1. Patterns of ecosystem functioning as tool for biological regionalization: the case of the Mediterranean-desert-tropical transition of Baja California
- Author
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Andrés Reyes, Domingo Alcaraz-Segura, Julio Peñas, Pedro P. Garcillán, Javier Cabello, and Beatriz P. Cazorla
- Subjects
EFTS ,Mediterranean climate ,Ecology ,Functional geography ,Ecosystem Functional Types ,Biodiversity ,conservation ,Tropics ,Plant Science ,Enhanced vegetation index ,Functional biodiversity ,Correspondence analysis ,remote sensing ,Ecoregion ,Geography ,Ecosystem ,ecoregions ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics - Abstract
Large-scale ecological variations across Earth have important consequences for biodiversity and, therefore, forbiological conservation. Despite the widespread use of ecological maps in conservation schemes, they have been basedmainly on structural and compositional features but scarcely on functional dimensions of life. Incorporating functionalvariables complements and improves the descriptions of regionalizations and offers a new understanding of biodiversitypatterns. The development of remote sensing measurement allows for the description of the functional patterns of ecosystemsthrough Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), opening new opportunities to analyze the geography of life. This articleaims to examine the relationships between ecological regionalization based on components and structure and patternsof ecosystem functioning. As proof of case, we chose the Baja California peninsula, whose singularity has generated arich variety of ecological and biogeographical interpretations, mainly based on ecosystem components and structure. Wehypothesize that patterns in ecosystem functioning reflect ecoregionalization based on composition and structure features.We identified Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), from three descriptors of the seasonal curves of MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from 2001 to 2017. We characterized each ecoregion in terms of ecosystem functioning and we carried out a correspondence analysis between the EFTs classification and the ecoregions. At a large scale, EFTs showed a pattern with three general regions from northwest to south, capturing the north-south transition of climatic regimes shown in the ecoregions map, from the northwestern Mediterranean area to the southern tropical zone, with a desert transitionarea between them. However, differences between the functional characterization and some ecoregions were detectedin ecoregions identified as discrepancy areas between authors. In particular, some ecoregions considered Mediterraneanshowed a Desert character in its functioning, and others considered as Desert were Tropical functionally. EFTs remotelysensed measured at regional scales provide the basis for a more comprehensive regionalization of geographical patterns oflife and, therefore, an improvement for future conservation purposes.
- Published
- 2021