Abstract
The generation of plant diversity involves complex interactions between geography, environment and organismal traits. Many macroevolutionary processes and emergent patterns have been identified in different plant groups through the study of spatial data, but rarely in the context of a large radiation of tropical herbaceous angiosperms. A powerful system for testing interrelated biogeographical hypotheses is provided by the terrestrial bromeliads, a Neotropical group of extensive ecological diversity and importance. In this investigation, distributional data for 564 species of terrestrial bromeliads were used to estimate variation in the position and width of species-level hydrological habitat occupancy and test six core hypotheses linking geography, environment and organismal traits. Taxonomic groups and functional types differed in hydrological habitat occupancy, modulated by convergent and divergent trait evolution, and with contrasting interactions with precipitation abundance and seasonality. Plant traits in the Bromeliaceae are intimately associated with bioclimatic differentiation, which is in turn strongly associated with variation in geographical range size and species richness. These results emphasize the ecological relevance of structural-functional innovation in a major plant radiation.
Highlights
Generation and maintenance of diversity of plant lineages often involves complex interactions between biogeography, climate and plant traits
Plant traits in the Bromeliaceae are intimately associated with bioclimatic differentiation, which is in turn strongly associated with variation in geographical range size and species richness
This study found clear evidence of divergences in hydrological habitat position and range among taxonomic and functional groups of terrestrial bromeliads, with convergent and divergent bioclimatic relations being associated with key plant traits
Summary
Generation and maintenance of diversity of plant lineages often involves complex interactions between biogeography, climate and plant traits. While targeted analyses of the validity of specific evolutionary biogeographical hypotheses are common, there are comparatively few instances of in-depth case studies being used to examine simultaneously the relevance and relative importance of a range of such hypotheses within a particular taxonomic group. This is true in the context of tropical herbaceous angiosperms, despite the fact that this functional group accounts for a high proportion of global floristic diversity and provides a wealth of underappreciated ecosystem functions (Ewel and Bigelow 1996; Dodd et al 1999; Royo and Carson 2006). Quantitative understanding of patterns in bromeliad species distributions is fundamental to understanding the relevance of divergences in ecophysiological traits for niche differentiation, and the degree of environmental specialization at different taxonomic levels (Silvertown et al 2006)
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