title: A Phylogenetic Perspective on Biogeographical Divergence of the Flora in Yunnan, Southwestern China.
abstract: In recent years, an increasing number of studies incorporated biogeography with phylogenetic analyses to reveal the origin and evolutionary history of specific floras. In this study, we constructed the mega-phylogeny of the floras of three representative regions across Yunnan, southwestern China. We analyzed the phylogenetic structure and beta diversity based on the presence/absence of species (genus or family) data to investigate the phylogenetic patterns of regional floras. We found conspicuous divergence at the genus and species level in the pattern of phylogenetic structures, which most likely related to historical biogeography. The flora of southern Yunnan was shaped by the strike-slip extrusion of Indochina and the regional climatic stability, while the flora of northwestern Yunnan was shaped by the uplift of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau and the oscillations of the glacial-interglacial periods. The flora of central Yunnan had nearly equal proportions of the northern and southern floras that may be derived from a common Tertiary tropical or subtropical flora. Geological events fit well with the floristic and phylogenetic patterns across Yunnan. This study highlighted the importance of linking phylogenetic analyses to biogeographic interpretations to improve our understanding of the origin, evolution and divergence of regional floras.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shuiyin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D002681:China; D035264:Flowers / Q000145:classification; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification*