Global beta-diversity of angiosperm trees is shaped by Quaternary climate change.

As Earth’s climate has varied strongly through geological time, studying the impacts of past climate change on biodiversity helps to understand the risks from future climate change. However, it remains unclear how paleoclimate shapes spatial variation in biodiversity. Here, we assessed the influence of Quaternary climate change on spatial dissimilarity in taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional composition among neighboring 200-kilometer cells (beta-diversity) for angiosperm trees worldwide. We found that larger glacial-interglacial temperature change was strongly associated with lower spatial turnover (species replacements) and higher nestedness (richness changes) components of beta-diversity across all three biodiversity facets. Moreover, phylogenetic and functional turnover was lower and nestedness higher than random expectations based on taxonomic beta-diversity in regions that experienced large temperature change, reflecting phylogenetically and functionally selective processes in species replacement, extinction, and colonization during glacial-interglacial oscillations. Our results suggest that future human-driven climate change could cause local homogenization and reduction in taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of angiosperm trees worldwide. Quaternary climate change reduced and homogenized angiosperm tree diversity across large landscapes worldwide.

Project(s)

Priority 4: Accelerated Taxonomy

Funder

Funder name	Awards
Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond, dENMARK	Starting Grant (AUFF-F-2018-7-8)
Danish Council for Independent Research\|Natural Sciences	Grant 6108-00078B to the TREECHANGE Project
Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Denmark	Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) (grant DNRF173)
Villum Fonden, Denamrk	“Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World” funded by VILLUM FONDEN (grant 16549) - Grant 00025354
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canada	Discovery grants program
National Research Foundation of Korea, South Korea	2022R1A2C1003504
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Chile	ANID PIA/BASAL (grant FB210006)
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Chile	Grant 1200468
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany	To German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG-FZT 118, 202548816)
Fundación Ramón Areces	Project CIVP20A6621
Government of Spain	PID2019-110521GB-I00
Eesti Teadusagentuur, Estonia	Grant PUT1355 - Grants PRG 1405
Mobilitas Pluss	MOBERC11
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil	Grant 307689/2014-0