Rates of niche and phenotype evolution lag behind diversification in a temperate radiation.

ABSTRACT: Environmental change can create opportunities for increased rates of lineage diversification, but continued species accumulation has been hypothesized to lead to slowdowns via competitive exclusion and niche partitioning. Such density-dependent models imply tight linkages between diversification and trait evolution, but there are plausible alternative models. Little is known about the association between diversification and key ecological and phenotypic traits at broad phylogenetic and spatial scales. Do trait evolutionary rates coincide with rates of diversification, are there lags among these rates, or is diversification niche-neutral? To address these questions, we combine a deeply sampled phylogeny for a major flowering plant clade-Saxifragales-with phenotype and niche data to examine

SUBMITTER: Folk RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6561174 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature