The Phylogenetic Structure Patterns of Angiosperm Species and Their Determinants in East Eurasia

Aim

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework requires that evolutionary histories of species should be considered in conservation planning. The phylogenetic structure of species assemblages quantifies species evolutionary histories and increasingly becomes an endeavour for ecologists. Understanding the geographic patterns of phylogenetic structure of species assemblages and their drivers can provide a fundamental reference for conservation planning. Although several theoretical hypotheses based on the effects of contemporary environment, historical climate change and evolutionary niche conservatism had been widely discussed in previous studies, the relative contributions of these hypotheses on phylogenetic structure of angiosperms, especially herbaceous species, remain debated.

Location

East Eurasia.

Major Taxa Studied

Angiosperms.

Methods

We compiled distributions of 43,023 angiosperm species in east Eurasia at spatial resolution (100 × 100 km²). Using this newly compiled database and a species-level phylogeny, we estimated the phylogenetic structure patterns for species with different growth forms. We explored the relationships of these patterns with contemporary environment and historical climate change to test predictions of the tropical niche conservatism hypothesis (TCH) and to compare the contribution of different hypotheses using generalised linear models and hierarchical partitioning.

Results

We found that phylogenetic structure of angiosperms displayed significant latitudinal gradients. Notably, phylogenetic structure patterns and their drivers differed between woody and herbaceous species. Actual evapotranspiration was the best predictor of phylogenetic structure patterns for all and herbaceous species, while the mean temperature of the coldest quarter was the best predictor for woody species. The effect of historical climate change on phylogenetic structure patterns was weak.

Main Conclusions

Our results suggest that the TCH only explains the phylogenetic structure pattern of woody species, not herbaceous species. Moreover, contemporary climate influences the phylogenetic structure of angiosperms in east Eurasian by affecting herbaceous and woody species differently.