Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene
Abstract Background In the past several millenniums, we have domesticated several crop species that are crucial for human civilization, which is a symbol of significant human influence on plant evolution. A pressing question to address is if plant diversity will increase or decrease in this warming...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
BMC
2020-09-01
|
Series: | BMC Plant Biology |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12870-020-02646-3 |
id |
doaj-5144998a33084929af2ca8ed08d85645 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-5144998a33084929af2ca8ed08d856452020-11-25T02:52:31ZengBMCBMC Plant Biology1471-22292020-09-0120111110.1186/s12870-020-02646-3Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the AnthropoceneJian-Guo Gao0Hui Liu1Ning Wang2Jing Yang3Xiao-Ling Zhang4Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking UniversityKey Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan UniversityDepartment of Public Policy, City University of Hong KongAbstract Background In the past several millenniums, we have domesticated several crop species that are crucial for human civilization, which is a symbol of significant human influence on plant evolution. A pressing question to address is if plant diversity will increase or decrease in this warming world since contradictory pieces of evidence exit of accelerating plant speciation and plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Results Comparison may be made of the Anthropocene with the past geological times characterised by a warming climate, e.g., the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 55.8 million years ago (Mya)—a period of “crocodiles in the Arctic”, during which plants saw accelerated speciation through autopolyploid speciation. Three accelerators of plant speciation were reasonably identified in the Anthropocene, including cities, polar regions and botanical gardens where new plant species might be accelerating formed through autopolyploid speciation and hybridization. Conclusions However, this kind of positive effect of climate warming on new plant species formation would be thoroughly offset by direct and indirect intensive human exploitation and human disturbances that cause habitat loss, deforestation, land use change, climate change, and pollution, thus leading to higher extinction risk than speciation in the Anthropocene. At last, four research directions are proposed to deepen our understanding of how plant traits affect speciation and extinction, why we need to make good use of polar regions to study the mechanisms of dispersion and invasion, how to maximize the conservation of plant genetics, species, and diverse landscapes and ecosystems and a holistic perspective on plant speciation and extinction is needed to integrate spatiotemporally.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12870-020-02646-3AnthropoceneBiodiversityConservationPlant extinctionPlant speciation |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Jian-Guo Gao Hui Liu Ning Wang Jing Yang Xiao-Ling Zhang |
spellingShingle |
Jian-Guo Gao Hui Liu Ning Wang Jing Yang Xiao-Ling Zhang Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene BMC Plant Biology Anthropocene Biodiversity Conservation Plant extinction Plant speciation |
author_facet |
Jian-Guo Gao Hui Liu Ning Wang Jing Yang Xiao-Ling Zhang |
author_sort |
Jian-Guo Gao |
title |
Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene |
title_short |
Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene |
title_full |
Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene |
title_fullStr |
Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene |
title_full_unstemmed |
Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene |
title_sort |
plant extinction excels plant speciation in the anthropocene |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
BMC Plant Biology |
issn |
1471-2229 |
publishDate |
2020-09-01 |
description |
Abstract Background In the past several millenniums, we have domesticated several crop species that are crucial for human civilization, which is a symbol of significant human influence on plant evolution. A pressing question to address is if plant diversity will increase or decrease in this warming world since contradictory pieces of evidence exit of accelerating plant speciation and plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Results Comparison may be made of the Anthropocene with the past geological times characterised by a warming climate, e.g., the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 55.8 million years ago (Mya)—a period of “crocodiles in the Arctic”, during which plants saw accelerated speciation through autopolyploid speciation. Three accelerators of plant speciation were reasonably identified in the Anthropocene, including cities, polar regions and botanical gardens where new plant species might be accelerating formed through autopolyploid speciation and hybridization. Conclusions However, this kind of positive effect of climate warming on new plant species formation would be thoroughly offset by direct and indirect intensive human exploitation and human disturbances that cause habitat loss, deforestation, land use change, climate change, and pollution, thus leading to higher extinction risk than speciation in the Anthropocene. At last, four research directions are proposed to deepen our understanding of how plant traits affect speciation and extinction, why we need to make good use of polar regions to study the mechanisms of dispersion and invasion, how to maximize the conservation of plant genetics, species, and diverse landscapes and ecosystems and a holistic perspective on plant speciation and extinction is needed to integrate spatiotemporally. |
topic |
Anthropocene Biodiversity Conservation Plant extinction Plant speciation |
url |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12870-020-02646-3 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT jianguogao plantextinctionexcelsplantspeciationintheanthropocene AT huiliu plantextinctionexcelsplantspeciationintheanthropocene AT ningwang plantextinctionexcelsplantspeciationintheanthropocene AT jingyang plantextinctionexcelsplantspeciationintheanthropocene AT xiaolingzhang plantextinctionexcelsplantspeciationintheanthropocene |
_version_ |
1724729376542556160 |