Edaphic specialization onto bare, rocky outcrops as a factor in the evolution of desert angiosperms.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the processes that enable organisms to shift into more arid environments as they emerge is critical for gauging resilience to climate change, yet these forces remain poorly known. In a comprehensive clade-based study, we investigate recent shifts into North American deserts in the rock daisies (tribe Perityleae), a diverse tribe of desert sunflowers (Compositae). We sample rock daisies across two separate contact zones between tropical deciduous forest and desert biomes in western North America and infer a time-calibrated phylogeny based on target capture sequence data. We infer biome shifts using Bayesian inference with paleobiome-informed models and find evidence for seven independent shifts into desert habitats since the onset of aridification in the late Miocene. The earl

SUBMITTER: Lichter-Marck IH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9963280 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature