Floristic patterns of Atlantic Forest's coastal remnants: insights to guide conservation and management

The coastal remnants of the Atlantic Forest are important sources of plant biodiversity and are a significant part of this endangered biome. Despite this, in some areas the flora is still little known, such as the Serra da Tiririca State Park (PESET), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here we used information from scientific studies and data from the REFLORA virtual herbarium to synthesize the floristic parameters relating to the taxonomic classification of species, origin, life form, substrate, endemism and threat. For PESET, a total of 1519 species have been recorded 1360 of which are native to Brazil. Four hundred and eighty-one species are endemic to the Atlantic Forest and six are endemic to PESET. The Fabaceae family and the Eugenia genus had the highest number of records (160 and 33 species, respectively). Approximately 32% of documented plant species comprise trees, while 85.78% are associated with terrestrial habitats. Seventy-nine species are threatened (CR, EN and VU), while 868 have Not Evaluated or have Deficient Data (NE and DD). When compared with other Atlantic Forest remnants, PESET surprisingly showed greater species similarity with the Serra de São José (ISs = 0.91) in the Brazilian Cerrado and less similarity with the Costa do Sol State Park (ISs = 0.59), which is geographically closer. Our approach, used at PESET, can be applied to other coastal remnants and increase the knowledge about the patterns of flora richness in the Atlantic Forest's coastal remnants and provide support for the conservation and management strategies in this biome.