0000000001302512
AUTHOR
Sigrid Liede-schumann
Phylogeny of Sesuvioideae (Aizoaceae) – Biogeography, leaf anatomy and the evolution of C4 photosynthesis
Abstract Sesuvioideae (Aizoaceae) form a small subfamily of drought-tolerant plants exhibiting leaf succulence, halophytic ecology, and the C4 photosynthetic pathway. Sesuvioideae are sister to the species-rich subfamilies Ruschioideae, Mesembryanthemoideae and Aizooideae that contain many CAM lineages. This close relationship of CAM and C4 taxa identifies the Sesuvioideae as an important clade to address hypotheses of photosynthetic pathway evolution. This study presents a molecular phylogeny of Sesuvioideae based on five markers (atpB-rbcL spacer, rps16 intron, trnL-trnF spacer, petB-petD spacer, ITS) and 51 accessions representing all genera and 37 species. We determined carbon isotope d…
Diversification in evolutionary arenas - assessment and synthesis
Abstract Understanding how and why rates of evolutionary diversification vary is a central issue in evolutionary biology and ecology. The concept of adaptive radiation has attracted much interest, but is metaphorical and verbal in nature, making it difficult to quantitatively compare different evolutionary lineages or geographic regions. In addition, the causes of evolutionary stasis are relatively neglected. Here we review the central concepts in the evolutionary diversification literature and bring these together by proposing a general framework for estimating rates of diversification and quantifying their underlying dynamics, which can be applied across clades and regions and across spat…
Diversification in evolutionary arenas – assessment and synthesis
Understanding how and why rates of evolutionary diversification vary is a central issue in evolutionary biology, ecology and biogeography. The concept of adaptive radiation has attracted much interest, but is metaphorical and verbal in nature, making it difficult to quantitatively compare different evolutionary lineages or geographic regions. In addition, the causes of evolutionary stasis are relatively neglected. Here we review the central concepts in the evolutionary diversification literature and bring these together by proposing a general framework for studying rates of diversification and quantifying their underlying dynamics, which can be applied across clades and regions and across s…