摘要
Background The Rio de la Plata grassland region is dominated by temperate grasslands,with the scarce natural forests,infuenced foristically by adjacent biogeographical provinces.Uruguay represents the southern limit for many tree species of the Paranaense Province,several of which inhabit the hillside forests.With many species shifting poleward due to climate change,we do not yet know how current environmental factors,particularly climatic ones,are linked to the tree diversity of this fora nowadays.The aim of this study is to understand the geographic pattern of tree richness in the hillside forests of Uruguay,evaluating the water–energy and the environmental heterogeneity hypotheses.The distribution of the hillside forest trees was obtained by compiling and updating the herbaria data‑base and distribution maps of woody plants of Uruguay.The presence/absence of each species,and then the spe‑cies richness,were georeferenced over a grid that covers Uruguay with 302 cells(660 km^(2)).Over the same grid were compiled environmental variables associated with climate and environmental heterogeneity.The relationship between richness and environmental variables was studied by applying general linear models(GLM).As a strong autocorrelation was detected,a residuals auto-covariate term was incorporated into the GLM,to take into account the species richness spatial structure.Results The tree fora of the hillside forest was composed mainly by Paranaense species that show a latitudinal gradi‑ent,with two high richness cores,in the east and northeast of Uruguay.The fnal model including the environmental variables and the spatial term explained 84%of the variability of tree richness.Species richness showed a positive relationship with precipitation,forest cover,potential evapotranspiration and productivity,while a negative efect of temperature variation was found.The spatial component was the primary predictor,accounting for a 30%of spatial pattern of tree richness.Conclusions This study accounts for a large proportion of the environmental and spatial variations of the tree rich‑ness pattern of the Paranense fora in its southernmost portion.It brings support to both water–energy and envi‑ronmental heterogeneity hypotheses,emphasizing the role of climate and its variation and the habitat availability on the hillside forest diversity.
基金
supported by the Comisión Académica de Posgrado de la Universidad de la República de Uruguay and PEDECIBA.
