Páramo Calamagrostis s.l. (Poaceae): An updated list and key to the species known or likely to occur in páramos of NW South America and southern Central America including two new species, one new variety and five new records for Colombia

Plant trait and vegetation data along a 1314 m elevation gradient with fire history in Puna grasslands, Perú

Alpine grassland vegetation supports globally important biodiversity and ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by climate warming and other environmental changes. Trait-based approaches can support understanding of vegetation responses to global change drivers and consequences for ecosystem functioning. In six sites along a 1314 m elevational gradient in Puna grasslands in the Peruvian Andes, we collected datasets on vascular plant composition, plant functional traits, biomass, ecosystem fluxes, and climate data over three years. The data were collected in the wet and dry season and from plots with different fire histories. We selected traits associated with plant resource use, growth, and life history strategies (leaf area, leaf dry/wet mass, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf C, N, P content, C and N isotopes). The trait dataset contains 3,665 plant records from 145 taxa, 54,036 trait measurements (increasing the trait data coverage of the regional flora by 420%) covering 14 traits and 121 plant taxa (ca. 40% of which have no previous publicly available trait data) across 33 families.

Ecosystem services show variable responses to future climate conditions in the Colombian páramos

Background

The páramos, the high-elevation ecosystems of the northern Andes, are well-known for their high species richness and provide a variety of ecosystem services to local subsistence-based communities and regional urbanizations. Climate change is expected to negatively affect the provision of these services, but the level of this impact is still unclear. Here we assess future climate change impact on the ecosystem services provided by the critically important páramos of the department of Boyacá in Colombia, of which over 25% of its territory is páramo.

Methods

We first performed an extensive literature review to identify useful species of Boyacá, and selected 103 key plant species that, based on their uses, support the provision of ecosystem services in the páramos. We collated occurrence information for each key species and using a Mahalanobis distance approach we applied climate niche modelling for current and future conditions.

Results

We show an overall tendency of reduction in area for all ecosystem services under future climate conditions (mostly a loss of 10% but reaching up to a loss of 40%), but we observe also increases, and responses differ in intensity loss. Services such as Food for animals, Material and Medicinal, show a high range of changes that includes both positive and negative outcomes, while for Food for humans the responses are mostly substantially negative. Responses are less extreme than those projected for individual species but are often complex because a given ecosystem service is provided by several species. As the level of functional or ecological redundancy between species is not yet known, there is an urgency to expand our knowledge on páramos ecosystem services for more species. Our results are crucial for decision-makers, social and conservation organizations to support sustainable strategies to monitor and mitigate the potential consequences of climate change for human livelihoods in mountainous settings.

A phylogeny of species near Agrostis supporting the recognition of two new genera, Agrostula and Alpagrostis (Poaceae, Pooideae, Agrostidinae) from Europe

Based on a molecular DNA phylogeny of three plastid (rpl32-trnK, rps16 intron, and rps16-trnK) and nuclear ITS regions investigating 32 species of Agrostidinae, we describe two new genera, Agrostula gen. nov. with a single species and Alpagrostis gen. nov. with four species; provide support for five species in a monophyletic Podagrostis; and include a small sample of 12 species of a monophyletic Agrostis s.s. (including the type and most species of Neoschischkinia), that separates into two clades corresponding to A. subg. Agrostis and A. subg. Vilfa. Agrostula differs from Agrostis in having leaf blades with pillars of sclerenchyma which are continuous between the adaxial and abaxial surface of the blades, dorsally rounded glumes with blunt to truncate and erose to denticulate apices, florets ½ the length of the glumes, lemmas equally wide as long, widest at (or near) apex, apices broadly truncate, irregularly 5 to 7 denticulate to erose, awnless, anthers longer than the lemmas, and rugose-papillose caryopses. Alpagrostis differs from Agrostis in having geniculate basally inserted awns and truncate lemma apices with lateral veins prolonged from the apex in (2)4 setae. The following eight new combinations are made: Agrostula truncatula, Agrostula truncatula subsp. durieui, Alpagrostis alpina, Alpagrostis alpina var. flavescens, Alpagrostis barceloi, Alpagrostis setacea, Alpagrostis setacea var. flava, and Alpagrostis schleicheri. In addition, we provide a key separating Agrostula and Alpagrostis from Agrostis s.s. and other genera previously considered as synonyms of Agrostis; lectotypify Agrostis alpina Scop., A. schleicheri Jord. & Verl., A. truncatula Parl., and A. truncatula var. durieui Henriq.; and neotypify A. setacea Curtis.

Agrostis and Podagrostis (Agrostidinae, Poaceae) from páramos of Boyacá, Colombia: synoptic taxonomy including a key to Colombian species

We present taxonomic notes, including updated species descriptions and images, for the nine species of Agrostis and one species of Podagrostis found in páramos of Departamento Boyacá, Colombia (A. boyacensis, A. breviculmis, A. capillaris, A. foliata, A. cf. imberbis, A. mertensii, A. perennans s.l., A. stolonifera, A. tolucensis, Podagrostis trichodes). Agrostis cf. imberbis, previously known from austral South America, is newly recorded for Colombia, A. capillaris is a new regional record for Boyacá, and the name Agrostis stuebelii is lectotypified. We include keys in English and Spanish to distinguish the 15 species of Agrostis and two species of Podagrostis that are cited as occurring in Colombia.

New combinations and updated descriptions in Podagrostis (Agrostidinae, Poaceae) from the Neotropics and Mexico

Based on morphological study and corroborated by unpublished molecular phylogenetic analyses, five grass species of high-mountain grasslands in Mexico, Central and South America, Agrostis bacillata, A. exserta, A. liebmannii, A. rosei, and A. trichodes, are transferred to Podagrostis and bring the number of species of this genus recognized in the New World to ten. The name Apera liebmannii is lectotypified and epitypified. We provide an updated genus description for Podagrostis, and updated species descriptions, images, and notes on the new combinations. The diagnostic characteristics differentiating Podagrostis from Agrostis are: a) palea that reaches from (2/3) ¾ to almost the apex of the lemma; b) florets that usually almost equal the length of the glumes or are at least ¾ the length of the glumes; c) rachilla extension present and emerging from under the base of the palea as a slender short stub (rudimentary or up to 1.4 mm long, sometimes obscure in most florets in P. rosei), smooth or scaberulous, glabrous or distally pilulose (hairs < 0.3 mm long); d) lemmas usually awnless, sometimes with a short straight awn 0.2-0.6 mm long, inserted medially or in the upper 1/3 of the lemma, not surpassing the glumes (awn well-developed, straight or geniculate and inserted in lower 1/3 of lemma, not or briefly surpassing glumes in P. rosei). We include a generic key to distinguish the species of Podagrostis from other similar genera in Latin America and a key to distinguish the species of Podagrostis now accepted as occurring in these areas.