An overview of the floristic richness and conservation of the arid regions of northern Mexico
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The arid and semiarid regions of Northern Mexico harbor diverse, highly endemic, and geographically complex ecosystems. These share topographic and biogeographic similarities that can be used as an analytical framework to assess biodiversity patterns. This study presents the current status of vascular plant inventories for Mexican Aridamerica. The spatial distribution of floristic records obtained for different vegetation types was analyzed for a 171-year period of field inventories. Floristic curatorial records (96,302) were obtained from the Mexican National Biodiversity Information System, provided by CONABIO, belonging to 10,772 species. Results show sampling efforts are scarce to characterize the vascular plant diversity of the natural ecosystems of Northern Mexico. The lowest sampling efforts were recorded for the central regions of the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, and western San Luis Potosí. The highest species richness was obtained for currently disturbed areas, since most of the analyzed floristic records are historical. The sites where most specimens were collected are now agricultural lands or urban zones.