Macroclimate and Topography Interact to Influence the Abundance of Divaricate Plants in New Zealand.

ABSTRACT: The abundance of the divaricate growth form in New Zealand has been interpreted as either (a) the response of an isolated flora to cool, dry, Plio-Pleistocene climates; or (b) a defense against large browsing birds (moa) that were hunted to extinction shortly after human arrival during the last millennium. We used patterns of divaricate plant abundance across present-day landscapes to test a novel synthetic hypothesis: that the divaricate form is of most value to plants on fertile soils that attract herbivores, on sites where climatic constraints prevent plants from quickly growing out of the browse zone. This hypothesis predicts that divaricate species should be most abundant on terraces (landforms that are both fertile and frost-prone) in regions that are cold and dry, and should be scar

SUBMITTER: Lusk CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7248281 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature