Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics

The species composition of regional plant assemblages can in large part be explained by a long history of biogeographical and evolutionary events. Traditional attempts of floristic studies typically focus on the analyses of taxonomic composition, often ignoring the rich context that evolutionary his...

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Main Authors: Rong Li, Lishen Qian, Hang Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2018-08-01
Series:Plant Diversity
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468265918300714
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spelling doaj-d91d1a31e62943ebb0189b5812fcdcec2021-02-02T08:49:50ZengKeAi Communications Co., Ltd.Plant Diversity2468-26592018-08-01404141146Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristicsRong Li0Lishen Qian1Hang Sun2Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, ChinaKey Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaKey Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China; Corresponding author.The species composition of regional plant assemblages can in large part be explained by a long history of biogeographical and evolutionary events. Traditional attempts of floristic studies typically focus on the analyses of taxonomic composition, often ignoring the rich context that evolutionary history can provide. In 2014, Swenson and Umaña introduced the term ‘phylofloristics’ to define a phylogenetically enabled analysis of the species composition of regional floras. Integrating phylogenetic information into traditional floristic analysis can provide a promising way to explore the ecological, biogeographic, and evolutionary processes that drive plant assemblies at multiple spatial scales. In this review, we summarize the current progress on the phylogenetic structure, spatial phylogenetic pattern, origin and diversification, phylogenetic regionalization of floristic assemblages, and application of phylogenetic information in biodiversity conservation. These summaries highlight the importance of incorporating phylogenetic information to improve our understanding of floristic assembly from an evolutionary perspective. The review ends with a brief outlook on future challenges for phylofloristic studies, including generating a highly resolved species-level phylogenetic tree, compiling detailed and refined information regarding the geographic distribution of all plant life, extracting trait information from publications and herbarium specimens, and developing technological and methodological approaches for big data analysis. Keywords: Big data, Biogeography, Ecology, Evolution, Flora, Mega-phylogenyhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468265918300714
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Rong Li
Lishen Qian
Hang Sun
spellingShingle Rong Li
Lishen Qian
Hang Sun
Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
Plant Diversity
author_facet Rong Li
Lishen Qian
Hang Sun
author_sort Rong Li
title Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
title_short Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
title_full Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
title_fullStr Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
title_full_unstemmed Current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
title_sort current progress and future prospects in phylofloristics
publisher KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
series Plant Diversity
issn 2468-2659
publishDate 2018-08-01
description The species composition of regional plant assemblages can in large part be explained by a long history of biogeographical and evolutionary events. Traditional attempts of floristic studies typically focus on the analyses of taxonomic composition, often ignoring the rich context that evolutionary history can provide. In 2014, Swenson and Umaña introduced the term ‘phylofloristics’ to define a phylogenetically enabled analysis of the species composition of regional floras. Integrating phylogenetic information into traditional floristic analysis can provide a promising way to explore the ecological, biogeographic, and evolutionary processes that drive plant assemblies at multiple spatial scales. In this review, we summarize the current progress on the phylogenetic structure, spatial phylogenetic pattern, origin and diversification, phylogenetic regionalization of floristic assemblages, and application of phylogenetic information in biodiversity conservation. These summaries highlight the importance of incorporating phylogenetic information to improve our understanding of floristic assembly from an evolutionary perspective. The review ends with a brief outlook on future challenges for phylofloristic studies, including generating a highly resolved species-level phylogenetic tree, compiling detailed and refined information regarding the geographic distribution of all plant life, extracting trait information from publications and herbarium specimens, and developing technological and methodological approaches for big data analysis. Keywords: Big data, Biogeography, Ecology, Evolution, Flora, Mega-phylogeny
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468265918300714
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