Global patterns of "Rhododendron" diversity: The role of evolutionary time and diversification rates

• Published in: Global ecology and biogeography Vol. 27; no. 7/8; pp. 913 - 924
• Main Authors: Shrestha, Nawal, Wang, Zhiheng, Su, Xiangyan, Xu, Xiaoting, Lyu, Lisha, Liu, Yunpeng, Dimitrov, Dimitar, Kennedy, Jonathan D., Wang, Qinggang, Tang, Zhiyao, Feng, Xiaojuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford John Wiley & Sons Ltd 01.08.2018; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; Blackwell Publishing
• Subjects: ancestral area reconstruction; Biodiversity; Biogeography; Biological evolution; chloroplast genes; Chloroplasts; Colonization; data collection; Ecological monitoring; Endemism; Environmental conditions; Environmental factors; Evolution; evolutionary history; Flowering; geographical distribution; habitat heterogeneity; indigenous species; into‐the‐tropics; latitude; Mountains; Phylogeny; Plant diversity; Plants (botany); prediction; Rhododendron; Speciation; Species diversity; species richness; subtropics; Taxa; time‐for‐speciation; Tropical environments; tropical mountains; tropics
• ISSN: 1466-822X; 1466-8238
• DOI: 10.1111/geb.12750

Aim: Understanding the evolution of the latitudinal diversity gradient (i.e. increase in species diversity towards the tropics) is a prominent issue in ecology and biogeography. Disentangling the relative contributions of environment and evolutionary history in shaping this gradient remains a major challenge because their relative importance has been found to vary across regions and taxa. Here, using the global distributions and a molecular phylogeny of Rhododendron, one of the largest genera of flowering plants, we aim to compare the relative contributions of contemporary environment, evolutionary time and diversification rates in generating extant species diversity patterns. Location: Global. Time period: Undefined. Major taxa studied: Rhododendron. Methods: We compiled the global distributions of all Rhododendron species, and constructed a dated molecular phylogeny using nine chloroplast genes and seven nuclear regions. By integrating these two datasets, we estimated the temporal trends of Rhododendron diversification, and explored the global patterns of its species diversity, net diversification rates, and species ages. Next, we reconstructed the geographical ancestral area of the clade. Finally, we compared the relative contribution of contemporary environment, time-for-speciation, and diversification rates on the species diversity pattern of Rhododendron. Results: In contrast to the predictions of the time-for-speciation hypothesis, we found that although Rhododendron originated at a temperate latitude, its contemporary species diversity is highest in the tropics/subtropics, suggesting an into-the-tropics colonization for this genus. We found that the elevated diversification induced by heterogeneous environmental conditions in the tropics/subtropics shapes the global pattern of Rhododendron diversity. Main conclusions: Our findings support tropical and subtropical mountains as not only biodiversity and endemism hotspots, but also as cradles for the diversification of Rhododendron. Our study emphasizes the need of unifying ecological and evolutionary approaches in order to gain comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying the global patterns of plant diversity.