What is it about?
In the tropical areas of the world, there is a special type of forest whose plants grow on rocky soils (mainly limestone), generally called karst forests. In many parts of the world, these forests are famous as tourist attractions, for their beautiful landscapes with enormous mountains, cliffs, caves, chasms, cenotes and blue lakes and rivers. However, they are less known, in terms of the species of animals and plants that are present within them. María Eugenia Molina-Paniagua and collaborators carried out the most complete analysis to date of the vegetation of the mountain karst forest of Mexico. The results of this research indicate that the mountain karst forest in Mexico is one of the most diverse forests in the world.
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Why is it important?
Within the mountain karst forest of Mexico, there are 11,771 species of vascular plants (ferns, flowering plants, pines and cycads), grouped into 253 families and 2,254 genera, which represents almost 50% of the Mexican flora. The authors of this study identified 372 endemic species, which means that they are distributed exclusively within this forest. The authors also determined that 2,477 species could be in danger of extinction.
Perspectives
"The availability of large and public databases that contain historical and contemporary taxonomic information collected over several decades in many parts of the world and often accompanied by ecological and geographic metadata, offers an opportunity to more accurately estimate plant diversity within these forest communities"
Andres E Ortiz-Rodriguez
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: How diverse are the mountain karst forests of Mexico?, PLoS ONE, October 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292352.
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