Article
Ecology
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Tao Deng, Yi Jin
Summary: The phylogenetic structures of more recently evolved and diversified clades of pteridophytes are consistent with the tropical niche conservatism hypothesis, suggesting that the age of the taxon, its physiological adaptations, and global climatic changes during its evolutionary history are reflected in current plant assemblages.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Aiying Zhang, Zhongjie Yang, Yu Zuo, Liang Ma, Hanyu Zhang
Summary: This study examines the distribution patterns of C-4 species in China and their relationship with climatic gradients. The findings indicate that the distribution of C-4 species in China is influenced by temperature and precipitation, with higher species richness and phylogenetic clustering in the southern region.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Jian Zhang, Yi Jin, Meichen Jiang
Summary: This study fills a critical knowledge gap by examining the relationships between the phylogenetic structure of ferns and climatic factors. The findings show that temperature-related variables explain more variation in phylogenetic structure than precipitation-related variables, and climate extremes have a stronger relationship than climate seasonality.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Yi Jin
Summary: The composition of fern assemblages along the Himalayan elevational gradient in Nepal shows strong signatures of evolutionary processes. Variables related to temperature and climatic extremes tend to play a more important role than precipitation- and seasonality-related variables in driving fern phylogenetic structure.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Flavien Collart, Jian Wang, Jairo Patino, Anders Hagborg, Lars Soderstrom, Bernard Goffinet, Nicolas Magain, Olivier J. Hardy, Alain Vanderpoorten
Summary: The study reveals that changes in the phylogenetic composition among liverwort floras across the globe are primarily shaped by macroclimatic variation, rather than geographic distance. Macroclimatic niche conservatism plays a significant role in constraining the distribution of liverworts over evolutionary time scales.
Article
Ecology
Claire Harris, Neil Brummitt, Christina A. Cobbold, Richard Reeve
Summary: This study tested the phylogenetic conservatism of plant climatic traits using global climate reconstructions and plant occurrence records, and found strong phylogenetic signals in climate variables. The study also successfully imputed missing bioclimatic envelopes for removed species.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Mark Westoby, Luke Yates, Barbara Holland, Ben Halliwell
Summary: Cross-species correlations between quantitative traits or between traits and habitat properties can indicate that a trait value is effective in supporting populations in certain contexts but not others. Controlling for phylogeny is important in such correlations, but it has its limitations as a clade's traits tend to provide success in specific habitats, leading to similar trait selection within the clade. Multi-response mixed models using phylogenetic covariance matrices can quantify the conservative trait correlation (CTC), which incorporates phylogenetic conservatism and ongoing influences of other traits. CTC concept treats both phylogenetic conservatism and ongoing influences as joint explanations in trait correlations.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Veronica Zepeda, Carlos Martorell
Summary: This study found that coexistence stability between distant relatives increased with phylogenetic distance, mainly through fluctuation-independent niche differentiation. High synchronicity between close relatives led to intensified competition fluctuations, negatively impacting the storage effect's contribution to coexistence.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jianchao Liang, Zhifeng Ding, Ganwen Lie, Zhixin Zhou, Zhixiang Zhang, Huijian Hu
Summary: This study examines the elevational patterns of phylogenetic diversity and structure of seed plants in the Gyirong Valley, the longest valley in China's central Himalayas. The results show a hump-shaped pattern in phylogenetic diversity, with overdispersion at lower elevations and clustering at higher elevations. Climate factors have the highest explanatory power in understanding these patterns.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Danfeng Li, Yanjun Du, Wubing Xu, Danxiao Peng, Richard Primack, Guoke Chen, Ling Feng Mao, Keping Ma
Summary: The study found that phylogenetic signals in FDT increased with elevation and latitude. Pagel's lambda of FDT was negatively correlated with clade age but positively correlated with NRI. The primary variable affecting the phylogenetic signal of FDT for herbaceous species was precipitation in the wettest quarter.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Jake J. Grossman
Summary: The study compared the climatic niches of temperate maple taxa and assessed phylogenetic and continental patterns in niche overlap using global distribution data and new, fossil-calibrated phylogenies. The results suggest that there is limited evidence of phylogenetic signal in niche axes and overlap, indicating adaptive evolution in the genus's radiation out of East Asia.
Article
Plant Sciences
Achyut Kumar Banerjee, Fengxiao Tan, Hui Feng, Xinru Liang, Jiakai Wang, Minghui Yin, Hao Peng, Yuting Lin, Nannan Zhang, Yelin Huang
Summary: This study aimed to understand the phylogenetic relationship between alien plant species at different stages of invasion and the influence of environmental filtering process on this relationship. The results showed that phylogenetically related species tend to cluster together at smaller spatial scales, indicating the importance of environmental filtering process. The presence of close relatives in the community may facilitate the successful naturalization and invasion of introduced alien species. Temperature has a stronger effect on phylogenetic patterns than precipitation, especially at smaller spatial scales. Different plant families showed different phylogenetic patterns, but all tend to form more clustered assemblages.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Gui-Qing Xu, Gaurav S. Kandlikar, Marcel C. Vaz
Summary: Leaf drought tolerance traits in plants are influenced by both evolutionary history and current environment. This study re-examined a drought tolerance dataset from 37 Australian shrub species and found weak phylogenetic signals in most leaf drought tolerance traits. There is also weak but consistent coordination between distinct leaf traits, which can be masked by species' phylogenetic histories. Leaf drought tolerance traits show strong correlations with the climate of species' origins, but not strongly impacted by phylogenetic signals.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Shuo Jiao, Weimin Chen, Gehong Wei
Summary: The study found that soil archaeal taxa exhibit strong climate-related niche conservatism, which drives their biogeographical distributions. Mean annual precipitation has the strongest phylogenetic signal, influencing soil archaeal biogeography and species coexistence.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Hong Qian, Brody Sandel
Summary: Studies focusing on relatively small spatial scales have shown that alien plants are more likely to invade phylogenetically clustered communities, and that the introduction of alien plants further increases phylogenetic clustering in the recipient communities. However, whether these patterns hold at a continental scale remains untested. Here, we investigate the phylogenetic structure of native and alien regional assemblages of angiosperms across North America.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)