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Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran
Endemic species are believed to converge on narrow ranges of traits, with rarity reflecting adaptation to specific environmental regimes. We hypothesized that endemism is characterized by limited trait variability and environmental tolerances in two Dianthus species (Dianthus pseudocrinitus and Dian...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7366929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32678159 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68618-7 |
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author | Behroozian, Maryam Ejtehadi, Hamid Memariani, Farshid Pierce, Simon Mesdaghi, Mansour |
author_facet | Behroozian, Maryam Ejtehadi, Hamid Memariani, Farshid Pierce, Simon Mesdaghi, Mansour |
author_sort | Behroozian, Maryam |
collection | PubMed |
description | Endemic species are believed to converge on narrow ranges of traits, with rarity reflecting adaptation to specific environmental regimes. We hypothesized that endemism is characterized by limited trait variability and environmental tolerances in two Dianthus species (Dianthus pseudocrinitus and Dianthus polylepis) endemic to the montane steppes of northeastern Iran. We measured leaf functional traits and calculated Grime’s competitor/stress-tolerator/ruderal (CSR) adaptive strategies for these and co-occurring species in seventy-five 25-m(2) quadrats at 15 sites, also measuring a range of edaphic, climatic, and topographic parameters. While plant communities converged on the stress-tolerator strategy, D. pseudocrinitus exhibited functional divergence from S- to R-selected (C:S:R = 12.0:7.2:80.8% to 6.8:82.3:10.9%). Canonical correspondence analysis, in concert with Pearson’s correlation coefficients, suggested the strongest associations with elevation, annual temperature, precipitation seasonality, and soil fertility. Indeed, variance (s(2)) in R- and S-values for D. pseudocrinitus at two sites was exceptionally high, refuting the hypothesis of rarity via specialization. Rarity, in this case, is probably related to recent speciation by polyploidy (neoendemism) and dispersal limitation. Dianthus polylepis, in contrast, converged towards stress-tolerance. ‘Endemism’ is not synonymous with ‘incapable’, and polyploid neoendemics promise to be particularly responsive to conservation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7366929 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73669292020-07-20 Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran Behroozian, Maryam Ejtehadi, Hamid Memariani, Farshid Pierce, Simon Mesdaghi, Mansour Sci Rep Article Endemic species are believed to converge on narrow ranges of traits, with rarity reflecting adaptation to specific environmental regimes. We hypothesized that endemism is characterized by limited trait variability and environmental tolerances in two Dianthus species (Dianthus pseudocrinitus and Dianthus polylepis) endemic to the montane steppes of northeastern Iran. We measured leaf functional traits and calculated Grime’s competitor/stress-tolerator/ruderal (CSR) adaptive strategies for these and co-occurring species in seventy-five 25-m(2) quadrats at 15 sites, also measuring a range of edaphic, climatic, and topographic parameters. While plant communities converged on the stress-tolerator strategy, D. pseudocrinitus exhibited functional divergence from S- to R-selected (C:S:R = 12.0:7.2:80.8% to 6.8:82.3:10.9%). Canonical correspondence analysis, in concert with Pearson’s correlation coefficients, suggested the strongest associations with elevation, annual temperature, precipitation seasonality, and soil fertility. Indeed, variance (s(2)) in R- and S-values for D. pseudocrinitus at two sites was exceptionally high, refuting the hypothesis of rarity via specialization. Rarity, in this case, is probably related to recent speciation by polyploidy (neoendemism) and dispersal limitation. Dianthus polylepis, in contrast, converged towards stress-tolerance. ‘Endemism’ is not synonymous with ‘incapable’, and polyploid neoendemics promise to be particularly responsive to conservation. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7366929/ /pubmed/32678159 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68618-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Behroozian, Maryam Ejtehadi, Hamid Memariani, Farshid Pierce, Simon Mesdaghi, Mansour Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title | Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title_full | Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title_fullStr | Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title_full_unstemmed | Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title_short | Are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? Functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened Dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern Iran |
title_sort | are endemic species necessarily ecological specialists? functional variability and niche differentiation of two threatened dianthus species in the montane steppes of northeastern iran |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7366929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32678159 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68618-7 |
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