Visions of the past and dreams of the future in the Orient: the Irano‐Turanian region from classical botany to evolutionary studies

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Abstract

Ever since the 19th century, the immense arid lands of the Orient, now called the Irano-Turanian (IT) floristic region, attracted the interest of European naturalists with their tremendous plant biodiversity. Covering approximately 30% of the surface of Eurasia (16000000 km2 ), the IT region is one of the largest floristic regions of the world. The IT region represents one of the hotspots of evolutionary and biological diversity in the Old World, and serves as a source of xerophytic taxa for neighbouring regions. Moreover, it is the cradle of the numerous species domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. Over the last 200 years, naturalists outlined different borders for the IT region. Yet, the delimitation and evolutionary history of this area remain one of the least well-understood fields of global biogeography, even though it is crucial to explaining the distribution of life in Eurasia. No comprehensive review of the biogeographical delimitations nor of the role of geological and climatic changes in the evolution of the IT region is currently available. After considering the key role of floristic regions in biogeography, we review the history of evolving concepts about the borders and composition of the IT region over the past 200 years and outline a tentative circumscription for it. We also summarise current knowledge on the geological and climatic history of the IT region. We then use this knowledge to generate specific evolutionary hypotheses to explain how different geological, palaeoclimatic, and ecological factors contributed to range expansion and contraction, thus shaping patterns of speciation in the IT region over time and space. Both historical and ecological biogeography should be applied to understand better the floristic diversification of the region. This will ultimately require evolutionary comparative analyses based on integrative phylogenetic, geological, climatic, ecological, and species distribution studies on the region. Furthermore, an understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes will play a major role in regional planning for protecting biodiversity of the IT region in facing climatic change. With this review, we aim to introduce the IT floristic region to a broader audience of evolutionary, ecological and systematic biologists, thus promoting cutting-edge research on this area and raising awareness of this vast and diverse, yet understudied, part of the world.

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