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13 - Cenozoic climate changes and the demise of Tethyan laurel forests: lessons for the future from an integrative reconstruction of the past

from Section 3 - Biogeography, migration and ecological niche modelling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

By
F. Rodríguez-Sánchez  and
J. Arroyo
Edited by
Trevor R. Hodkinson ,
Michael B. Jones ,
Stephen Waldren  and
John A. N. Parnell
F. Rodríguez-Sánchez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
J. Arroyo
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Trevor R. Hodkinson
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Michael B. Jones
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Stephen Waldren
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
John A. N. Parnell
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
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Summary

Abstract

Climate on earth has always been changing. Despite decades of investigation, our limited knowledge of the ecological and evolutionary effects of climate changes often translates into uncertain predictions about the impact of future climates on biodiversity. Integrative biogeographical approaches using palaeobotanical, phylogenetic and niche-based species distribution models, when permitted by data availability, may provide valuable insights to address these key questions. Here we combine palaeobotanical and phylogeographical information with hindcast modelling of species distribution changes to reconstruct past range dynamics and differentiation in the bay laurel (Laurus spp., Lauraceae), an emblematic relict tree from the subtropical laurel forests that thrived in Tethyan realms during most of the Tertiary period. We provide plausible examples of climate-driven migration, extinction and persistence of populations and taxa, and discuss the factors that influence niche conservatism or adaptation to changing environments. Finally, we discuss the likely impacts of the predicted climate change on laurophyllous taxa in the Mediterranean and Macaronesia.

Introduction

The reconstruction of the evolutionary history and distribution of plants has been based primarily on the information supplied by two relatively independent research fields: palaeobotany and phylogenetics. More recently, it has also relied on statistical modelling approaches to hindcast species distributions on geological timescales. Palaeobotany has long relied on the description of fossils, the resolution power of microscopes and fossil sampling in cores. Isotope dating, and other approaches for absolute timing of events, then led to a methodological revolution in this field (Stewart and Rothwell, 1993).

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics , pp. 280 - 303
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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