Cenozoic diversification in the Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae): character evolution and climate change
Final Report Abstract
Based on existing DNA-data and with new, in the course of our project produced sequences of the nuclear marker phyC, a much improved and better resolved phylogeny of Bromeliodeae was provided. Dating of the phylogeny was successful, on one hand in cooperation with an international consortium, and on the other hand by using an own approach with extended and revised fossil points. Results turned out to be fairly similar. Analysis of the evolutionary processes in Bromelioideae dealt with i) the reconstruction of diversification and extinction rates and ii) with the traits that played a crucial role in these processes. To deal with diversification/extinction, a new method (BayesRate) was developed allowing for a more refined reconstruction of rates, taking into account different models of diversification/extinction and allowing to correct for incomplete sampling. This method proved to be very helpful and informative and was also applied in other running projects (Fosterella, Puya). It was possible to link the evolutionary success of Bromelioideae to the acquisition of the tank habit resulting in a strong decrease of extinction rates. The evolutionary role of the acquisition of CAM photosynthesis was marginal compared to it. The correlation of the evolutionary processes with climate (changes) in the past is not yet clear to us. Oscillating climatic situations as well as increase and decrease of forested areas seem to have taken place, the tank habit obviously allowed invasion and successful survival in forest canopy habitats, while terrestrial, non-tank species based in the arid Cerrados/Campos rupestres suffered much higher extinction.
Publications
- (2009). Chilean Bromeliaceae - diversity, distribution and evaluation of conservation status. Biodiversity and Conservation 18: 2449-2471
Zizka, G. Schmidt, M., Schulte, K., Novoa, P., Pinto, R., König, K.
- (2009). Phylogeny of Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) inferred from nuclear and plastid DNA loci reveals the evolution of the tank habit within the subfamily. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 51: 327-339
Schulte, K., Barfuss, M. H. J., Zizka, G.
- (2010). Detection of recent hybridization between sympatric Chilean Puya species (Bromeliaceae) using AFLP markers and reconstruction of complex relationships. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57 (3): 1105-1119
Schulte, K., Silvestro, D., Kiehlmann, E., Vesely, S., Novoa, P., Zizka, G.
- (2011). A Bayesian framework to estimate diversification rates and their variation through time and space. BMC Evolutionary Biology 11: 311
Silvestro, D., Schnitzler, J., Zizka, G.
- (2011). Phylogeny, adaptive radiation, and historical biogeography in Bromeliaceae: Insights from an eight-locus plastid phylogeny. American Journal of Botany 98 (5): 872-895
Givnish, T.J., Barfuss, M.H.J., Van Ee, B., Riina, R., Schulte, K., Horres, R., Gonsiska, P.A., Jabaily, R.S., Crayn, D.M., Smith, J.A., Winter, K., Brown, G.K., Evans, T.M., Holst, B.K., Luther, H., Till, W., Zizka, G., Berry, P.E., Sytsma, K.H.
- (2011). raxmlGUI: a graphical front-end for raxml. Organisms Diversity & Evolution
Silvestro, D., Michalak, I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-011-0056-0)
