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The vegetation of Berlengas’ island: an attempt to promote the recovery of Armeria berlenguensis (Plumbaginaceae)

2018; Frontiers Media; Volume: 5; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3389/conf.fmars.2018.06.00159

2296-7745

Susana Mendes, Inês Franco, Ana Isabel Fagundes, Nuno Oliveira, Paulo Crisóstomo, Lurdes Morais, Clélia Afonso, Teresa Mouga,

Marine and coastal plant biology

Event Abstract Back to Event The vegetation of Berlengas’ island: an attempt to promote the recovery of Armeria berlenguensis (Plumbaginaceae) Susana L. Mendes1, 2, Inês Franco2, Isabel Fagundes3, Nuno Oliveira3, Paulo Crisóstomo4, Lurdes Morais4, Clélia N. Afonso1, 2 and Teresa M. Mouga1, 2* 1 Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar, Politécnico de Leiria, Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Portugal 2 Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar, Politécnico de Leiria, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Portugal 3 Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves (SPEA), Portugal 4 ICNF - Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas - Reserva Natural das Berlengas, Portugal The Berlengas archipelago is in the Atlantic Ocean, on the Portuguese continental shelf, on the western side of Iberian Peninsula, close to Cape Carvoeiro (Peniche). It distances approximately 5.7 miles from mainland. Berlengas was firstly classified as Natural Reserve in 1981. In 1998 this area was reclassified as Marine Reserve Area, increasing its territory to its present size (104 ha) ((Amado et al., 2007). In 2011, the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) included the Berlengas archipelago in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), demonstrating the importance of this natural reserve worldwide. Berlengas archipelago hosts important features, due to its insular nature, geological characteristics, geographical location and climate, the presence of the Nazaré Canyon, a submarine canyon, along with a low human interference motivated by the small size of the islands and land scarcity. Altogether, these characteristics contributed to promote local high biodiversity, either endemic terrestrial plant species, marine bird species, marine invertebrates, fish or marine mammals (Amado et al., 2007; Queiroga, et al. 2008). Due to insular isolation, as well as to severe climatic and edaphic conditions, Berlengas terrestrial flora evolved rapidly and quite differently from the species of mainland. The harsh island conditions lead to speciation process that differentiated three endemic species, of great conservation value: Armeria berlengensis, Herniaria lusitanica subsp. berlengiana and Pulicaria microcephala. Two of these species – A. berlengensis and H. lusitanica subsp. berlengiana – are registered in Annex II of the Habitats Directive, due to their conservation relevance, and are considered critically endangered and endangered, respectively, according to IUCN (Caldas, 2011a, 2011b). Other species of the shore can be found here, some of them having a restricted geographical distribution, either Iberian or Iberian and north Africa: Angelica pachycharpa, Calendula suffruticosa subsp. algarbiensis, Echium rosulatum, Linaria amethystea subsp. multipunctata, Narcissus bulbocodium subsp. obesus, Silene latifolia subsp. mariziana, Silene scabriflora and Scrophularia sublyrata (Queiroga, et al., 2008). Although, the endemic and halophyte flora of Berlenga is still flourishing, it is being threatened by several factors. To begin with, the introduction, in the late 1950s, of the species Carpobrotus edulis, an invasive species. Another threat is the oversized population of seagulls that nest on the larger specimens of A. berlenguensis, destroying them. Finally, the increasing number of ruderal plant species that live on the litter produced by the seabirds, and tend to modify natural floristic composition (Tauleigne Gomes, Draper, & Rosselló-Graell, 2001). Therefore, the control of seagulls has been undertaken for more than ten years and in 2014 a project for the recovery of the Berlengas ecosystems has begun – LIFE BERLENGAS, including the removal of Carpobrotus edulis. Since may 2015, we installed several areas with metal structures and fishing line, preventing the access of seagulls and other birds. The vegetation of these “exclusion areas” and other equivalent free areas have been monitored seasonally to access the evolution of the vegetation in the past three years. