Testing the confluence between dispersal-capacity and landscape heterogeneity as driver of diversification in campo rupestre clades

Abstract

The Neotropics comprises different heterogeneous environments harboring a set of endemic species that have arisen as consequence of both geological and short-time scale drivers. The tribe Sauvagesieae (Ochnaceae) is one of those groups and its greatest species richness occurs in mountain areas within the region, i.e., along the Brazilian Espinhaço Range, the Amazon-Guyana region, and some species in the northernmost Andean mountains, areas considered biodiversity hotspots with high rates of endemism. Several studies have been developed concerning the floristic composition and phytogeographical patterns of these areas, but the understanding of the correlation between morphological evolution and geological-environmental changes with diversification dynamics across lineages is still incipient. The high species richness and endemism rates of the tribe Sauvagesieae in highland regions of South America make it a good model for testing hypotheses linked to recent radiation of montane floras, and the biotic and abiotic factors that explain their unbalanced diversity across time and space. The goals of this study are to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of the tribe Sauvagesieae using a phylogenomic approach. The phylogenetic tree will then be used to characterize the diversification dynamic across lineages and to test its correlation with the evolution of morphological traits such as growth habit and seeds diversity in heterogeneous landscapes. (AU)