Floristic and functional affiliations of woody plants with climate in western Amazonia by Butt, N, Malhi, Y, Phillips, O, New, M

“…Location: Lowland rain forests in the western Amazon. Methods: Floristic data on 91 woody plant genera, from 39 0.1-ha plots across the western Amazon, and precipitation data from a 0.5° global data set were used to test for correlations between plant relative abundance (defined as percentage number of stems ≥ 2.5 cm diameter at breast height for each woody plant genus per plot) and derived dry-season variables. …”

In defence of the entity of Macaronesia as a biogeographical region by Fernández‐Palacios, JM, Otto, R, Capelo, J, Caujapé‐Castells, J, de Nascimento, L, Duarte, MC, Elias, RB, García‐Verdugo, C, Menezes de Sequeira, M, Médail, F, Naranjo‐Cigala, A, Patiño, J, Price, J, Romeiras, MM, Sánchez‐Pinto, L, Whittaker, RJ

“…Finally, a differentiating floristic component recently colonized the different archipelagos from the nearest continental coast, providing them with different biogeographic flavours.…”

In defence of the entity of Macaronesia as a biogeographical region by Fernández-Palacios, JM, Otto, R, Capelo, J, Whittaker, RJ

“…Finally, a differentiating floristic component recently colonized the different archipelagos from the nearest continental coast, providing them with different biogeographic flavours.…”

Phylogenetic classification of the world’s tropical forests by Slik, J, Franklin, J, Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Hector, A, al., E

“…We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. …”

Assessing landscapes: a case study of tree and shrub diversity in the seasonally dry tropical forests of Oaxaca, Mexico and southern Honduras by Gordon, J, Hawthorne, W, Reyes-Garcia, A, Sandoval, G, Barrance, A

“…It is noted that these forests are floristically similar to other seasonally dry tropical forests in the neotropics. …”

Richness pattern and phytogeography of the Cerrado herb-shrub flora and implications for conservation by Amaral, A, Munhoz, C, Walter, B, Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J, Raes, N

“…The study recognized two floristically distinct clusters at the core of the Cerrado region, and seven additional regions that share floristic elements with the two core clusters. …”

How many species of seed plants are there? by Scotland, R, Wortley, A

“…This discrepancy is explained by an over-reliance on checklists and floristic studies that underestimate synonymy rates.…”

The role of Quaternary environmental change in plant macroevolution: the exception or the rule? by Willis, K, Niklas, K

“…Our examination of the Quaternary record indicates that floristic responses to climate changes during the past 1.8 Myr were complex and that a distinction has to be made between those plants that were able to withstand the extremes of glacial conditions and those that could not. …”

The phytogeographical regions of Slovenia: a consequence of natural environmental variation or prehistoric human activity? by Andric, M, Willis, K

“…Slovenia is a small but floristically diverse country with at least six distinctive phytogeographical regions. 2. …”

New Guinea has the world's richest island flora by Cámara-Leret, R, Frodin, DG, Adema, F, Pannel, CM, Scotland, RW, Wood, JRI, Et al

“…Our publicly available checklist includes 13,634 species (68% endemic), 1,742 genera and 264 families—suggesting that New Guinea is the most floristically diverse island in the world. Expert knowledge is essential for building checklists in the digital era: reliance on online taxonomic resources alone would have inflated species counts by 22%. …”

Recurrent wildfires drive rapid taxonomic homogenization of seasonally flooded Neotropical forests by Da Silva, A, Mews, H, Marimon-Junior, B, De Oliveira, E, Morandi, P, Oliveras, I, Marimon, B

“…Species richness decreased as a result of local extinctions and floristic similarity increased among forest communities. …”

Non-structural carbohydrates mediate seasonal water stress across Amazon forests by Signori-Müller, C, Oliveira, RS, Barros, FDV, Tavares, JV, Gilpin, M, Diniz, FC, Zevallos, MJM, Yupayccana, CAS, Acosta, M, Bacca, J, Chino, RSC, Cuellar, GMA, Cumapa, ERM, Martinez, F, Mullisaca, FMP, Nina, A, Sanchez, JMB, da Silva, LF, Tello, L, Tintaya, JS, Ugarteche, MTM, Baker, TR, Bittencourt, PRL, Borma, LS, Brum, M, Castro, W, Coronado, ENH, Cosio, EG, Feldpausch, TR, Fonseca, LDM, Gloor, E, Llampazo, GF, Malhi, Y, Mendoza, AM, Moscoso, VC, Araujo-Murakami, A, Phillips, OL, Salinas, N, Silveira, M, Talbot, J, Vasquez, R, Mencuccini, M, Galbraith, D

