Latitudinal pattern in plant composition along the Peruvian and Chilean fog oases

Fog oases in western South America (locally named lomas) are distributed in a kind of fragmented or patchy way into the coastal desert. Their origin, as well as their current ecological connections in terms of species' dispersal capability, remains an open question. We analyzed the latitudinal pattern in plant species and phylogenetic similarities of 13 lomas, which cover the latitudinal extent of these habitats, from 7°58′ to 26°15′ S. A data-set of 1004 species from available checklists was considered. Plant species composition and phylogenetic relationships among lomas were analyzed by non-metric multidimensional scaling. Our results show three main groups of lomas (northern Peruvian, southern Peruvian, and North-Central Chilean lomas) that are aligned along a complex, nonlinear north–south gradient in ordination space. The weak species overlap between Peruvian and Chilean lomas, together with the higher content in endemic species of the Chilean communities, supports the hypothesis that, at least recently, species composition of the three main groups of lomas has been shaped by desert barriers limiting plant dispersal.