Staff View: The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil

The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil

Studies that compare physiology, anatomy, and ecology across species have offered some of the best insight into adaptation and evolutionary constraints in plants. As a result, the comparative approach has become increasingly used in studies of plant physiological ecology. The high species diversity...

Full description

Main Authors:	Hoffmann, William A., Franco, Augusto C.
Format:	Artigo
Language:	English
Published:	Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology 2017
Subjects:	Cerrado forest specific leaf area leaf area ratio phylogeny floresta área foliar especifica razão da área foliar filogenia
Online Access:	http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/27385
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	ir-10482-27385
recordtype	dspace
spelling	ir-10482-273852019-03-28T14:09:33Z The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil A importância da história evolutiva em estudos de ecofisiologia vegetal: exemplos dos cerrados e florestas do Brasil Central Hoffmann, William A. Franco, Augusto C. Cerrado forest specific leaf area leaf area ratio phylogeny Cerrado floresta área foliar especifica razão da área foliar filogenia Studies that compare physiology, anatomy, and ecology across species have offered some of the best insight into adaptation and evolutionary constraints in plants. As a result, the comparative approach has become increasingly used in studies of plant physiological ecology. The high species diversity of Brazilian biomes provides many excellent opportunities for comparative plant ecophysiology, and could be better exploited for understanding the evolution of plant form and function. In this paper we emphasize the importance of considering phylogenetic information for the design and analysis of comparative studies, relying on examples from comparisons of woody plants from cerrado and gallery (riparian) forests. The use of congeneric species pairs, each containing one cerrado species and one forest species of the same genus, greatly improves statistical power while assuring phylogenetic independence, an essential condition for inference in comparative studies. For example, in a study of seedlings of nine cerrado species and nine forest species, when we ignore phylogenetic relationships, it is not be possible to conclude that cerrado and forest species differ with regard to leaf area ratio (LAR), specific leaf area (SLA), or seedling height. If, however, we use the generic groupings to account for phylogenetic effects, then we find that seedlings of savanna species have lower LAR, SLA, and seedling height. Much of the phylogenetic inertia observed for these traits appears related to the fact that these traits are all strongly correlated with seed mass, which has been previously shown to be strongly conserved phylogenetically. These examples emphasize the importance of phylogenetic information in comparative studies. Estudos que comparam a fisiologia, anatomia e ecologia das espécies têm oferecido algumas das melhores apreciações sobre as limitações adaptativas e evolucionárias em plantas. Como resultado, a abordagem comparativa tem sido cada vez mais utilizada em estudos de ecofisiologia vegetal. A alta diversidade de espécies dos biomas brasileiros fornece excelentes oportunidades para estudos de ecofisiologia vegetal comparada, uma abordagem que poderia ser melhor explorada em pesquisas que visam a compreensão da evolução da forma e função em plantas. Neste artigo nós enfatizarmos a importância de considerar a informação filogenética no desenho e analises de estudos comparativos, utilizando como exemplos espécies lenhosas do cerrado e de mata de galeria (mata ripária). O uso de pares congenéricos, cada par contendo uma espécie do cerrado e uma espécie de floresta do mesmo gênero, aumenta o poder estatístico das análises, enquanto assegura concomitantemente a independência filogenética, uma condição essencial para inferência em estudos comparativos. Por exemplo, em um estudo comparativo de nove espécies do cerrado e nove de mata, não seria possível concluir que as espécies de cerrado e de mata diferem na razão de área foliar (LAR), área foliar especifica (SLA) e altura da plântula, se as relações filogenéticas forem ignoradas. Entretanto, se utilizarmos agrupamentos genéricos para contabilizar os efeitos filogenéticos, nós vamos encontrar que as plântulas de espécies de cerrado tem menores valores de LAR, SLA e altura da plântula. Muito da inércia filogenética observada para estes atributos em plântulas parece estar relacionada ao fato de que estas características se correlacionam fortemente com a massa da semente, que estudos anteriores demonstraram ser um atributo fortemente conservado em termos filogenéticos. Estes exemplos ressaltam a importância da informação filogenética em estudos comparativos. 2017-12-07T04:50:22Z 2017-12-07T04:50:22Z 2008 Artigo Braz. J. Plant Physiol.,v.20,n.3,p.247-256,2008 1677-0420 http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/27385 10.1590/S1677-04202008000300008 en Acesso Aberto application/pdf Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1677-04202008000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1677-04202008000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_pdf&pid=S1677-04202008000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso
institution	REPOSITORIO UNB
collection	REPOSITORIO UNB
language	English
topic	Cerrado forest specific leaf area leaf area ratio phylogeny Cerrado floresta área foliar especifica razão da área foliar filogenia
spellingShingle	Cerrado forest specific leaf area leaf area ratio phylogeny Cerrado floresta área foliar especifica razão da área foliar filogenia Hoffmann, William A. Franco, Augusto C. The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
description	Studies that compare physiology, anatomy, and ecology across species have offered some of the best insight into adaptation and evolutionary constraints in plants. As a result, the comparative approach has become increasingly used in studies of plant physiological ecology. The high species diversity of Brazilian biomes provides many excellent opportunities for comparative plant ecophysiology, and could be better exploited for understanding the evolution of plant form and function. In this paper we emphasize the importance of considering phylogenetic information for the design and analysis of comparative studies, relying on examples from comparisons of woody plants from cerrado and gallery (riparian) forests. The use of congeneric species pairs, each containing one cerrado species and one forest species of the same genus, greatly improves statistical power while assuring phylogenetic independence, an essential condition for inference in comparative studies. For example, in a study of seedlings of nine cerrado species and nine forest species, when we ignore phylogenetic relationships, it is not be possible to conclude that cerrado and forest species differ with regard to leaf area ratio (LAR), specific leaf area (SLA), or seedling height. If, however, we use the generic groupings to account for phylogenetic effects, then we find that seedlings of savanna species have lower LAR, SLA, and seedling height. Much of the phylogenetic inertia observed for these traits appears related to the fact that these traits are all strongly correlated with seed mass, which has been previously shown to be strongly conserved phylogenetically. These examples emphasize the importance of phylogenetic information in comparative studies.
format	Artigo
author	Hoffmann, William A. Franco, Augusto C.
author_sort	Hoffmann, William A.
title	The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
title_short	The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
title_full	The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
title_fullStr	The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
title_full_unstemmed	The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil
title_sort	importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central brazil
publisher	Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology
publishDate	2017
url	http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/27385
_version_	1641988572386951168
score	13.657419

The importance of evolutionary history in studies of plant physiological ecology: examples from cerrados and forests of central Brazil

Similar Items