Habitats hold an evolutionary signal of past climatic refugia

Climatic refugia have often been associated with hotspots of richness and endemism, and identified on the basis of molecular or paleobotanical information. Here, we apply a phylogenetic analysis to 18,000 plant communities distributed across the Pyrenees, a south European mountain range, to identify...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biodiversity and conservation 2022-05, Vol.31 (5-6), p.1665-1688
Main Authors: García, María B., Miranda, Hector, Pizarro, Manuel, Font, Xavier, Roquet, Cristina, González-Sampériz, Penélope
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biodiversity
Biological diversity
Biological diversity conservation
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Conservation Biology/Ecology
Ecology
Elevation
Endemism
Evolution
Glacial periods
Global temperature changes
Habitats
High altitude
Interglacial periods
Life Sciences
Mountains
Original Paper
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Plant communities
Plants
Refuges
Refugia
Roughness
Stability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Climatic refugia have often been associated with hotspots of richness and endemism, and identified on the basis of molecular or paleobotanical information. Here, we apply a phylogenetic analysis to 18,000 plant communities distributed across the Pyrenees, a south European mountain range, to identify climatic refugia from imprints of relictuality inferred from species’ evolutionary distinctiveness (ED). We produced a genus-level phylogenetic tree to calculate the standardized mean ED value of plant communities (cED). Then, we explored which habitats concentrate the plant communities with the highest cED and the interrelated effect of past (long-term climatic stability) and present (topographic and spatial position) factors. Results show strong differences of cED among habitats: forests ranked first, followed by some open habitats like high altitude wetlands. Climate stability and roughness positively influenced cED. A weak negative association resulted between the two diversity measurements (richness and endemism rate) and also with cED. We propose that forests acted as “mobile refugia” during the glacial-interglacial periods, supported by paleoenvironmental reconstructions revealing continuous presence at regional scale of key broadleaved trees at that time. Azonal habitats like the endemic-poor humid communities at high elevation would have also played an important role as more permanent microrefugia. Our approach identifies a variety of habitats and plant assemblages that have successfully withstood past climate change in different ways, and therefore would hold an important evolutionary potential to cope with current climate change. Given their potential role in preserving biodiversity, they should be integrated in future conservation agendas.
ISSN:0960-3115
1572-9710
DOI:10.1007/s10531-022-02419-4