Background: The Sino-Himalayan flora harbors highly diverse high-elevation biotas, but our understanding of its evolutionary history in temporal and spatial dimensions is limited. In this study, we integrated a dated phylogenetic tree with comprehensive species distribution data to investigate changes over time and space in floristic elements, including the tropical, Tethys, northern temperate, and East Asian floristic elements, across the entire Sino-Himalaya and its three floristic regions: the Yunnan Plateau, Hengduan Mountains, and East Himalaya regions.
Results: Our results revealed that the Sino-Himalayan flora developed from lowland biomes and was predominantly characterized by tropical floristic elements before the collision between the Indian subcontinent and Eurasia during the Early Cenozoic. Subsequently, from the Late Eocene onwards, the uplifts of the Himalaya and Hengduan Mountains transformed the Sino-Himalayan region into a wet and cold plateau, on which harsh and diverse ecological conditions forced the rapid evolution of local angiosperms, giving birth to characteristic taxa adapted to the high altitudes and cold habitat. The percentage of temperate floristic elements increased and exceeded that of tropical floristic elements by the Late Miocene.
Conclusions: The Sino-Himalayan flora underwent four significant formation periods and experienced a considerable increase in endemic genera and species in the Miocene, which remain crucial to the present-day patterns of plant diversity. Our findings support the view that the Sino-Himalayan flora is relatively young but has ancient origins. The three major shifts in the divergence of genera and species during the four formation periods were primarily influenced by the uplifts of the Himalaya and Hengduan Mountains and the onset and intensification of the Asian monsoon system. Additionally, the temporal patterns of floristic elements differed among the three floristic regions of the Sino-Himalaya, indicating that the uplift of the Himalaya and surrounding areas was asynchronous. Compared to the Yunnan Plateau region, the East Himalaya and Hengduan Mountains experienced more recent and drastic uplifts, resulting in highly intricate topography with diverse habitats that promoted the rapid radiation of endemic genera and species in these regions.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01746-4 | DOI Listing |
Plants (Basel)
July 2024
Department of Environmental and Life Science, Botany Section, University of Cagliari, Viale S. Ignazio, 13, 09123 Cagliari, Italy.
In accordance with the 92/43/EEC "Habitats" Directive, Mediterranean temporary ponds are identified as a priority natural habitat within the European context. They are a very interesting and unique habitat type, as ecological conditions can vary greatly in a short period of time. Due to their small size, many Mediterranean hydrophytic bryophytes typical of this habitat are often overlooked or misinterpreted.
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July 2024
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom.
Seasonally tropical dry forests (SDTFs) in the American tropics are a highly diverse yet poorly understood and endangered ecosystem scattered from Northern Mexico to Southern Argentina. One floristic element of the STDFs is the genus (Polygonaceae), which includes two liana species, and , which have winged fruits and are distributed from Costa Rica to Southern Brazil. In a field expedition to the SDTFs of the Colombian Caribbean in 2015, morphologically distinctive individuals of were found.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
June 2024
Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Functional Algology Research Group, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, 18/C Bem Sqr, Debrecen, 4026, Hungary.
Ann Bot
July 2024
Department of Biology, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE 68849, USA.
Background And Aims: The California Floristic Province (CA-FP) is the most species-rich region of North America north of Mexico. One of several proposed hypotheses explaining the exceptional diversity of the region is that the CA-FP harbours myriad recently diverged lineages with nascent reproductive barriers. Salvia subgenus Audibertia is a conspicuous element of the CA-FP, with multiple sympatric and compatible species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
April 2024
Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan International Joint Laboratory of Southeast Asia Biodiversity Conservation, Yunnan Key Laboratory for the Conservation of Tropical Rainforests and Asian Elephants, Mengla 666303, China.
Arguments about the origin and evolution of the evergreen broad-leaved forests in East Asia exist generally, and are even contradictory in some cases. The origin and evolution of the flora of East Asia, especially in the evolutionary process, the formation time of the Asian monsoon, the implications of phylogenetic and biogeographic studies on some important taxa, and the implications of palaeobotanical evidence are debatable. Most research from different disciplines suggests that the monsoon in the Miocene was key to the diversification of East Asian flora and its evergreen broad-leaved forests.
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