1. Evolutionary diversity in tropical tree communities peaks at intermediate precipitation
- Author
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Marcelo F. Simon, Aniceto Daza, Danilo M. Neves, Timothy R. Baker, Gwilym P. Lewis, Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz, Ary Teixeira de Oliveira-Filho, Rafael de Paiva Salomão, Daniel Villarroel, Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, R. Toby Pennington, Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima, Claudio Nicoletti de Fraga, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Ricardo A. Segovia, Kyle G. Dexter, Carlos Reynel, Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, Geovane S. Siqueira, José Luis Marcelo-Peña, Luzmila Arroyo, G. Alexander Parada, Marcelo Trindade Nascimento, Leandro Valle Ferreira, DANILO M. NEVES, UFMG, KYLE G. DEXTER, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, UK, TIMOTHY R. BAKER, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, UK, FERNANDA COELHO DE SOUZA, UNB, ARY T. OLIVEIRA-FILHO, UFMG, LUCIANO P. QUEIROZ, UEFS, HAROLDO C. LIMA, INSTITUTO DE PESQUISAS JARDIM BOTÂNICO DO RIO DE JANEIRO, MARCELO FRAGOMENI SIMON, Cenargen, GWILYM P. LEWIS, ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, UK, RICARDO A. SEGOVIA, UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE, CHILE, LUZMILA ARROYO, UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA GABRIEL RENÉ MORENO, BOLIVIA, CARLOS REYNEL, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AGRARIA LA MOLINA, PERU, JOSÉ L. MARCELO-PEÑA, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AGRARIA LA MOLINA, PERU, ISAU HUAMANTUPA-CHUQUIMACO, INSTITUTO DE PESQUISAS JARDIM BOTÂNICO DO RIO DE JANEIRO, DANIEL VILLARROEL, UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA GABRIEL RENÉ MORENO, BOLIVIA, G. ALEXANDER PARADA, UNIVERSIDADE AUTÓNOMA GABRIEL RENÉ MORENO, BOLIVIA, ANICETO DAZA, UNIVERSIDADE NACIONAL AGRARIA LA MOLINA, PERU, REYNALDO LINARES-PALOMINO, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AGRARIA DA MOLINA, PERU, LEANDRO V. FERREIRA, MUSEU PARAENSE EMILIO GOELDI, RAFAEL P. SALOMÃO, MUSEU PARAENSE EMILIO GOELDI, GEOVANE S. SIQUEIRA, RESERVA NATURAL VALE, MARCELO T. NASCIMENTO, UENF, CLAUDIO N. FRAGA, INSTITUTO DE PESQUISAS JARDIM BOTÂNICO DO RIO DE JANEIRO, and R. TOBY PENNINGTON, ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN EDINBURGH, UK.
- Subjects
Rainfall ,0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Conservation of Natural Resources ,Evolution ,Climate Change ,Rain ,Biome ,Biodiversity ,lcsh:Medicine ,Precipitation ,Protected Areas ,Conservation ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,Trees ,03 medical and health sciences ,Species Specificity ,Deforestation ,lcsh:Science ,Phylogeny ,Tropical Climate ,Multidisciplinary ,Ecology ,Phylogenetic tree ,Plant Dispersal ,lcsh:R ,Tropics ,South America ,15. Life on land ,Biological Evolution ,Markov Chains ,Phylogenetic diversity ,030104 developmental biology ,Geography ,lcsh:Q ,Species Richness ,Species richness ,Protected area ,Herbivores - Abstract
Global patterns of species and evolutionary diversity in plants are primarily determined by a temperature gradient, but precipitation gradients may be more important within the tropics, where plant species richness is positively associated with the amount of rainfall. The impact of precipitation on the distribution of evolutionary diversity, however, is largely unexplored. Here we detail how evolutionary diversity varies along precipitation gradients by bringing together a comprehensive database on the composition of angiosperm tree communities across lowland tropical South America (2,025 inventories from wet to arid biomes), and a new, large-scale phylogenetic hypothesis for the genera that occur in these ecosystems. We find a marked reduction in the evolutionary diversity of communities at low precipitation. However, unlike species richness, evolutionary diversity does not continually increase with rainfall. Rather, our results show that the greatest evolutionary diversity is found in intermediate precipitation regimes, and that there is a decline in evolutionary diversity above 1,490 mm of mean annual rainfall. If conservation is to prioritise evolutionary diversity, areas of intermediate precipitation that are found in the South American ‘arc of deforestation’, but which have been neglected in the design of protected area networks in the tropics, merit increased conservation attention.
- Published
- 2020
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