Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Research Article

Freek T Bakker¹  Dirk U Bellstedt²  Benny Bytebier³  Klaus Mummenhoff⁴  Léanne L Dreyer⁵  Kenneth C Oberlander⁵  G Anthony Verboom⁶  A Muthama Muasya⁶  Marcus Quint⁷  Regine Claßen-Bockhoff⁷  Chloé Galley⁸  H Peter Linder⁸  Timotheüs van der Niet⁹  Christopher R Hardy^1,10  Félix Forest^1,11  Vincent Savolainen^1,12  Dawn Edwards^1,13  Christopher Yesson^1,14  Julie A Hawkins^1,14  Ben H Warren^1,15  Brian D Schrire^1,16  James E Richardson^1,17 

[1] Biosystematics Group, Wageningen UR, & Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Wageningen University branch, Generaal Foulkesweg 37, 6703, Wageningen, BL, The Netherlands;Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa;Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa;School of Biological and Conservation Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pr. Bag X01 Scottsville Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa;Department of Biology/Botany, University of Osnabrueck, Barbarastrase 11, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany;Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, 7602, Matieland, South Africa;Department of Botany, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, 7701, Rondebosch, South Africa;Institut für Spezielle Botanik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Bentzelweg 2, 55099, Mainz, Germany;Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Zürich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH 8008, Zürich, Switzerland;Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Zürich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH 8008, Zürich, Switzerland;School of Biological and Conservation Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pr. Bag X01 Scottsville Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa;J.C. Parks Herbarium, Department of Biology, Millersville University, 17551, Millersville, Pennsylvania, USA;Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3DS, Surrey, UK;Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3DS, Surrey, UK;Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, SL5 7PY, Ascot, Berkshire, UK;Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley, GU23 6QB, Woking, Surrey, UK;School of Biological Sciences, Lyle Tower, University of Reading, RG6 6BX, Whiteknights, Reading, UK;School of Biological Sciences, Lyle Tower, University of Reading, RG6 6BX, Whiteknights, Reading, UK;UMR C53 PVBMT, CIRAD-Université de la Réunion, 7 chemin de l'IRAT, Ligne Paradis, 97410, Saint Pierre, France;The Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AB, Surrey, UK;The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR, Edinburgh, UK;

关键词: Fossil Record;    Winter Rainfall;    Flower Duration;    Distributional Shift;    Flowering Phenology;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2148-11-39

 received in 2010-09-07, accepted in 2011-02-08,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years.ResultsForty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology.ConclusionsAdaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Warren et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011