Plant longevity, drought and island isolation favoured rampant evolutionary transitions towards insular woodiness

Zizka, Alexander; Onstein, Renske E.; Rozzi, Roberto; Weigelt, Patrick; Kreft, Holger; Steinbauer, Manuel J.; Bruelheide, Helge; Lens, Frédéric

doi:10.1101/2022.01.22.477210

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Hence, the high extinction risk in these families is likely linked to the high rates of land use change in Madagascar and their known detrimental effect on biodiversity. The possibly threatened tree species in Campanulaceae belonged exclusively to the peculiar radiation of phylogenetically derived woody Campanulaceae species on the Hawaiian archipelago (genera Clermontia, Cyanea, Delissea, Sclerotheca, and Trematolobelia, Givnish et al, 2009;Zizka et al, 2022b). Hence, the high proportion of threatened tree species in Campanulaceae is linked to the low proportion of tree species in the family (most Campanulaceae are herbaceous) and the specific threat by land use change and invasive plants and animals in the Hawaiian archipelago.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Estimation and Mapping of the Conservation Status of Tree Species Using Artificial Intelligence

et al. 2022

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Trees are fundamental for Earth’s biodiversity as primary producers and ecosystem engineers and are responsible for many of nature’s contributions to people. Yet, many tree species at present are threatened with extinction by human activities. Accurate identification of threatened tree species is necessary to quantify the current biodiversity crisis and to prioritize conservation efforts. However, the most comprehensive dataset of tree species extinction risk—the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN RL)—lacks assessments for a substantial number of known tree species. The RL is based on a time-consuming expert-based assessment process, which hampers the inclusion of less-known species and the continued updating of extinction risk assessments. In this study, we used a computational pipeline to approximate RL extinction risk assessments for more than 21,000 tree species (leading to an overall assessment of 89% of all known tree species) using a supervised learning approach trained based on available IUCN RL assessments. We harvested the occurrence data for tree species worldwide from online databases, which we used with other publicly available data to design features characterizing the species’ geographic range, biome and climatic affinities, and exposure to human footprint. We trained deep neural network models to predict their conservation status, based on these features. We estimated 43% of the assessed tree species to be threatened with extinction and found taxonomic and geographic heterogeneities in the distribution of threatened species. The results are consistent with the recent estimates by the Global Tree Assessment initiative, indicating that our approach provides robust and time-efficient approximations of species’ IUCN RL extinction risk assessments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Estimation and Mapping of the Conservation Status of Tree Species Using Artificial Intelligence

et al. 2022

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“…However, deposits were recorded over almost the whole island, indicating that longer lasting or more intense eruptions would severely affect an even larger area. Such events have been hitherto ignored in the intensely discussed "island woodiness" debate 21,[23][24][25][26][27] . We found surviving populations of endemic woody taxa heavily impacted by tephra deposits close to lava flows, across a wide range of genera such as Rumex (R. lunaria), Echium (E. brevirame), Euphorbia (E. lamarckii, E. canariensis and E. balsamifera), Aeonium (A. davidbramwellii), Rubia (R. fruticosa), Schizogyne (S. sericea), Carlina (C. falcata) or Sonchus (S. hierrensis) (Table S2), which coincide with the general list of woody Canary plants 20 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fate of terrestrial biodiversity during an oceanic island volcanic eruption

Nogales

Guerrero-Campos

Boulesteix

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Volcanic activity provides a unique opportunity to study the ecological responses of organisms to catastrophic environmental destruction as an essential driver of biodiversity change on islands. However, despite this great scientific interest, no study of the biodiversity at an erupting volcano has yet been undertaken. On La Palma (Canary archipelago), we quantified the main species affected and their fate during the 85-day eruption (September–December 2021). Our main objective consisted of monitoring the biodiversity subjected to critical stress during this volcanic eruption. We found that all biodiversity within a 2.5 km radius was severely affected after the first two weeks. It is challenging to assess whether volcanism can drive evolutionary traits of insular organisms. Examples are the adaptation of an endemic conifer to high temperatures, selection of functional plant types—secondary woodiness—, effects of the disappearance of invertebrates and their influence in trophic nets and vertebrate trophic plasticity. However, our data suggest that such previous evolutionary changes might continue to favour their resilience during this eruption. Lastly, it is a very good opportunity to assess the extent to which these periodic volcanic catastrophes may constitute temporary windows of repeated opportunities for the evolution and speciation of oceanic island biota.

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“…The abundance of derived woody Asclepiadoideae in (seasonally) dry environments is in line with the drought hypothesis, which states that drought could have been a major evolutionary driver of wood formation (Lens & al., 2013a,b; Zizka & al., 2022). While we cannot be fully confident that drought is the main driver of wood formation in the otherwise predominantly herbaceous Asclepiadoideae lineages, the link between increased woodiness and increased drought tolerance (1) supports earlier studies on the distribution of insular woodiness on the Canary Islands (Lens & al., 2013a; Hooft van Huysduynen & al., 2021), (2) agrees with drought as one of the most important drivers triggering wood formation on islands (Zizka & al., 2022), and (3) is in line with experimental work demonstrating that species with more wood formation or lignification in the stem are better able to prevent the formation and spread of drought‐induced gas bubbles inside the water conducting xylem cells (Lens & al., 2013b; Dória & al., 2018, 2019; Thonglim & al., 2020; Frankiewicz & al., 2021). However, we do acknowledge that drought may not be the only potential driver of woodiness and that these drivers may be lineage specific (Carlquist, 1974; Kidner & al., 2016; Neupane & al., 2017; Frankiewicz & al., 2020; Zizka & al., 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter woody species are the result of evolutionary shifts from an herbaceous towards a (phylogenetically) derived woody growth form, which has happened multiple times (Fishbein & al., 2018). Consequently, derived woodiness should be treated as an evolutionary reversion (Porter & Crandall, 2003), a phenomenon that is best known from (sub)tropical oceanic islands (Carlquist, 1974; Lens & al., 2013a; Hooft van Huysduynen & al., 2021; Zizka & al., 2022). An overview of derived woodiness in Asclepiadoideae is, however, not available, making any taxonomic, evolutionary and biogeographic assessments of derived woodiness in the family – i.e., species identity, number of transitions, growth form variation and global distribution – unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative wood anatomy and origin of woodiness in subfamilies Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae)

Beckers

Rapini

Smets

et al. 2022

TAXON

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The Apocynaceae subfamilies Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae have undergone several transitions during their evolution with regard to growth form and degree of woodiness. In this study, we present a wood anatomical overview of both subfamilies that complements previous work on the remaining Apocynaceae. Detailed microscopic wood descriptions using light and scanning electron microscopy were performed on 60 species that cover most Secamonoideae genera and all major woody Asclepiadoideae lineages. Our observations are in line with subfamilial and (sometimes sub)tribal delimitations. Furthermore, we present for the first time an overview of the estimated number of shifts from herbaceousness to (phylogenetically) derived woodiness in Asclepiadoideae, along with a derived woody species list with distribution and habitat information. In total, at least 168 derived woody species resulting from at least 28 independent woodiness transitions were found, with drought possibly being one of the main drivers of most of these transitions.

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Plant longevity, drought and island isolation favoured rampant evolutionary transitions towards insular woodiness

Cited by 4 publications

References 68 publications

Global Estimation and Mapping of the Conservation Status of Tree Species Using Artificial Intelligence

Global Estimation and Mapping of the Conservation Status of Tree Species Using Artificial Intelligence

The fate of terrestrial biodiversity during an oceanic island volcanic eruption

Comparative wood anatomy and origin of woodiness in subfamilies Secamonoideae and Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae)

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