Among cradles and museums: seasonally dry forest promotes lineage exchanges between rain forest and savanna

ABSTRACT

Background: Cerrado comprises heterogeneous vegetation types. The flora of the vegetation types has distinct biogeographic origins and thus can be hypothesised to have distinct evolutionary imprints.

Aims: We hypothesised that the flora of riparian forest was phylogenetically overdispersed, whereas those of more open habitats were phylogenetically clustered.

Methods: We built a species-level phylogeny for 1,663 species of trees, shrubs and palms and analysed the pattern of lineage distribution, alpha and beta phylogenetic diversity among Cerrado vegetation types (riparian forest, rocky savana, savana and seasonally dry forest - SDTF).

Results: We found a gradient of high phylogenetic diversity and overdispersion from riparian forests towards phylogenetic clustering in vegetation in more open and drier habitats. Habitat shifts were common along the evolutionary history of all families analysed and most families showed a high frequency of shifts from SDTF to riparian forest and savanna.

Conclusions: SDTF seems to be a transitional habitat in evolutionary terms, promoting lineage exchanges between stands of riparian forest and savanna. While riparian forest can be seen as a ‘museum’, that harbours ancient lineages, savanna and rocky savanna are a ‘cradle’ of derived lineages. Habitat shifts are an important underlying drive of high present-day Cerrado flora diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Ancestral reconstruction
• Cerrado
• phylogenetic structure
• phylogenetic turnover
• rocky savanna

Data accessibility

All datasets may be found as supplemental data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by research grants awarded by CNPq (563727/2010-1; 457406/2012-7; 476599/2012-1), FAPEG (563624/2010-8) and PROCAD/CAPES (88881.068425/2014-01).

Notes on contributors

Cibele Cássia-Silva

Cibele Cássia-Silva is currently a PhD candidate at the Ecologyand Evolution graduate programme in the Universidade Federal deGoiás, Brazil. The author is interested in general macroevolutionary and macroecological questions related to Neotropical flora.

Marcus V. Cianciaruso

Marcus V Cianciaruso is a professor of plant community ecology with an interest in functional diversity of plants and in the evolution of the Cerrado flora.

Priscila A. Dias

Priscila A. Dias is a post-graduate student and works on community phylogeny.

Cíntia G. Freitas

Cintia G Freitas is a post-doctoral researcher and is interested in macroevolution of the Neotropical flora.

Advaldo C. Souza-Neto

Advaldo C. Souza-Neto is an ecologist and works on community phylogeny.

Rosane G. Collevatti

Rosane G Collevatti is a professor of genetics and evolution. She is interested in geographical patterns in neutral and adaptive genetic variation and in the evolution of the Cerrado flora.