Eduardo A. Pérez-García

• Dr.
• Profesor de Carrera at National Autonomous University of Mexico

Among the many explanations for the large biological diversity of Mexico is that it is the result of the contact between the Nearctic and Neotropical biotas; however, this contact-related explanation is not fully satisfactory and needs further examination in the light of historical biogeography. We offer newer insights into this issue by examining...

We updated the floristic checklist of the Nizanda region, Isthmus of Tehuantepec (southern Mexico), characterized the occurring plant communities based on dominant species, and described the region’s flora according to life form, growth form, growth type, and growth habit spectra. Ten years of botanical exploration, along with surveys in 188 100-m2...

En la región de Nizanda, área botánicamente poco conocida del Istmo de Tehuantepec, Distrito de Juchitán (Oaxaca), se realizó una caracterización general de las principales comunidades vegetales y se elaboró un inventario de la flora basado en colectas originales. La heterogeneidad del paisaje determina la existencia de siete tipos de vegetación: b...

Barkeria wixarika is described from Nayarit, Mexico. This new species is morphologically similar to B. uniflora but distinct in its flowering phenology, inflorescence type, petal shape, column morphology, and geographic distribution. Detailed comparisons with related species, including digital plates along with a map highlighting the distribution o...

Aim: We test the hypothesis that wind dispersal is more common among emergent tree species given that being tall increases the likelihood of effective seed dispersal. Location: Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Time period: 1970–2020. Major taxa studied: Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. Methods: We used a dataset consisting of tree inventories f...

Objective: We evaluated the use of tepojal as a substitute for bacteriological agar for in vitro culture of three species of Mexican orchids of the genus Barkeria. We had three objectives: (1) evaluate the use of tepojal for the in vitro germination of B. whartoniana seeds; (2) compare the growth and survival of B. uniflora and B. scandens plants i...

Aim: We test the hypothesis that wind dispersal is more common among emergent tree species given that being tall increases the likelihood of effective seed dispersal. Location: Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Time period: 1970–2020. Major taxa studied: Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. Methods: We used a dataset consisting of tree inventories fro...

Encyclia × tixtlensis, a possible natural hybrid between E. atrorubens and E. meliosma recently found in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, is described and illustrated. Aspects of its possible hybrid origin are discussed, and a comparison is made with other Encyclia taxa found in the same region. The conical-piriform shape of its pseudobulbs, the stra...

Worldwide, thousands of orchid species are harvested from the wild. Widespread legal and illegal unsustainable trade has contributed to the decline of many species. However, there is also evidence of long-term, sustainable wild harvest of some orchid species that contribute to local livelihoods and cultural traditions. There is a clear need to help...

Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristi...

Resilient secondary tropical forests? Although deforestation is rampant across the tropics, forest has a strong capacity to regrow on abandoned lands. These “secondary” forests may increasingly play important roles in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and landscape restoration. Poorter et al . analyzed the patterns of recovery i...

Barkeria uruapani, a new orchid species endemic to Michoacán, Mexico, is described and illustrated. Information on its distribution, habitat and conservation status is provided. The new species is also compared with B. barkeriola and B. uniflora, and an updated key to all Barkeria species is included. Diagnostic features of B. uruapani include the...

Background: Despite long-lasting efforts to disentangle the drivers of orchid pollination, pollination success in tropical dry forest orchids remains largely unknown. Questions and hypothesis: How successful are pollination in three tropical dry forest orchids? How is pollination influenced by floral display and floral rewards (as suggested by flo...

The existence of a wild population of Laelia dawsonii f. dawsonii is recorded for the first time in the Mexican State of Jalisco. Laelia dawsonii has a wide geographical distribution throughout the Sierra Madre del Sur (Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Jalisco); however, the populations are very isolated, and each one has very few individuals. Until now, no w...

Laelia halbingeriana Salazar & Soto Arenas is a wild epiphytic orchid endemic to Oaxaca, Mexico, that is collected with no plans for its management or conservation. The objective of this study was to propagate and evaluate the in vitro development of this species in the culture media with a variety of mineral salts and growth regulators. Groups of...

We describe and illustrate a new nothospecies in the genus Laelia: L. × meavei Cetzal & E.A. Pérez-García. This new taxon is most likely the result of the introgression between Laelia rubescens fo. peduncularis and L. dawsonii fo. dawsonii. The description of L. × meavei is based on cultivated plants coming from a single locality: Sola de Vega, Oax...

Antecedentes: La comercialización de orquídeas es una práctica común en los mercados mexicanos, especialmente en regiones de alta biodiversidad. Preguntas y/o hipótesis: ¿Cuántas especies de orquídeas se vendieron en el mercado de Las Margaritas? ¿De dónde se extrajeron? ¿Su disponibilidad (riqueza) mostró una variación temporal a lo largo de un a...

