Plant richness, turnover, and evolutionary diversity track gradients of stability and ecological opportunity in a megadiversity center.

ABSTRACT: Research on global patterns of diversity has been dominated by studies seeking explanations for the equator-to-poles decline in richness of most groups of organisms, namely the latitudinal diversity gradient. A problem with this gradient is that it conflates two key explanations, namely biome stability (age and area) and productivity (ecological opportunity). Investigating longitudinal gradients in diversity can overcome this problem. Here we investigate a longitudinal gradient in plant diversity in the megadiverse Cape Floristic Region (CFR). We test predictions of the age and area and ecological opportunity hypotheses using metrics for both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and turnover. Our plant dataset includes modeled occurrences for 4,813 species and dated molecular phylogenies f

SUBMITTER: Colville JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7443951 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature