Scale-dependent patterns and processes of intertidal mussel recruitment around southern Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 434 ◽  
pp. 101-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Reaugh-Flower ◽  
GM Branch ◽  
JM Harris ◽  
CD McQuaid ◽  
B Currie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Intertidal Mussel ◽  
Patterns And Processes

scholarly journals The pollination niche and its role in the diversification and maintenance of the southern African flora

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1539) ◽  
pp. 499-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Flora Of Southern Africa ◽  
Ecological Diversification ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
African Flora ◽  
Ideal System ◽  
Patterns And Processes ◽  
Plant Extinction ◽  
Pollination Systems ◽  
Lineage Diversification

The flora of southern Africa has exceptional species richness and endemism, making it an ideal system for studying the patterns and processes of evolutionary diversification. Using a wealth of recent case studies, I examine the evidence for pollinator-driven diversification in this flora. Pollination systems, which represent available niches for ecological diversification, are characterized in southern Africa by a high level of ecological and evolutionary specialization on the part of plants, and, in some cases, by pollinators as well. These systems are asymmetric, with entire plant guilds commonly specialized for a particular pollinator species or functional type, resulting in obvious convergent floral evolution among guild members. Identified modes of plant lineage diversification involving adaptation to pollinators in these guilds include (i) shifts between pollination systems, (ii) divergent use of the same pollinator, (iii) coevolution, (iv) trait tracking, and (v) floral mimicry of different model species. Microevolutionary studies confirm that pollinator shifts can be precipitated when a plant species encounters a novel pollinator fauna on its range margin, and macroevolutionary studies confirm frequent pollinator shifts associated with lineage diversification. As Darwin first noted, evolutionary specialization for particular pollinators, when resulting in ecological dependency, may increase the risk of plant extinction. I thus also consider the evidence that disturbance provokes pollination failure in some southern African plants with specialized pollination systems.

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