En el Orquideario de Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas, de la Facultad de Ciencias UNAM, se han detectado plantas con síntomas consistentes en clorosis, variegado, necrosis y mosaico. Varias de estas plantas son especies endémicas de México y a la fecha no existe información sobre su manejo fitosanitario. Por lo tanto, el objetivo del presente estudio fue c...

We studied the spatial arrangement of floristic diversity in two systems of limestone outcrops, located in two distant Neotropical sites: the region of Nizanda (S Mexico) and the Paranã Valley (Central Brazil). We addressed the question whether their vegetation could display a similar zonation, and we explored the relative effects of distance and a...

The genus Cuitlauzina is comprised of species of horticultural interest and is relatively well known. Hitherto six species have been recognized, all of them reported in Mesoamerica. Recently, new explorations in Guatemala revealed the existence of an undescribed taxon. In this article we describe it as Cuitlauzina cariasii, a striking novelty from...

Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturba...

Despite the recent rapid growth of tropical dry forest succession ecology, most studies on this topic have focused on plant community attribute recovery, whereas animal community successional dynamics has been largely overlooked, and the few existing studies have used taxonomic approaches. Here, we analyze the successional changes in the bee commun...

A report on cocoa growing in Mexico, on the environmental factors and the great variety of orchid species. Pérez-García, E.A. y M.A. González-Aguilar. 2018. Schokolade zur Rettung der in Mexiko vorkommenden Orchideen: Der Untergang der letzten Refugien im Bundesstaat Tabasco. Die Orchidee. Journal zur Förderung der Orchideenkunde. 69(2):133-141. Tr...

A synopsis of the Encyclia ambigua complex, a member of the E. ceratistes clade, is presented. It is composed of three species, namely E. ambigua, E. trachychila, and E. dressleri. These taxa are restricted to the southern part of Megamexico in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and occur mostly in oak-pine or broadleaf evergreen forests, o...

The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of...

Barkeria whartoniana is an epiphytic, microendemic orchid of southern Mexico. This species exclusively inhabits limestone outcrops within a tropical dry forest in Oaxaca State, and its current population size is very small. The goals of this study were to characterize its phorophyte preference, and to assess the success of the experimental reintrod...

Significance Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, diversity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification tha...

Aim Tropical forests account for a quarter of the global carbon storage and a third of the terrestrial productivity. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of environmental factors and forest attributes for ecosystem functioning, especially for the tropics. This study aims to relate aboveground biomass (AGB) and biomass dynamics (i.e...

L'analyse morphologique comparée d'une population de Restrepia trouvée dans les montagnes de Coban, au Guatemala avec les autres espèces du genre a permis d'établir qu'il s'agissait d'une nouvelle espèce. Elle est ici décrite, illustrée et comparée avec son plus proche parent, Restrepia vasquezii. Le disque basal du gynostème semble constituer un b...

The magnitude of the carbon sink in second-growth forests is expected to vary with successional biomass dynamics resulting from tree growth, recruitment, and mortality, and with the effects of climate on these dynamics. We compare aboveground biomass dynamics of dry and wet Neotropical forests, based on monitoring data gathered over 3–16 years in f...

Se describe una nueva especie de orquídea del género Brasolia (Sobralia) de Los Andes de Perú.

Regrowth of tropical secondary forests following complete or nearly complete removal of forest vegetation actively stores carbon in aboveground biomass, partially counterbalancing carbon emissions from deforestation, forest degradation, burning of fossil fuels, and other anthropogenic sources. We estimate the age and spatial extent of lowland secon...

div class="page" title="Page 1"> Two subspecies of Phragmipedium humboldtii from Guatemala, P. humboldtii subsp. monstruosum and P. humboldtii subsp. triandrum (Orchidaceae, Cypripedioideae) were wrong published in Die Orchidee 66(3), 2015, since the new status of these subspecies are based on an incorrect name for the authorship of P. humboldtii...

The role of canopy gaps in tropical dry forest (TDF) dynamics remains unclear. Here, 75 canopy gaps, mostly formed by the fall of Bursera spp. and Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum individuals, are described, and their potential consequences for forest regeneration are analysed in a Mexican TDF. In 50 randomly selected gaps, understorey vegetation was...

Land-use change occurs nowhere more rapidly than in the tropics, where the imbalance between deforestation and forest regrowth has large consequences for the global carbon cycle. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the rate of biomass recovery in secondary forests, and how these rates are influenced by climate, landscape, and prior land...

Aim Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Locatio...

1.Successional gradients are ubiquitous in nature, yet few studies have systematically examined the evolutionary origins of taxa that specialize at different successional stages. Here we quantify successional habitat specialization in Neotropical forest trees and evaluate its evolutionary lability along a precipitation gradient. Theoretically, succ...