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS A principal component analysis (PCA) for the percentage of occurrence of the observed species was performed to emphasize the correlations and possible patterns between the areas (with A. berlengensis with and without structure, without A. berlengensis with and without structure) and sampling periods (May and August 2015, January, May, August, November 2016, February and May 2017). The principal components (PC1 and PC2) provide information on the most meaningful parameters, which describe a whole data set affording data reduction with minimum loss of original information. Although the results concerning the first two components were presented, the others were also analysed. Percentage data were arcsine transformed to normalize variance (Legendre & Legendre, 1979). All calculations were performed with CANOCO version 4.5 package (Ter Braak & Smilauer, 2002). In addition, to evaluate the strength of the correlations between total percentage of vegetal cover and total density of A. berlengensis, Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) were used (Zar, 2010). All calculations were made with IBMM SPSS Statistics version 24 software. All results were considered significant at p-value ≤ 0.05 level. RESULTS The PCA showed that 47.3% of total variance was explained by the two principal components. PC1 expressed 32.9% of total variance, which is the most significant response regarding the separation between structure treatments. This demonstrates that the percentage of A. berlengensis (especially), Anchusa undulata, and Plantago coronopus increases with structure treatments, for all years, mainly in May (followed by August). These results reinforce, thus, that the absence of disturbance seems to favour the growth of the rupicola A. berlenguensis but also of some ruderal species. Moreover, Echium rosulatum and Calendula suffruticosa subsp. algarbiensis presented higher cover percentages without A. berlengensis (with and without structures), as they are ruderal species tending to rapidly occupy available nitrophilous soil. On the other hand, Lobularia maritima, Mercurialis ambigua, Scrophularia sublyrata, Urtica membranacea and Erodium cicutarium increased in A. berlengensis areas without structure, for all analysed years, mostly in autumn and winter samples. In general, those species presented a null correlation with A. berlengensis, Anchusa undulata, Plantago coronopus, Echium rosulatum and Calendula suffruticosa subsp. algarbiensis. Overall, there seems to be a recovery of the vegetation of the island, either rupicola or ruderal species. Besides PCA, data indicate a slight correlation between the presence of the protection structure and the number of A. berlengensis specimens. Still, these results need to be extended in time, so that this trend can be confirmed. Acknowledgements This study has the financial support of the project LIFE Berlengas - Conserving threatened habitats and species in Berlengas SPA through sustainable management, LIFE13 NAT/PT/000458 and of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013 granted to MARE. To Sociedade Protuguesa para o Estudo das Aves and Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas special thanks for all the help and support during field surveys on the island. References Amado, A., Gafeira, C., Teixeira, A., Preto, A., Bártolo, P., Fonseca, H., & Moris, L. (2007). Plano de Ordenamento da Reserva Natural Das Berlengas. Instituto Da Conservação Da Natureza E Da Biodiversidade, 1–253. Retrieved from http://www.cm-peniche.pt/_uploads/PDF_Berlengas_Laboratorio/PO_RNB_Relatorio.pdf Draper, D., Rosselló-Graell, A., Garcia, C., Gomes, C. T., & Sérgio, C. (2003). Application of GIS in plant conservation programmes in Portugal. Biological Conservation, 113(3), 337–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00125-3 Queiroga, H.; Leão, F.; Coutinho, M. (2008). “Candidatura das Berlengas a Reserva da Biosfera da UNESCO.” Instituto Do Ambiente E Desenvolvimento, 38–83. Tauleigne Gomes, C., Draper, D., & Rosselló-Graell, A. (2001). Données sur la végétation halophile; l’archipel des Berlengas (Estremadura, Portugal). Bocconea, 13, 537–542. Keywords: Endemic species, Endangered Species, Vegetation recovery, Berlengas, Armeria sp., PCA analysis Conference: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Biodiversity, Conservation and Coastal Management Citation: Mendes SL, Franco I, Fagundes I, Oliveira N, Crisóstomo P, Morais L, Afonso CN and Mouga TM (2019). The vegetation of Berlengas’ island: an attempt to promote the recovery of Armeria berlenguensis (Plumbaginaceae). Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00159 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. 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Received: 02 May 2018; Published Online: 07 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Prof. Teresa M Mouga, Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar, Politécnico de Leiria, Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Peniche, 2520-641, Portugal, mougat@ipleiria.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Susana L Mendes Inês Franco Isabel Fagundes Nuno Oliveira Paulo Crisóstomo Lurdes Morais Clélia N Afonso Teresa M Mouga Google Susana L Mendes Inês Franco Isabel Fagundes Nuno Oliveira Paulo Crisóstomo Lurdes Morais Clélia N Afonso Teresa M Mouga Google Scholar Susana L Mendes Inês Franco Isabel Fagundes Nuno Oliveira Paulo Crisóstomo Lurdes Morais Clélia N Afonso Teresa M Mouga PubMed Susana L Mendes Inês Franco Isabel Fagundes Nuno Oliveira Paulo Crisóstomo Lurdes Morais Clélia N Afonso Teresa M Mouga Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.