“…Thus, leaf carbon metabolism may help to explain floristic sorting across water availability gradients in Amazonia and enable better prediction of forest responses to future climate change. …”

Functional and phylogenetic diversity of an agricultural matrix avifauna: the role of habitat heterogeneity in Afrotropical farmland by Rurangwa, M, Niyigaba, P, Tobias, JA, Whittaker, R

“…Both functional and phylogenetic diversity were influenced by floristic diversity, vegetation height, tree number, and elevation to varying degrees. …”

Shrub growth and expansion in the Arctic tundra: an assessment of controlling factors using an evidence-based approach by Martin, A, Jeffers, E, Petrokofsky, G, Myers-Smith, I, Macias Fauria, M

“…We found evidence for a suite of 23 proximal controls that operate directly on shrub growth and expansion; the evidence base focused predominantly on just four controls (air temperature, soil moisture, herbivory, and snow dynamics). 65% of evidence was generated in the warmest tundra climes, while 24% was from only one of 28 floristic sectors. Temporal limitations beyond 10 years existed for most controls, while the use of space-for-time approaches was high, with 14% of the evidence derived via experimental approaches. …”

An isotopic test of the seasonal migration hypothesis for large grazing ungulates inhabiting the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain by Hodgkins, J, Marean, CW, Venter, JA, Richardson, L, Roberts, P, Zech, J, Difford, M, Copeland, SR, Orr, CM, Keller, HM, Fahey, BP, Lee-Thorp, JA

“…The Greater Cape Floristic Region of South Africa was critical to the evolution of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) during the Pleistocene. …”

Amazon tree dominance across forest strata by Draper, FC, Costa, FRC, Arellano, G, Phillips, OL, Duque, A, Macía, MJ, Ter Steege, H, Asner, GP, Berenguer, E, Schietti, J, Socolar, JB, de Souza, FC, Dexter, KG, Jørgensen, PM, Tello, JS, Magnusson, WE, Baker, TR, Castilho, CV, Monteagudo-Mendoza, A, Fine, PVA, Ruokolainen, K, Coronado, ENH, Aymard, G, Dávila, N, Sáenz, MS, Paredes, MAR, Engel, J, Fortunel, C, Paine, CET, Goret, J-Y, Dourdain, A, Petronelli, P, Allie, E, Andino, JEG, Brienen, RJW, Pérez, LC, Manzatto, ÂG, Zambrana, NYP, Molino, J-F, Sabatier, D, Chave, J, Fauset, S, Villacorta, RG, Réjou-Méchain, M, Berry, PE, Melgaço, K, Feldpausch, TR, Sandoval, EV, Martinez, RV, Mesones, I, Malhi, Y

“…Here, we use a large floristic dataset to show that, while hyperdominance is a universal phenomenon across forest strata, different species dominate the forest understory, midstory and canopy. …”

Isolated, neglected, and likely threatened: a new species of Magoniella (Polygonaceae) from the seasonally dry tropical forests of Northern Colombia and Venezuela revealed from nuc... by Aguilar-Cano, J, Pérez-Escobar, OA, Pizano, C, Tovar, E, Antonelli, A

“…Seasonally tropical dry forests (SDTFs) in the American tropics are a highly diverse yet poorly understood and endangered ecosystem scattered from Northern Mexico to Southern Argentina. One floristic element of the STDFs is the genus Magoniella (Polygonaceae), which includes two liana species, M. laurifolia and M. obidensis, which have winged fruits and are distributed from Costa Rica to Southern Brazil. …”

Strontium isotope investigation of ungulate the Pleistocene Paleo-Agulhas Plain of the greater South Africa by Copeland, S, Cawthra, H, Fischer, E, Lee-Thorp, J, Cowling, R, Le Roux, P, Hodgkins, J, Marean, C

“…Middle Stone Age sites located within the Greater Cape Floristic Region on the South African southern coast have material culture with early evidence for key modern human behaviors such as projectile weaponry, large animal hunting, and symbolic behavior. …”

Combining functional weed ecology and crop stable isotope ratios to identify cultivation intensity: a comparison of cereal production regimes in Haute Provence, France and Asturias... by Bogaard, A, Hodgson, J, Nitsch, E, Jones, G, Styring, A, Diffey, C, Pouncett, J, Herbig, C, Charles, M, Ertuğ, F, Tugay, O, Filipovic, D, Fraser, R

“…Weed quadrat survey of 60 crop field transects in this region revealed that floristic variation primarily reflects geographical differences. …”