QuestionNiche differentiation may promote species co-existence because it precludes competitive exclusion. However, in stressful environments, facilitation may predominate, and large niche overlaps may result from niche widening and positive spatial associations. We analysed the niche structure of a species-rich system over a soil depth gradient (a...

This is a report about four genera of the subfamily Cypripedioideae whose distribution is in Mesoamerica: part 1a Cypripedium, part 1b Selenipedium, part 2a Mexipedium, part 2b Phragmipedium. Here part 1b is presented: the genus Selenipedium with one species in Mesoamerica Selenipedium chica.

1. Successional gradients are ubiquitous in nature, yet few studies have systematically examined the evolutionary origins of taxa that specialize at different successional stages. Here we quantify successional habitat specialization in Neotropical forest trees and evaluate its evolutionary lability along a precipitation gradient. Theoretically, suc...

Die Orchidee 66(4), 2015 Cuitlauzina in Mexiko und Guatemala 258 Cuitlauzina candida (LindL.) dressLer et N. H. WiLLiams (Mexiko und Guatemala) Cuitlauzina convallarioides (schLtr.) dressLer et N. H. WiLLiams (Costa Rica und Panama) Cuitlauzina dubia (S. rosiLLo) Yañez et soto arenas ex soLano (Mexiko) Cuitlauzina egertonii (LindL.) dressLer et N....

El estudio del género Stanhopea es complicado debido a que las flores son de corta duración y porque la taxonomía de este género se ha centrado en la morfología del labelo. El problema de ello es que los labelos de estas especies son muy carnosos y generalmente se deforman al prensarse y deshidratarse para su preservación en el herbario. Cuando la...

Se describe e ilustra una especie nueva del género Laelia: L. mottae Archila, Chiron, Szlach. & E.A. Pérez-García. Durante muchos años esta especie se consideró como una variante enana de Laelia anceps; sin embargo, el análisis de ejemplares, tanto silvestres como cultivados, permitió establecer que en realidad se trata de dos especies. Laelia mott...

We describe and illustrate a new species of the genus Laelia: L. mottae Archila, Chiron, Szlach. & E.A. Perez-Garcia. For many years, this species was considered a dwarf variant of Laelia anceps; however, the analysis of field-coming and cultivate specimens enabled us to conclude that they actually are two species. Laelia mottae comes from south-ea...

A new natural hybrid between Prosthechea cochleata and P. radiata (Orchidaceae, Laeliinae) from the central part of Guatemala, P. × chixoyensis Mó & Cetzal, is herein described, illustrated and characterized based on the morphological characters. The new nothospecies is most similar to P. cochleata but the petals are proportionally broader and the...

Mots-clés/Keywords/Palabras-clave : Alta Verapaz, Maxillarieae, Xylobium subintegrum. Résumé Le genre Xylobium est largement distribué en Amérique tropicale. Les espèces connues forment généralement de grandes populations et, comme elles sont de culture facile, on les trouve fréquemment dans les collections néotropicales. Dans cet article, nous déc...

ist Biologe und lehrt an der natur-wissenschaftlichen Fakultät, Abtei-lung Ökologie und natürliche Res-sourcen der Universität von Mexiko. Er ist Verfasser zahlreicher Artikel in verschiedenen internationalen wissenschaftlichen zeitschriften. In den letzten Jahren konnten wir auch in unserer zeitschrift mehrfach Artikel von ihm über mexikanische Or...

Einführung In dieser Arbeit werden Orchideenarten aus insgesamt vier Gattungen aus der Unterfamilie Cypripedioideae vorgestellt, deren Verbreitungsgebiete sich in Me-soamerika befinden. Die Arbeit umfasst zwei Teile. Im ersten Teil werden die Gattungen Cypripedium (Teil 1a) und Selenipedium (Teil 1b), im zweiten Teil Mexipedium (Teil 2a) und Phragm...

El descubrimiento de Mexipedium xerophyticum ha sido catalogado como uno los hallazgos mas notables de la orquideoflora neotropical en las ultimas decadas (Salazar y Hagsater, 1997). A pesar de que esta especie tiene cierto interes horticola, su importancia radica mas en terminos biologicos, ya que ha modificado las ideas que se tenian sobre las re...

We tested whether and how functional composition changes with succession in dry deciduous and wet evergreen forests of Mexico. We hypothesized that compositional changes during succession in dry forest were mainly determined by increasing water availability leading to community functional changes from conservative to acquisitive strategies, and in...

Hernández Apolinar, M., C.C. Gutiérrez-Paredes, I. Sánchez-Gallen, E. Aguirre y E.A. Pérez-García. 2012. Ecological aspects of Cypripedium irapeanum La Llave & Lex., an endangered Mexican orchid species. The Slipper Orchid Alliance Newsletter. Volume 13(4):1-5 Winter.

