Narrow endemics of the Almeria Province (Andalusia, Spain) differ in their traits and ecological niche compared to their more widespread congeners

Understanding the evolutionary ecology of geographically restricted species is of great importance for the design of conservation strategies and for gaining insight into the evolutionary processes involved in the origin and maintenance of those species. With a very high proportion of endemic species and/or subspecies, the province of Almeria in Andalusia (SE Spain) represents a prominent hotspot of plant diversity in the Mediterranean Basin. In this paper, we use phylogenetically independent contrasts to examine whether narrow endemics (i.e. species mostly restricted to the Almeria Province, hereafter NE) have evolved a ‘syndrome of endemism’. Based on published trait values, we tested whether (i) NE occupy a particular altitudinal range, possess a smaller niche breadth and occur within particular plant associations, and whether (ii) NE have distinct vegetative and reproductive traits. We found that, compared to their more widespread congeners, NE (i) occupy a narrower altitudinal range at the upper or lower limits of their congeners’ ranges; (ii) occur in a smaller number of plant communities that are distinct from the communities of widespread species; and (iii) have an 11 % shorter flowering duration, 28 % fewer flowers per inflorescence, 30 % reduced floral display, and 23 % lower floral attractiveness. These differences are not explained by a smaller size overall or a different ploidy level. NE have apparently evolved traits that promote selfing. The shift towards higher selfing rates is interpreted as a mechanism to promote reproductive assurance and to decrease gene flow from the more widespread congeners.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset.

Here we provide the 'Global Spectrum of Plant Form and Function Dataset', containing species mean values for six vascular plant traits. Together, these traits -plant height, stem specific density, leaf area, leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass, and diaspore (seed or spore) mass - define the primary axes of variation in plant form and function. The dataset is based on ca. 1 million trait records received via the TRY database (representing ca. 2,500 original publications) and additional unpublished data. It provides 92,159 species mean values for the six traits, covering 46,047 species. The data are complemented by higher-level taxonomic classification and six categorical traits (woodiness, growth form, succulence, adaptation to terrestrial or aquatic habitats, nutrition type and leaf type). Data quality management is based on a probabilistic approach combined with comprehensive validation against expert knowledge and external information. Intense data acquisition and thorough quality control produced the largest and, to our knowledge, most accurate compilation of empirically observed vascular plant species mean traits to date