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  • Evaluating plant lineage losses and gains in temperate forest understories: a phylogenetic perspective on climate change and nitrogen deposition
Title: Evaluating plant lineage losses and gains in temperate forest understories: a phylogenetic perspective on climate change and nitrogen deposition
Summary Global change has accelerated local species extinctions and colonizations, often resulting in losses and gains of evolutionary lineages with unique features. Do these losses and gains occur randomly across the phylogeny?We quantified: temporal changes in plant phylogenetic diversity (PD); and the phylogenetic relatedness (PR) of lost and gained species in 2672 semi‐permanent vegetation plots in European temperate forest understories resurveyed over an average period of 40 yr.Controlling for differences in species richness, PD increased slightly over time and across plots. Moreover, lost species within plots exhibited a higher degree of PR than gained species. This implies that gained species originated from a more diverse set of evolutionary lineages than lost species. Certain lineages also lost and gained more species than expected by chance, with Ericaceae, Fabaceae, and Orchidaceae experiencing losses and Amaranthaceae, Cyperaceae, and Rosaceae showing gains. Species losses and gains displayed no significant phylogenetic signal in response to changes in macroclimatic conditions and nitrogen deposition.As anthropogenic global change intensifies, temperate forest understories experience losses and gains in specific phylogenetic branches and ecological strategies, while the overall mean PD remains relatively stable.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2213567
PAR ID:
10534031
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley
Date Published:
Journal Name:
New Phytologist
Volume:
241
Issue:
5
ISSN:
0028-646X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
2287 to 2299
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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