Life in the canopy: community trait assessments reveal substantial functional diversity among fern epiphytes
Life in the canopy: community trait assessments reveal substantial functional diversity among fern epiphytes
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冠层生活：群落特征评估揭示了蕨类附生植物的巨大功能多样性
DOI：
10.1111/nph.16607
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
9.4
通讯作者：
Davis, Charles C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nitta, Joel H.;Watkins, Jr, James E.;Davis, Charles C.
白垩纪和早新生代被子植物占主导地位的森林的扩张通过创造新的生态位对陆地生物群产生了深远的影响。大多数现代蕨类被认为是对这种扩张的反应而出现的，特别是辐射到树冠上的蕨类附生植物。然而，最近的证据表明，附生作用与蕨类植物多样性的增加并不相关，这使人们对树冠生境在蕨类群落进化中的作用提出了质疑。为了了解树冠在构建蕨类群落多样性中的作用，我们研究了法属波利尼西亚莫雷亚岛上广泛的系统发育样本中蕨类孢子体和配子体的功能特征，包括>；附生植物虽然体型小，非心形配子体的出现频率较高，但在群落水平上表现出比陆地蕨类植物更大的功能多样性。这些结果表明，以前人们忽视了蕨类附生植物之间的功能多样性，并提出了这样的假设，即被子植物树冠起着复杂的过滤器的作用，限制了植物的大小，但它也促进了多样性进入精细分割的生态位。确定这些生态位轴线的特征和附生蕨类植物对它们的适应应该是未来蕨类学研究的重点。
The expansion of angiosperm‐dominated forests in the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic had a profound effect on terrestrial biota by creating novel ecological niches. The majority of modern fern lineages are hypothesized to have arisen in response to this expansion, particularly fern epiphytes that radiated into the canopy. Recent evidence, however, suggests that epiphytism does not correlate with increased diversification rates in ferns, calling into question the role of the canopy habitat in fern evolution.To understand the role of the canopy in structuring fern community diversity, we investigated functional traits of fern sporophytes and gametophytes across a broad phylogenetic sampling on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia, including > 120 species and representatives of multiple epiphytic radiations.While epiphytes showed convergence in small size and a higher frequency of noncordate gametophytes, they showed greater functional diversity at the community level relative to terrestrial ferns.These results suggest previously overlooked functional diversity among fern epiphytes, and raise the hypothesis that while the angiosperm canopy acted as a complex filter that restricted plant size, it also facilitated diversification into finely partitioned niches. Characterizing these niche axes and adaptations of epiphytic ferns occupying them should be a priority for future pteridological research.