Se describe e ilustra Encyclia × nizanburyi , una notoespecie nueva la cual solo se conoce de la region de Nizanda, en la vertiente del Pacifico del Istmo de Tehuantepec, en el estado de Oaxaca, Mexico. Se discute el posible origen hibrido de este nuevo taxon y se le compara con sus progenitores hipoteticos: Encyclia nizandensis y Encyclia hanburyi...

Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem-service provision will increasingly depend on the existence of secondary vegetation. Our success in achieving these goals will be determined by our ability to accurately estimate the structure and diversity of such communities at broad geographic scales. We examined whether the texture (the spatial variation...

Best descriptive and predictive linear models for vegetation attributes as a function of one, two and three textural variables (TV). See Table 1 for vegetational attributes abbreviations. IR: near infra-red band, RED: red band, NDVI: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, EVI: Enhanced Vegetation Index. See Table 3 for the description of textural...

Within-site variability for vegetational variables. See Table 1 for vegetational attributes abbreviations and units of measurement. SE: Standard error. M: mature forest. (XLS)

Entre las diversas ideas que se han propuesto para explicar la gran diversidad biológica de México está la que afirma que ésta es el resultado del contacto de las biotas neotropical y neártica; sin embargo, esta explicación relacionada con el gran contacto biótico de las Américas no es completamente satisfactoria y necesita ser revisada a la luz de...

El bosque tropical caducifolio es uno de los ecosistemas más característicos del estado de Oaxaca (sur de México). Se estima que este ecosistema ocupó alrededor de 30% del territorio estatal antes de la acción humana. La exploración botánica ha demostrado que en él se alberga aproximadamente una tercera parte de la diversidad vegetal total de este...

The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced across tropical dry regions results in the elimination of native vegetation. Upon field abandonment, the seed bank becomes a potentially important mechanism of natural regeneration at early successional stages. Soil properties and climate seasonality may affect seed bank characteristics, thus we analyzed the...

Vegetation and environment change mutually during secondary succession, yet the idiosyncrasies of the vegetation effect on the understorey environment are poorly understood. To test whether the successional understorey environment changes predictably and is shaped by the structure and seasonality of tropical dry forests, we estimated basal area and...

The importance of space as an ecological factor is an emerging paradigm in community ecology, particularly as a driving force of biodiversity patterns. We analysed β-diversity linked to spatial structure in four communities (tropical dry forest, savanna, xerophytic vegetation, subdeciduous forest) that occur in a tropical complex landscape of south...

The development of forest succession theory has been based on studies in temperate and tropical wet forests. As rates and pathways of succession vary with the environment, advances in successional theory and study approaches are challenged by controversies derived from such variation and by the scarcity of studies in other ecosystems. During five y...

Mechanistic models of community assembly state that biotic and abiotic filters constrain species establishment through selection on their functional traits. Predicting this assembly process is hampered because few studies directly incorporate environmental measurements and scale up from species to community level and because the functional traits'...

We studied the spatial arrangement of floristic diversity in two systems of limestone outcrops, located in two distant Neotropical sites: the region of Nizanda (S Mexico) and the Paranã Valley (Central Brazil). We addressed the question whether their vegetation could display a similar zonation, and we explored the relative effects of distance and a...

Topography strongly affects the distribution of insolation in the terrain. Patterns of incoming solar radiation affect energy and water balances within a landscape, resulting in changes in vegetation attributes. Unlike other regions, in seasonally dry tropical forest areas the potential contribution of topography-related environmental heterogeneity...

Studies of tropical secondary forest succession face strong limitations due to the slow pace of succession and the time-consuming task of monitoring processes. The occurrence of tree rings in secondary forest trees may help expand our knowledge on succession in these systems and may be useful for fallow dating in chronosequence studies. We examine...

We analyzed successional patterns in a very dry tropical deciduous forest by using 15 plots differing in age after abandonment and contrasted them to secondary successions elsewhere in the tropics. We used multivariate ordination and nonlinear models to examine changes in composition and structure and to estimate forest recovery rates and resilienc...

The magnitude of the biological differentiation between natural savannas and pastures (anthropogenic grasslands) coexisting in a single landscape, in terms of their floristic composition and community structure, was studied in the Nizanda region, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca State, southern Mexico. Vegetation samples of 15 m2 each were taken at 2...

El conocimiento sobre la vegetación de sabana en es aún incipiente y está marcado por un debate sobre el origen primario o antropogénico de estas comunidades. En este estudio se caracterizó la estructura y la composición florística de las sabanas de la región de Nizanda (Oaxaca, México) a partir de un muestreo realizado en 20 sitios de 15 m2 cada u...

Aim The purpose of the study was to assess the degree of floristic differentiation between tropical dry forest (TDF) and savanna occurring in a single landscape. This comparison provides information on the responses of vegetation to the prevailing environmental conditions, while it also allows us to make inferences about large-scale events and proc...