Diversification in Ancient and Nutrient-Poor Neotropical Ecosystems: How Geological and Climatic Buffering Shaped Plant Diversity in Some of the World’s Neglected Hotspots

Disentangling the effects of latitudinal and elevational gradients on bee, wasp, and ant diversity in an ancient neotropical mountain range

“…This finding shows that, although richness is not directly associated with latitude (elevation mainly determines α ‐ and γ ‐diversity), each mountain locality has great conservation value, with latitudinal variation being important to β ‐diversity. Despite the existence of several species that are shared with the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado , the fauna of the campo rupestre ecosystem has its own identity and biogeographical history, which has favored the constant diversification of old lineages (Silveira, Dayrell, Fiorini, Negreiros, & Borba, 2020; Silveira et al, 2016; Vasconcelos et al, 2020). Campo rupestre is a megadiverse ecosystem that is under threat (Fernandes et al, 2018; Fernandes, Barbosa, Negreiros, & Paglia, 2014), and due to high rates of rare species and high beta diversity, even small additions to protected areas could incorporate many new species (Jankowski et al, 2009).…”

Colonization rather than fragmentation explains the geographical distribution and diversification of treefrogs endemic to Brazilian shield sky islands

“…The ER's endemic plants' phylogeography has been relatively well explored (Silveira et al, 2020). However, there are still several shortfalls in the ecology and evolution of animals (Miola et al, 2021), even with the recent improvement in studies of anurofauna (e.g.…”

“…Despite the growing interest in ecology and evolution of the ER biota in recent years (Silveira et al, 2016(Silveira et al, , 2020, little is known about the processes involved in its diversification, especially for animals (Miola et al, 2021). For anurans, the ER houses more than 160 species, of which 30% are endemic (Leite, 2012) and often associated with campo rupestre (Leite, 2012;Leite et al, 2008).…”

Underlying microevolutionary processes parallel macroevolutionary patterns in ancient neotropical mountains

“…Since maternal inheritance of plastidial DNA and biparental inheritance of nuclear DNA are the most common pattern for Angiosperms (Ennos, 1994), the genetic differentiation results indicate that gene flow via seeds is comparatively less efficient than via pollen, as noticed by the much higher genetic structure of cpDNA (F ST = 0.82, Table 3 and Figure S4.5) than nrSSR (F ST = 0.43, Table 3 and Figure S4.5). The discrepancy between the two genomes may indicate the role of pollinators in maintaining a relative cohesion between close populations, since seeds are poorly dispersed, a common trend in other plant lineages of the Espinhaço Range (Silveira et al, 2020). However, it is important to notice that both coalescent and Bayesian analysis revealed limited nuclear migration rates amongst populations (Tables S5.4 and S5.5) suggesting a restricted dispersal even via pollen.…”

“…This is because the last major tectonic events that affected these mountains were during Cretaceous period (Dussin & Dussin, 1995;Magalhães Junior et al, 2015) far preceding the diversification of endemic plant lineages in the Espinhaço (Vasconcelos et al, 2020). The Espinhaço Range harbours an astonishing plant diversity, accounting for nearly 15% of the entire Brazilian Flora, with approximately 2000 endemic species, making these mountains home of one of the highest species richness and endemism rates of the world (Silveira et al, 2020). This high degree of endemism associated with different portions of the Espinhaço Range is remarkably congruent between several organisms (Chaves et al, 2015;Echternacht et al, 2011) and has led to the recognition of distinct biogeographical regions in the northern (e.g.…”