Neotropical palms in the Anthropocene Age: tracking a changing world

Abstract

The changes in the planet promoted by humans are so significant that they justified the creation of a new geological Age: the Anthropocene. Habitat loss, fragmentation, expansion of alien species and climate change are among the major impacts on biodiversity. When experiencing an impact, species can respond in different ways, and the strategy adopted by each species is related to their intrinsic characteristics. Given the increasing risk of global extinction, several standardized methods of risk assessment have been proposed, however, few consider the physiological characteristics of the species. These traits may help to understand adaptations to environmental heterogeneity and consequently to species responses to climate change. In this study, we sought to identify ecological and physiological traits that aid in the evaluation of the sensitivity of neotropical palms to anthropic impacts, especially climate change. With a broad and integrated approach, methodologies based on bibliographic review, functional traits measures and Ecological Niche Modeling were used. The results obtained provided important insights on ecological escape strategies and the relationship of leaf traits with space, climate, microhabitats and environmental suitability, among the main results are: (1) palm tend to present more escape strategies than acclimatization strategies; (2) leaf traits are not spatially distributed; (3) the correlation of leaf traits with climate occurs more strongly when the traits are more exposed to the climate; (4) species with thicker leaves and less specific leaf area (SLA) are less sensitive to climate change; (5) thicker leaf species showed a greater expansion of environmental suitability than thin leaf species in a climate change scenario; (6) leaf thickness of palms can be a good predictor of impacts of climate changes, and should be used in sensitivity analyzes; (7) palms tend to be favored climatically, with an increase of environmental suitability in a climate change scenario, however other anthropic impacts must be measured. In addition, it is encouraged the search for new traits that present features that are easy to obtain, for a wide evaluation of species, and that are closely related to climatic variables associated with climate change.