Knowing the past to conserve the future: a commentary on 'Evolutionary history of marginal habitats regulates the diversity of tree communities in the Atlantic Forest'.

This article comments on: Jhonny Capichoni Massante, and Markus Gastauer. Evolutionary history of marginal habitats regulates the diversity of tree communities in the Atlantic Forest, Annals of Botany, Volume 131, Issue 2, 1 February 2023, Pages 261–274, https://doi.org/10.

The inverted forest: Aboveground and notably large belowground carbon stocks and their drivers in Brazilian savannas.

Savannas contribute to ca. 30 % of the total terrestrial net primary productivity and are responsible for significant carbon storage. Savannas in South America are mostly found within the Cerrado Domain, which is very threatened and presents remarkable carbon pools.

Climate and evolutionary history define the phylogenetic diversity of vegetation types in the central region of South America.

In South America the biogeographic history has produced different biomes with different vegetation types and distinct floras. As these vegetation types may diverge in evolutionary histories, we analysed how alpha and beta phylogenetic diversity vary across them and determine the main drivers of variation in phylogenetic diversity. To this end, we compiled a list of 205 sites and 1222 tree species spread over four biomes and eight vegetation types in central South America.