The ubiquity of alpine plant radiations: from the Andes to the Hengduan Mountains
Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2015 papers
Abstract
Alpine plant radiations are compared across the world's major mountain ranges and shown to be overwhelmingly young and fast, largely confined to the Pliocene and Pleistocene, and some of them apparently in the early explosive phase of radiation. Accelerated diversification triggered by island-like ecological opportunities following the final phases of mountain uplift, and in many cases enabled by the key adaptation of perennial habit, provides a general model for alpine plant radiations. Accelerated growth form evolution facilitated by perenniality provides compelling evidence of ecological release and suggests striking parallels between island-like alpine, and especially tropicalpine radiations, and island radiations more generally. These parallels suggest that the world's mountains offer an excellent comparative system for explaining evolutionary radiation.
Related Papers
- → Hominin distribution and density patterns in Pleistocene China: Climatic influences(2018)47 cited
- → Pleistocene glaciation chronology of Spitsbergen(1979)94 cited
- → Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827 from the Early Late Pleistocene Deposit of Avetrana (Southern Italy) and the Variation in Size of the Species in Southern Europe: Preliminary Report(2011)19 cited
- → Lower and middle Pleistocene flora in the Carpathian basin(1970)4 cited