically differentiated than LF populations. We detected five clusters of nSSR genotypes and three groups of cpSSR haplotypes across the species range consisting of parapatric groups of populations that usually (but not always) differed in mating system, suggesting that selfing may often initiate ecogeographic isolation. However, lineage-wide genetic variation was not lower for selfing clusters, failing to support the hypothesis that selection for reproductive assurance spurred the evolution of selfing in this species. Within three populations where LF and SF plants coexist we detected genetic differentiation among diverged floral phenotypes suggesting that reproductive isolation (probably postzygotic) may help maintain the striking mating system differentiation observed across the range of this species.
