Is there variation in ten woody species reproductive phenology within the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot?

Abstract

Understanding reproductive phenology in tropical and subtropical forests is challenging. Thus, there are scarce large-scale phenological studies for those forests. Digitized herbarium collections can provide valuable information for understanding biological rhythms, e.g. timing of reproduction. Our aim was to verify the geographical variability of flowering and fruiting patterns and the effects of local climate on the reproductive phenology of woody species in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We used herbarium records compiled from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility–GBIF, speciesLink, JABOT, and the “Portal de Datos de Biodiversidad Argentina” as a main source of data to assess differences in reproductive phenology for 10 species with wide geographical distribution in the Atlantic Forest. Contrary to our expectations, we observed a non-seasonal reproductive phenology of all species and relations with temperature in the northern forests and to precipitation in the southern forests. When considered individually, there was no obvious relationship between phenophases and climatic factors. We expected that species occurring in a broad geographic distribution would change their biological rhythms related to local environmental factors, but it is likely that widely distributed species are abundant exactly because they are less dependent on biophysical characteristics of the environment. This is the first study comparing species located in the northern and southern regions of the Atlantic Forest using herbarium data, highlighting its importance to understand large scale ecological rhythms in tropical biomes.