Evolutionary patterns of range size, abundance and species richness in Amazonian angiosperm trees.

ABSTRACT: Amazonian tree species vary enormously in their total abundance and range size, while Amazonian tree genera vary greatly in species richness. The drivers of this variation are not well understood. Here, we construct a phylogenetic hypothesis that represents half of Amazonian tree genera in order to contribute to explaining the variation. We find several clear, broad-scale patterns. Firstly, there is significant phylogenetic signal for all three characteristics; closely related genera tend to have similar numbers of species and similar mean range size and abundance. Additionally, the species richness of genera shows a significant, negative relationship with the mean range size and abundance of their constituent species. Our results suggest that phylogenetically correlated intrinsic factors,

SUBMITTER: Dexter K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5018673 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature