DANZ: a comparative study of plant diversification mechanisms involved in the Disjunction between America and New Zealand

JIMÉNEZ-MEJÍAS PEDRO; MIGUEZ MÓNICA; BENÍTEZ CARMEN; GARCÍA-MORO PABLO; SANZ-ARNAL MARÍA; BARRETT RUSSELL; CANO ASUNCIÓN ; DONADÍO SABINA; FERNANDEZ-MAZUECOS SANTA TERESA MARIO; FORD KERRY A.; GEBAUER SEBASTIAN ; HIPP ANDREW; HOFFMAN MATTHIAS; LARRIDON ISABEL ; LÉVEILLÉ-BOURRET ETIENNE; MAIRAL MARIO; MÁRQUEZ-CORRO JOSÉ IGNACIO; MUÑOZ-SCHÜLER PAULO; OTERO ANA; PENNECKAMP DIEGO; ROALSON ERIC; SPALINK DANIEL ; STARR JULIAN; VILLAVERDE TAMARA; WILSON KAREN; LUCEÑO MODESTO; MARTIN-BRAVO, SANTIAGO

Alaska

Conferencia; Botany 2022 - Plants at the Extreme; 2022

Botanical Society of America

We here present DANZ, a research project recently funded by Spanish Government that involves a number of international collaborators. DANZ aims to investigate the diversification mechanisms that explain differences in biodiversity patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. Specifically, we will try to unravel the dynamics of evolutionary radiations in a comparative framework composed of two disjunct areas (South America and New Zealand) with remarkable biogeographic affinities that go back to the Gondwanan supercontinent. We will examine if detected evolutionary radiations are linked to biotic (e.g. ecomorphological key innovations) or abiotic factors (e.g. climatic changes or physical isolation). In addition, the possible relationship between the colonization of new territories by a lineage and the increase in its diversification rate (dispersification) will be also assessed. To this purpose, we have chosen three lineages of a megadiverse angiosperm genus (Carex, Cyperaceae). While Carex is more diversified in temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere, it has colonized the Southern Hemisphere on several independent events. We chose three monophyletic groups (sections Junciformes, Echinochlaenae and Uncinia) that are almost exclusively distributed and shared between South America and New Zealand, where they display a high endemicity. The three lineages show remarkably contrasting patterns in their species richness between both regions: Junciformes is more diverse in South America, Echinochlaenae in New Zealand, and Uncinia is equally diverse in both areas. We will try to elucidate the diversification processes generating such different diversity outcomes at different evolutionary levels (whole section and shallow species groups) using both traditional sequencing (Sanger) and high-throughput genome sequencing methods (Hyb-Seq, GBS). We will rely on an integrative analytical approach assembled through multidisciplinary tools (phylogenetic reconstructions, dating, biogeographic analysis, evolution of bioclimatic niche, characterization of functional traits, etc). Our study has special relevance to understand, in an evolutionary context, the evolutionary response of organisms to environmental changes. This is critical under the current global warming scenario, against which cold-adapted plants as Carex species could be highly vulnerable, all the more given the scarcity of these habitats in the Southern Hemisphere.