Limiting climatic factors in shaping the distribution pattern and niche differentiation of Prunus dielsiana in subtropical China

Subtropical forest in China has received much attention due to its complex geologic environment and bioclimatic heterogeneity.There have been very few studies addressing which climatic factors have shaped both distribution patterns and niche differentiation of species from this region.It also remains unclear whether phylogenetic niche conservatism retains in plant species from this biodiversityrich subtropical region in China.In this study,we used geographic occurrence records and bioclimatic factors of Prunus dielsiana(Rosaceae),a wild cherry species,combined with the classical ENM-based DIVA-GIS software to access contemporary distribution and richness patterns of its natural populations.The current distribution of P.dielsiana occupied a relatively wide range but exhibited an uneven pattern eastward in general,and the core distribution zone of its populations are projected to concentrate in the Wushan and Wuling Mountain ranges of western China.Hydrothermic variables,particularly the Temperature Seasonality(bio4)are screened out quantitatively to be the most influential factors that have shaped the current geographical patterns of P.dielsiana.By comparison with other sympatric families,climatic niche at regional scale showed a pattern of phylogenetic niche conservatism within cherry species of Ros aceae.The effect of habitat filtering from altitude is more significant than those of longitude and latitude.We conclude that habitat filtering dominated by limiting hydrothermic factors is the primary driving process of the diversity pattern of P.dielsiana in subtropical China.

Phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity in tropical tree assemblages along regionalscale environmental gradients in northwest South America

Aims Environmental gradients are drivers of species diversity;however,we know relatively little about the evolutionary processes underlying these relationships.A potentially powerful approach to studying diversity gradients is to quantify the phylogenetic structure within and between assemblages arrayed along broad spatial and environmental gradients.Here,we evaluate the phylogenetic structure of plant assemblages along an environmental gradient with the expectation that the habitat specialization of entire lineages is an important evolutionary pattern influencing the structure of tree communities along environmental gradients.Methods We evaluated the effect of several environmental variables on the phylogenetic structure of plant assemblages in 145 plots distributed in northwestern South America that cover a broad environmental gradient.The phylogenetic alpha diversity was quantified for each plot and the phylogenetic beta diversity between each pair of plots was also quantified.Both the alpha and beta diversity measures were then related to spatial and environmental gradients in the study system.Important Findings We found that gradients in temperature and potential evapotranspiration have a strong relationship with the phylogenetic alpha diversity in our study system,with phylogenetic overdispersion in low temperatures and phylogenetic clustering at higher temperatures.Further,the phylogenetic beta diversity between two plots increases with an increasing difference in temperature,whereas annual precipitation was not a significant predictor of community phylogenetic turnover.We also found that the phylogenetic structure of the plots in our study system was related to the degree of seasonal flooding and seasonality in precipitation.In particular,more stressful environments such as dry forests and flooded forests showed phylogenetic clustering.Finally,in contrast with previous studies,we find that phylogenetic beta diversity was not strongly related to the spatial distance separating two forest plots,which may be the result of the importance of the three independent mountain ranges in our study system,which generate a high degree of environmental variation over very short distances.In conclusion,we found that environmental gradients are important drivers of both phylogenetic alpha and phylogenetic beta diversities in these forests over spatial distance.

Latitudinal and elevational patterns of phylogenetic structure in forest communities in China’s mountains

The phylogenetic structure incorporates both ecological and evolutionary processes to explain assembly of a local community.The "phylogenetic niche conservatism"(PNC) hypothesis suggests that distributions of species along environmental gradients reflect both ancestral traits and ecological fitness of individual species. The temperature is generally regarded to change in similar ways along both latitudinal and elevational gradients but with different historical contingence. Therefore, comparing the latitudinal and elevational patterns of phylogenetic structure of communities is of help to depict the effects of ecological and evolutionary processes in shaping the community assembly. In this study, we explored the latitudinal, elevational and climatic patterns of phylogenetic structure of 569 angiosperm tree communities from 38 mountains across China. We found a larger mean abundance-weighted net relatedness index(NRI) than the presence/absence-based NRI;and the NRI decreased when the species pool downscaled from the full pool to county-level pool. The mean family age and phylogenetic species evenness decreased with latitude, and increased with temperature of the coldest month and precipitation;whilst NRI increased with latitude, and decreased with mean temperature of the coldest month. In most mountains, NRI, mean family age and phylogenetic species evenness showed non-significant trends along the elevational gradient. Our results support the main predictions of PNC for the latitudinal gradient, i.e., species tend to be more phylogenetically related to each other and clades are younger in temperate environments,compared to those in tropical environments. We suggested that independent species pools and abundance should be incorporated in analysis to fully represent the phylogenetic structure of communities.

Evolutionary relationships of Pemphigus and allied genera （Hemiptera： Aphididae： Eriosomatinae） and their primary endosymbiont, Buchnera aphidicola

Aphids harbor primary endosymbionts, Buchnera aphidicola, in specialized cells within their body cavities. Aphids and Buchnera have strict mutualistic relationships in nutrition exchange. This ancient association has received much attention from researchers who are interested in endosymbiotic evolution. Previous studies have foundparallel phylogenetic relationships between non-galling aphids and Buchnera at lower taxonomic levels （genus, species）. To understand whether relatively isolated habitats such as galls have effect on the parallel relationships between aphids and Buchnera, the present paper investigated the phylogenetic relationships of gall aphids from Pemphigus and allied genera, which induce pseudo-galls or galls on Populus spp. （poplar） and Buchnera. The molecular phylogenies inferred from three aphid genes （COI, COII and EF-la） andtwo Buchnera genes （gnd, 16S rRNA gene） indicated significant congruence between aphids and Buchnera at generic as well as interspecific levels. Interestingly, both aphid andBuchnera phylogenies supported three main clades corresponding to the galling locations of aphids, namely leaf, the joint of leaf blade and petiole, and branch of the host plant.The results suggest phylogenetic conservatism of gall characters, which indicates gall characters are more strongly affected by aphid phylogeny, rather than host plants.

Relationship between clade age and temperature for angiosperm tree species in forest communities along an elevational gradient in tropical Asia

Aims The tropical conservatism hypothesis(TCH)links environmental tolerance,diversification,dispersal and evolutionary history in explaining why warm,wet tropical regions harbor more species than colder,drier regions.The TCH is considered as a dominant explanation for broad-scale patterns of species richness across the globe,such as the latitudinal diversity gradient.At its core,the TCH predicts a positive relationship between clade age and tempera-ture.Here,I test this prediction using a data set of angiosperm tree assemblages from Malesia.Methods I assembled an altitudinal gradient of 15 communities of angio-sperm trees.I calculated the mean family age(MFA)of tree species for each community.I used ordinary regression analysis and spatial autoregression analysis to determine the relationships of species richness and MFA with elevation,temperature and precipitation.I used correlation analysis to assess relationships between paired variables.Important Findings MFA is negatively correlated with tree species richness,and increases with elevation and decreases with temperature for the alti-tudinal gradient.MFA remains significantly increasing with decreas-ing temperature along the altitudinal gradient after accounting for spatial autocorrelation in a species-ordination space.The negative relationship between clade age and temperature along the altitudi-nal gradient in Malesia is contrary to the TCH.