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Why are there so many plant species in the Neotropics?
Author(s) -
Antonelli Alexandre,
Sanmartín Isabel
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.1002/tax.602010
Subject(s) - ecology , abiotic component , niche , biological dispersal , biodiversity , herbivore , pollinator , geography , ecological niche , biology , diversification (marketing strategy) , habitat , pollination , pollen , population , demography , marketing , sociology , business
The Neotropical region (tropical America) is the most species rich region on Earth. Several causes have been proposed to explain this extraordinary biodiversity, which may be very roughly classified into two major categories: 'biotic' (e.g.soil adaptations; biotic interactions with pollinators, dispersers and herbivores; niche conservatism; dispersal ability) and 'abiotic' (e.g.time; rainfall, temperature and area; mountain uplift; hydrological changes). In this paper we review the evidence for each of these postulated causes of diversification and provide general directions towards further testing. We highlight the need of more well‐sampled and dated phylogenies and urge increased inter‐disciplinary collaboration.