Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Phylogeny and conservation
- Part 1 Units and currencies
- Part 2 Inferring evolutionary processes
- 7 Age and area revisited: identifying global patterns and implications for conservation
- 8 Putting process on the map: why ecotones are important for preserving biodiversity
- 9 The oldest rainforests in Africa: stability or resilience for survival and diversity?
- 10 Late Tertiary and Quaternary climate change and centres of endemism in the southern African flora
- 11 Historical biogeography, diversity and conservation of Australia's tropical rainforest herpetofauna
- Part 3 Effects of human processes
- Part 4 Prognosis
- Index
- References
10 - Late Tertiary and Quaternary climate change and centres of endemism in the southern African flora
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Phylogeny and conservation
- Part 1 Units and currencies
- Part 2 Inferring evolutionary processes
- 7 Age and area revisited: identifying global patterns and implications for conservation
- 8 Putting process on the map: why ecotones are important for preserving biodiversity
- 9 The oldest rainforests in Africa: stability or resilience for survival and diversity?
- 10 Late Tertiary and Quaternary climate change and centres of endemism in the southern African flora
- 11 Historical biogeography, diversity and conservation of Australia's tropical rainforest herpetofauna
- Part 3 Effects of human processes
- Part 4 Prognosis
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The high concentration of plant species in the winter rainfall region of southern Africa (Cowling 1992; Dean & Milton 1998) is an intriguing biogeographic pattern and one that has long eluded satisfactory explanation. This Mediterranean-climate region is home to two distinct vegetation types, the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo biomes, defined by their dominance by distinct plant structural types (Rutherford & Westfall 1986). Patterns of plant richness in both biomes reveal an island-like fingerprint of low family-level richness, but high species: genus ratios in relatively few speciose genera (Cowling 1992). High species-richness, levels of endemism and anthropogenic threat qualify both biomes as biodiversity hotspots, with the Succulent Karoo emerging as the only desert hotspot worldwide (Myers et al. 2000).
The Fynbos biome (sensu Rutherford & Westfall 1986) is a fire-prone vegetation assemblage dominated by short trees, fine-leaved shrubs and reed-like graminoids, and is found associated with generally nutrient-poor sandy soils of the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt and sandy coastal forelands. The conterminous Succulent Karoo (Rutherford & Westfall 1986) is drought-prone and dominated by short succulent-leaved shrubs, and to a lesser extent by evergreen small-leaved sclerophyll and deciduous small-leaved malacophyll shrubs. Grasses (Poaceae) are a minor component of both biomes (Gibbs Russel 1987).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Phylogeny and Conservation , pp. 230 - 242Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
, & 1999 Phylogeography of three closely related African bovids (Tribe Alcephalini). Molecular and Biological Evolution 16, 1724–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2000 Phylogeography: the History and Formation of Species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
& 2000 A proposed CO2-controlled mechanism of woody plant invasion in grasslands and savannas. Global Change Biology 6, 865–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 2003 The importance of low atmospheric CO2 and fire in promoting the spread of grasslands and savannas. Global Change Biology 9, 973–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1995 Kill thy neighbour: an individualistic argument for the evolution of flammability. Oikos 73, 79–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1996 Amazonian conservation in a changing world. Biological Conservation 76, 219–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 2002 A new tribal classification of Mesembryanthemaceae: evidence from floral nectarines. Taxon 51, 295–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1987 Fire and its role in coexistence and speciation in Gondwanan shrublands. South African Journal of Science 83, 106–12Google Scholar
(ed.) 1992 The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire and Diversity. Cape Town: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
, , , & 1999 From representation to persistence: requirements for a sustainable system of conservation areas in the species-rich mediterranean-climate desert of southern Africa. Diversity and Distributions 5, 51–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Simulated effects of low atmospheric CO2 on structure and composition of North American vegetation at the Last Glacial Maximum. Global Ecology and Biogeography 8, 81–93Google Scholar
& 2000 Evolutionary consequences of changes in species' geographical distributions driven by Milankovitch Climate Oscillations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 97, 9115–20CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, & 1997 C4 photosynthesis, atmospheric CO2, and climate. Oecologia 112, 285–99CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1987 Preliminary floristic analysis of the major biomes in southern Africa. Bothalia 17, 213–27Google Scholar
1978 An analysis of the flora of southern Africa: its characteristics, relationships, and origins. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 65, 369–436CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 Speciation, hybrid zones and phylogeography – or seeing genes in space and time. Molecular Ecology 10, 537–49CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
et al. 2001 Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
1994 Diversification in an arid world: the Mesembryanthemaceae. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 25, 521–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1995. Pollination, adaptation and speciation models in the Cape flora of South Africa. Taxon 45, 59–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 2004 Unmatched tempo of evolution in Southern African semi-desert ice plants. Nature 427, p. 63–65CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kutzbach, J. 1994 CCM0 General Circulation Model Output Data Set. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder, Colorado
2002 Four succulent families and 40 million years of evolution and adaptation to xeric environments: what can stem and leaf anatomical characters tell us about their phylogeny?Taxon 51, 463–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1991 The morphology, taxonomy and evolution of Rhodocoma (Restionaceae). Plant Systematics and Evolution 175, 139–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linder, H. P., Meadows, M. E. & Cowling, R. M. 1992 History of the Cape Flora. In The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire and Diversity (ed. ), pp. 113–34. Cape Town: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
, , , & 2001 Have Pleistocene climatic cycles influenced species richness patterns in the Greater Cape Mediterranean Region?Journal of Mediterranean Ecology 2, 137–44Google Scholar
, , , & 2002 Assessing the vulnerability of species richness to anthropogenic climate change in a biodiversity hotspot. Global Ecology and Biogeography 11, 445–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Midgley, G. F. & Roberts, R. 2001 Past climate change and the generation and persistence of species richness in a biodiversity hotspot, the Cape Flora of South Africa. In Global Change and Protected Areas (ed. , , & ) (Advances in Global Change Research), pp. 393–402. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , & 2000 Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , et al. 1999 Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420 000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399, 429–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , et al. 2001 Rapid and recent origin of species richness in the Cape flora of South Africa. Nature 412, 181–3Google Scholar
1994 Speculations on carbon dioxide starvation, Late Tertiary evolution of stomatal regulation and floristic modernization. Plant, Cell and Environment 17, 345–54Google Scholar
& 1986 The biomes of southern Africa – an objective categorization. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa 54, 1–98Google Scholar
1994 Palynology of late Pleistocene hyrax middens, southwestern Cape province, South Africa: a preliminary report. Historical Biology 9, 71–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Grassland development under glacial and interglacial conditions in southern Africa: Review of pollen, phytolith and isotope evidence. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 177, 47–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 1995 Palaeoenvironmental conditions in South Africa at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Quaternary Science Reviews 14, 937–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & 1998 Vegetation and climate changes during the last 21 000 years in S. W. Africa based on a marine pollen record. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 7, 127–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2003 Acclimation capacity underlies susceptibility to climate change. Science 301, 65CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
& 1978 Late Cenozoic palaeoenvironments on the west coast of southern Africa. Journal of Biogeography 5, 319–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Atmospheric circulation changes and palaeoclimates of southern Africa. South African Journal of Science 95, 194–201Google Scholar
2001 Variability of CAM in leaf-deciduous succulents from the Succulent Karoo (South Africa). Basic and Applied Ecology 2, 283–8Google Scholar
- 9
- Cited by