Climate, phylogeny and the ecological distribution of C4 grasses
Climate, phylogeny and the ecological distribution of C4 grasses
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01144.x
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发表时间：
2008-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
8.8
通讯作者：
Still, Christopher J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Edwards, Erika J.;Still, Christopher J.
“C4光合作用”是指在强光和高温环境下增加光合作用的一套性状。大多数C4植物是禾本科植物，主要分布在热带和亚热带草原和稀树草原，但在寒冷的生长季节气候中明显缺席。C4光合作用的生理属性已被调用来解释C4草植物地理学;然而，该途径仅在热带起源的草谱系中进化，这表明C4草在温暖气候中的流行可能是由于从其非C4祖先继承的其他性状。在这里，我们调查的相对影响，在决定生态分布的C4禾本科植物在夏威夷的光合作用途径。我们发现，C4草类对温暖地区的限制主要是由于它们作为温暖气候草类分支成员的进化历史，但该途径似乎确实赋予草类在更干旱环境中的竞争优势。
'C4 photosynthesis' refers to a suite of traits that increase photosynthesis in high light and high temperature environments. Most C4 plants are grasses, which dominate tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas but are conspicuously absent from cold growing season climates. Physiological attributes of C4 photosynthesis have been invoked to explain C4 grass biogeography; however, the pathway evolved exclusively in grass lineages of tropical origin, suggesting that the prevalence of C4 grasses in warm climates could be due to other traits inherited from their non-C4 ancestors. Here we investigate the relative influences of phylogeny and photosynthetic pathway in determining the ecological distributions of C4 grasses in Hawaii. We find that the restriction of C4 grasses to warmer areas is due largely to their evolutionary history as members of a warm-climate grass clade, but that the pathway does appear to confer a competitive advantage to grasses in more arid environments.