Floristic differentiation along coastal-inland gradients of the Atlantic Forest: insights from an urban ecotone in southeastern Brazil

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Abstract The Atlantic Forest of Brazil exhibits marked climatic and edaphic gradients that generate strong floristic turnover across space. Yet, coastal urban remnants remain underexplored as potential ecotones where climatic filtering and anthropogenic influences interact to shape plant assemblages. Here, we present a comprehensive floristic inventory of the Parque Natural Municipal de Niterói (PARNIT), an urban protected forest in southeastern Brazil, and compare its vascular plant composition with that of 21 other Atlantic Forest protected areas. A total of 707 species were recorded for PARNIT. Multivariate analyses (Jaccard/UPGMA and db-RDA) revealed that mean annual temperature and precipitation during the driest month are the primary drivers of floristic variation among sites. Despite its official classification as Dense Ombrophilous Forest, PARNIT clustered with coastal and seasonally dry areas, suggesting that local communities are structured by climatic filters similar to those operating in semi-deciduous and restinga forests. We propose that PARNIT presents traits of an urban coastal ecotone, capturing the transition between humid and seasonally dry Atlantic Forest types. These results emphasize the role of small urban forests in maintaining biogeographic diversity and highlight the need to revise phytophysiognomic classifications to better reflect the climatic and compositional continuum of the Atlantic Forest.

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