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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: The Cape flora
BMC Evolutionary Biology, Volume 11, No. 1, Article 39, Year 2011
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Description
Background: The 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. Results: Forty-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. Conclusions: Adaptive 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. © 2011 Warren et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3045326/bin/1471-2148-11-39-S1.PDF
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3045326/bin/1471-2148-11-39-S2.PDF
Authors & Co-Authors
Warren, Ben H.
United Kingdom, Reading
University of Reading
France, Saint-denis
Université de la Réunion
Bakker, Freek T.
Netherlands, Leiden
National Herbarium of the Netherlands - Nhn
Bellstedt, Dirk Uwe
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
Bytebier, Benny
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
South Africa, Durban
University of Kwazulu-natal
Claßen-Bockhoff, Regine
Germany, Mainz
Johannes Gutenberg-universität Mainz
Dreyer, Léanne Laurette
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
Edwards, Dawn
United Kingdom, London
Royal Horticulture Society
Forest, Félix
United Kingdom, Richmond
Jodrell Laboratory
Galley, Chloé A.
Switzerland, Zurich
Universität Zürich
Hardy, Christopher R.
United States, Millersville
Millersville University
Linder, H. Peter Peter
Switzerland, Zurich
Universität Zürich
Muasya, A. Muthama
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Mummenhoff, Klaus
Germany, Osnabruck
Osnabrück University
Oberlander, Kenneth C.
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
Quint, Marcus
Germany, Mainz
Johannes Gutenberg-universität Mainz
Richardson, James Edward
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Savolainen, Vincent
United Kingdom, Richmond
Jodrell Laboratory
United Kingdom, London
Imperial College London
Schrire, Brian D.
United Kingdom, Richmond
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
van der Niet, Timotheüs
Switzerland, Zurich
Universität Zürich
South Africa, Durban
University of Kwazulu-natal
Verboom, George Anthony
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Yesson, Chris
United Kingdom, Reading
University of Reading
Hawkins, Julie A.
United Kingdom, Reading
University of Reading
Statistics
Citations: 22
Authors: 22
Affiliations: 15
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1471-2148-11-39
e-ISSN:
14712148
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Locations
South Africa