Continental scale patterns and predictors of fern richness and phylogenetic diversity.

ABSTRACT: Because ferns have a wide range of habitat preferences and are widely distributed, they are an ideal group for understanding how diversity is distributed. Here we examine fern diversity on a broad-scale using standard and corrected richness measures as well as phylogenetic indices; in addition we determine the environmental predictors of each diversity metric. Using the combined records of Australian herbaria, a dataset of over 60,000 records was obtained for 89 genera to infer richness. A molecular phylogeny of all the genera was constructed and combined with the herbarium records to obtain phylogenetic diversity patterns. A hotspot of both taxic and phylogenetic diversity occurs in the Wet Tropics of northeastern Australia. Although considerable diversity is distributed along the eastern

SUBMITTER: Nagalingum NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4396410 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature