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Metabolic groups of plants in neotropical hyperseasonal savannas threatened by Australian Acacia invasion

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Abstract

The hyperseasonal savanna experiences regular flooding, drought stresses and is a neotropical vegetation type threatened by global change including Acacia spp. invasions. To deepen the understanding of hyperseasonal savannas in southern Bahia State, Brazil, after the massive invasion of Acacia mangium, we aimed to answer whether (i) the plants can be separated into different metabolic groups of plants; (ii) Acacia invasion can change the functioning for different metabolic groups of plants; (iii) invasive Acacia uptake water differently from native species; (iv) there are different threats of Acacia invasion on different metabolic groups of plants. For the answers, we sampled two series of plots arrangements: Marcetia centered plots and Acacia centered plots. Then, we analyzed stable isotopes of C, N and O to ensure the proportions that are expected in each metabolic group of plants. We detected both C3 and C4 metabolic groups of plants. Two C3 species are possibly CAM facultative. The functioning of C3 plants as a functional group was not affected by the Acacia invasion, but this result does not exclude an expected species turnover between C3 herbs and C3 trees. The C4 plants of invaded Mussununga lost their response of increasing water use efficiency to the increasing Leaf N%. Plants depend on the same water source as the soil water from recent rains. There are differences in δ18O among species possibly because some grow mostly during the rainy season with the 18O-enriched water meanwhile the invader Acacia mangium grows throughout the year whenever it rains. C3 plants largely dominate these ecosystems. There is a possible threat to C4 plants due to shading. Hyperseasonal savannas should be considered critically endangered by global change, especially after Acacia invasions. Initiatives for conservation of hyperseasonal savannas should be considered for effective conservation of these ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the Botany Graduate Program and the Ecology Graduate Program of Universidade Federal de Viçosa.

Funding

The funding was provided by FAPEMIG (FORTIS, Project ID APQ‐01309‐16), CAPES (PROAP fund and scholarships for NS, MCNAS and GST), CNPq (NS scholarship, and Project ID 446698/2014‐8) and DAAD (Project BIOBRAS ID 57393735). JAAMN holds a CNPq productivity fellowship (IDs 307591/2016-6, 306335/2020-4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Plants – LEEP, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, 36570-900, Brazil

    João Augusto Alves Meira-Neto, Nathália Silva, Pedro Manuel Villa, Maria Carolina Nunes Alves da Silva & Glaucia Soares Tolentino

  2. Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Botany Graduate Program, Viçosa, 36570-900, Brazil

    João Augusto Alves Meira-Neto, Nathália Silva, Pedro Manuel Villa, Maria Carolina Nunes Alves da Silva & Glaucia Soares Tolentino

  3. Institute of Landscape Ecology - ILÖK, University of Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Tillmann Buttschardt

  4. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes – CE3C, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C2, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Florian Ulm & Cristina Máguas

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  1. João Augusto Alves Meira-Neto
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  2. Nathália Silva
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  3. Pedro Manuel Villa
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  4. Maria Carolina Nunes Alves da Silva
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Contributions

JAAMN, FU and CM conceived and designed the survey. FU, CM and GST performed the survey. JAAMN, GST, PMV, NS and CM analyzed the data. JAAMN wrote the first version of the manuscript and PMV, NS, TB and CM provided editorial advice.

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Correspondence to João Augusto Alves Meira-Neto.

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Meira-Neto, J.A.A., Silva, N., Villa, P.M. et al. Metabolic groups of plants in neotropical hyperseasonal savannas threatened by Australian Acacia invasion. Wetlands Ecol Manage 31, 401–417 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-023-09924-5

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