Patterns of ecosystem functioning as a tool for biological regionalization: the case of the Mediterranean-desert-tropical transition of Baja California

  1. Beatriz P. Cazorla 1
  2. Pedro P. Garcillán
  3. Javier Cabello 1
  4. Domingo Alcaraz-Segura 2
  5. Andrés Reyes 3
  6. Julio Peñas 4
  1. 1 Department of Biology and Geology, University of Almería. Andalusian Center for the Assessment and Monitoring of Global Change, University of Almería.
  2. 2 Northwestern Center of Biological Research (CIBNOR), La Paz, Mexico.
  3. 3 Andalusian Center for the Assessment and Monitoring of Global Change, University of Almería.
  4. 4 Andalusian Center for the Assessment and Monitoring of Global Change, University of Almería. Department of Botany, University of Granada.
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Revista:
Mediterranean Botany

ISSN: 2603-9109

Año de publicación: 2021

Volumen: 42

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.5209/MBOT.68529 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Mediterranean Botany

Resumen

Large-scale ecological variations across Earth have important consequences for biodiversity and, therefore, for biological conservation. Despite the widespread use of ecological maps in conservation schemes, they have been based mainly on structural and compositional features but scarcely on functional dimensions of life. Incorporating functional variables complements and improves the descriptions of regionalizations and offers a new understanding of biodiversity patterns. The development of remote sensing measurement allows for the description of the functional patterns of ecosystems through Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), opening new opportunities to analyze the geography of life. This article aims to examine the relationships between ecological regionalization based on components and structure and patterns of ecosystem functioning. As proof of case, we chose the Baja California peninsula, whose singularity has generated a rich variety of ecological and biogeographical interpretations, mainly based on ecosystem components and structure. We hypothesize that patterns in ecosystem functioning reflect ecoregionalization based on composition and structure features. We identified Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), from three descriptors of the seasonal curves of MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from 2001 to 2017. We characterized each ecoregion in terms of ecosystem functioning and we carried out a correspondence analysis between the EFTs classification and the ecoregions. At a large scale, EFTs showed a pattern with three general regions from northwest to south, capturing the north-south transition of climatic regimes shown in the ecoregions map, from the northwestern Mediterranean area to the southern tropical zone, with a desert transition area between them. However, differences between the functional characterization and some ecoregions were detected in ecoregions identified as discrepancy areas between authors. In particular, some ecoregions considered Mediterranean showed a Desert character in its functioning, and others considered as Desert were Tropical functionally. EFTs remotely sensed measured at regional scales provide the basis for a more comprehensive regionalization of geographical patterns of life and, therefore, an improvement for future conservation purposes.

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Información de financiación

Thanks to C. Gonzalez-Abraham (CIBNOR) for providing us the databases of the Baja California Peninsula. Funds were provided by ERDF and Spanish MINECO (project CGL2014-61610-EXP) and to B.P.C. by the University of Almer?a (Ph.D. contract: research training program). This research was also developed as part of project ECOPOTENTIAL, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No. 641762, the NASA 2016 GEOBON Work Programme Grant # 80NSSC18K0446, the European project LIFE Adaptamed (LIFE14349 CCA/ES/000612), and within the framework of the scientific advice and the program for monitoring ecosystem functioning in the Spanish National Park Network (REMOTE), supported by the CAESCG-UAL, TRAGSATEC, and the Spanish Ecological Transition Ministry.

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