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Environmental and evolutionary drivers of diversity patterns in the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) across China.

ABSTRACT: Subtropical forest is recognized as an important global vegetation type with high levels of plant species richness. However, the mechanisms underlying its diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we assessed the roles of environmental drivers and evolutionary dynamics (time-for-speciation and diversification rate) in shaping species richness patterns across China for a major subtropical plant group, the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) (145 species), at several taxonomic scales. To this end, we assessed the relationships between species richness, key environmental variables (minimum temperature of the coldest month, mean annual precipitation, soil pH), and phylogenetic assemblage structure (net related index) by using non-spatial and spatial linear models. We found that species richness is significantly related to environmental variables, especially soil pH, which is negatively related to species richness both across the whole family and within the major tribe Theeae (116 species). Family-level species richness is unrelated to phylogenetic structure, whereas species richness in tribe Theeae was related to phylogenetic structure with U-shaped relationship, a more complex relation than predicted by the time-for-speciation or diversification rate hypotheses. Overall, these results suggest that both environmental and evolutionary factors play important roles in shaping species richness patterns within this subtropical plant family across China, with the latter mainly important at fine taxonomic scales. Most surprisingly, our findings show that soils can play a key role in shaping macro-scale diversity patterns, contrary to often-stated assumptions.

SUBMITTER: Rao M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6303774 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental and evolutionary drivers of diversity patterns in the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) across China.

Rao Mide M Steinbauer Manuel J MJ Xiang Xiaoguo X Zhang Minggang M Mi Xiangcheng X Zhang Jintun J Ma Keping K Svenning Jens-Christian JC

Ecology and evolution 20181108 23

Subtropical forest is recognized as an important global vegetation type with high levels of plant species richness. However, the mechanisms underlying its diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we assessed the roles of environmental drivers and evolutionary dynamics (time-for-speciation and diversification rate) in shaping species richness patterns across China for a major subtropical plant group, the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) (145 species), at several taxonomic scales. To this end, we asses ...[more]

PMID: 30598765

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Many species in the Thea section of the Camellia genus can be processed for drinking and have been domesticated. However, few investigations have focused on the genetic consequence of domestication and geographic origin of landraces on tea plants using credible wild and planted populations of a single species. Here, C. taliensis provides us with a unique opportunity to explore these issues. RESULTS: Fourteen nuclear microsatellite loci were employed to determine the genetic diversity and domestication origin of C. taliensis, which were represented by 587 individuals from 25 wild, planted and recently domesticated populations. C. taliensis showed a moderate high level of overall genetic diversity. The greater reduction of genetic diversity and stronger genetic drift were detected in the wild group than in the recently domesticated group, indicating the loss of genetic diversity of wild populations due to overexploitation and habitat fragmentation. Instead of the endangered wild trees, recently domesticated individuals were used to compare with the planted trees for detecting the genetic consequence of domestication. A little and non-significant reduction in genetic diversity was found during domestication. The long life cycle, selection for leaf traits and gene flow between populations will delay the emergence of bottleneck in planted trees. Both phylogenetic and assignment analyses suggested that planted trees may have been domesticated from the adjacent central forest of western Yunnan and dispersed artificially to distant places. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the knowledge about levels and distribution of genetic diversity of C. taliensis and provides new insights into genetic consequence of domestication and geographic origin of planted trees of this species. As an endemic tea source plant, wild, planted and recently domesticated C. taliensis trees should all be protected for their unique genetic characteristics, which are valuable for tea breeding.

Project description:Theaceae, an economically important angiosperm family, is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical forests in Asia. In China, Theaceae has particularly high abundances and endemism, comprising ~75% of the total genera and ~46% of the total species worldwide. Therefore, predicting the response of Theaceae species to climate change is vital. In this study, we collected distribution data for 200 wild Theaceae species in China, and predicted their distribution patterns under current and future climactic conditions by species distribution modeling (SDM). We revealed that Theaceae species richness is highest in southeastern China and on Hainan Island, reaching its highest value (137 species) in Fujian Province. According to the IUCN Red List criteria for assessing species threat levels under two dispersal assumptions (no dispersal and full dispersal), we evaluated the conservation status of all Theaceae species by calculating loss of suitable habitat under future climate scenarios. We predicted that nine additional species will become threatened due to climate change in the future; one species will be classified as critically endangered (CR), two as endangered (EN), and six as vulnerable (VU). Given their extinction risks associated with climate change, we recommended that these species be added to the Red List. Our investigation of migration patterns revealed regional differences in the number of emigrant, immigrant, and persistent species, indicating the need for targeted conservation strategies. Regions containing numerous emigrants are concentrated in Northern Taiwan and coastal regions of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, while regions containing numerous immigrants include central Sichuan Province, the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, southwest Yunnan Province, northwest Sichuan Province, and the junction of Guangxi and Hunan provinces. Lastly, regions containing persistent species are widely distributed in southern China. Importantly, regions with high species turnover are located on the northern border of the entire Theaceae species distribution ranges owing to upwards migration; these regions are considered most sensitive to climate change and conservation planning should therefore be prioritized here. This study will contribute valuable information for reducing the negative impacts of climate change on Theaceae species, which will ultimately improve biodiversity conservation efficiency.

Project description:BackgroundThe rapid expansion of urbanization leads to significant losses of soil ecological functions. Microbes directly participate in key soil processes and play crucial roles in maintaining soil functions. However, we still have a limited understanding of underlying mechanisms shaping microbial communities and the interactions among microbial taxa in park soils.MethodsIn this study, the community variations of bacteria and fungi in urban and suburban park soils were investigated in Shanghai, China. Real-time PCR and high-throughput Illumina sequencing were used to examine the microbial abundance and community composition, respectively.ResultsThe results showed that soil molecular biomass and fungal abundance in urban park soils were significantly higher than those in suburban park soils, while no significant difference was observed in the bacterial abundance between urban and suburban park soils. The alpha diversity of soil microbes in urban and suburban park soils was similar to each other, except for Chao1 index of fungal communities. The results of similarity analysis (ANOSIM) revealed remarkable differences in the composition of bacterial and fungal communities between urban and suburban park soils. Specifically, park soils in urban areas were enriched with the phyla Methylomirabilota and Verrucomicrobiota, while the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadota was higher in suburban park soils. Moreover, the fungal class Eurotiomycetes was also enriched in urban park soils. Compared with suburban park soils, nodes and average paths of the bacterial and fungal networks were higher in urban park soils, but the number of module hubs and connectors of the bacterial networks and negative interactions among bacterial taxa were lower. Compared with suburban park soils, Acidobacteriota bacterium and Mortierellomycota fungus played more important roles in the ecological networks of urban park soils. Soil available zinc (Zn), available nitrogen (N), pH, and total potassium (K) significantly affected fungal community composition in park soils in Shanghai. Soil available Zn was also the most important factor affecting the bacterial community composition in this study.ConclusionThere were significant differences in the soil molecular biomass, fungal abundance, and the community composition and co-occurrence relations of both soil bacterial and fungal communities between urban and suburban park soils. Soil available Zn played an important part in shaping the structures of both the bacterial and fungal communities in park soils in Shanghai.

Dataset Information

Environmental and evolutionary drivers of diversity patterns in the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) across China.

Publications

Environmental and evolutionary drivers of diversity patterns in the tea family (Theaceae s.s.) across China.

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