Life-History Traits Evolved Jointly with Climatic Niche and Disturbance Regime in the Genus Leucadendron (Proteaceae).

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_A64AB4277811
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Life-History Traits Evolved Jointly with Climatic Niche and Disturbance Regime in the Genus Leucadendron (Proteaceae).
Journal
The American Naturalist
Author(s)
Tonnabel J., Schurr F.M., Boucher F., Thuiller W., Renaud J., Douzery EJP, Ronce O.
ISSN
1537-5323 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0003-0147
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2018
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
191
Number
2
Pages
220-234
Language
english
Abstract
Organisms have evolved a diversity of life-history strategies to cope with variation in their environment. Persistence as adults and/or seeds across recruitment events allows species to dampen the effects of environmental fluctuations. The evolution of life cycles with overlapping generations should thus permit the colonization of environments with uncertain recruitment. We tested this hypothesis in Leucadendron (Proteaceae), a genus with high functional diversity native to fire-prone habitats in the South African fynbos. We analyzed the joint evolution of life-history traits (adult survival and seed-bank strategies) and ecological niches (climate and fire regime), using comparative methods and accounting for various sources of uncertainty. In the fynbos, species with canopy seed banks that are unable to survive fire as adults display nonoverlapping generations. In contrast, resprouters with an underground seed bank may be less threatened by extreme climatic events and fire intervals, given their iteroparity and long-lasting seed bank. Life cycles with nonoverlapping generations indeed jointly evolved with niches with less exposure to frost but not with those with less exposure to drought. Canopy seed banks jointly evolved with niches with more predictable fire return, compared to underground seed banks. The evolution of extraordinary functional diversity among fynbos plants thus reflects, at least in part, the diversity of both climates and fire regimes in this region.
Keywords
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, bet hedging, comparative analyses, fire, functional traits, niche evolution, seed bank
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
10/04/2018 20:33
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:11
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