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Historical and contemporary climate jointly determines seed plant diversity patterns in eastern Eurasia
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  • WenQi Song,
  • Yichao Li,
  • Ao Luo,
  • Xiangyan Su,
  • Qinggang Wang,
  • Yunpeng Liu,
  • Tong Lyu,
  • Yongsheng Chen,
  • Shijia Peng,
  • Denis Sandanov,
  • Zhiheng Wang
WenQi Song
Peking University
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Yichao Li
Peking University
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Ao Luo
Peking University
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Xiangyan Su
Peking University
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Qinggang Wang
China Agricultural University
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Yunpeng Liu
Peking University
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Tong Lyu
Peking University
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Yongsheng Chen
Peking University
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Shijia Peng
Peking University
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Denis Sandanov
Institut obsej i eksperimental'noj biologii
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Zhiheng Wang
Center of Macroecology, Evolution and Climate

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Large-scale spatial patterns of species richness are one of the central issues in ecology. Although hypotheses based on effects of contemporary climate, evolutionary history and historical climate change have been employed to explain the mechanisms underlying species richness patterns, variation in relative contribution of different hypothesis remains a major challenge. Here, using newly-compiled distribution data with a spatial resolution of 100 * 100 km2 for 43,023 seed plant species in eastern Eurasia, we mapped species richness patterns for plants with different growth forms (i.e., woody vs. herbaceous) and range sizes (i.e., wide-ranged vs. narrow-ranged species), and compared the contribution of four hypotheses on these patterns, i.e., freezing tolerance hypothesis, historical climate change hypothesis, Janzen hypothesis and diversification rate hypothesis. We found that species richness of all seed plants presented a clear latitudinal gradient and was the highest in southwestern China and Central Asian mountains. Notably, species richness patterns and their dominant hypotheses differed between species groups. Historical climate change dominated richness patterns of overall, herbaceous and wide-ranged herbaceous species. The freezing tolerance hypothesis dominated those for all woody and wide-ranged woody species, while the Janzen hypothesis dominated narrow-ranged woody and herbaceous species. Our study suggests that different hypotheses contribute to large-scale species richness patterns via their dominant effects in different species groups. Interestingly, our study did not support the diversification rate hypothesis, but demonstrated high contribution of historical climate change to plant diversity, providing new perspectives on the mechanisms of plant diversity patterns in eastern Eurasia.
19 Aug 2023Submitted to Ecography
21 Aug 2023Submission Checks Completed
21 Aug 2023Assigned to Editor
21 Aug 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
28 Aug 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
21 Nov 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Major
18 Feb 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
09 Mar 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
08 Apr 20242nd Revision Received
09 Apr 2024Submission Checks Completed
09 Apr 2024Assigned to Editor
09 Apr 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
23 Apr 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Minor