Why do tropical mountains support exceptionally high biodiversity? The Eastern Arc Mountains and the drivers of Saintpaulia diversity

Dimitar Stefanov Dimitrov; David Bravo Nogues; Nikolaj Scharff

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048908

Why do tropical mountains support exceptionally high biodiversity? The Eastern Arc Mountains and the drivers of Saintpaulia diversity

Dimitar Stefanov Dimitrov, David Bravo Nogues, Nikolaj Scharff

Ecology and Evolution

34 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

We combine information about the evolutionary history and distributional patterns of the genus Saintpaulia H. Wendl. (Gesneriaceae; 'African violets') to elucidate the factors and processes behind the accumulation of species in tropical montane areas of high biodiversity concentration. We find that high levels of biodiversity in the Eastern Arc Mountains are the result of pre-Quaternary speciation processes and environmental stability. Our results support the hypothesis that climatically stable mountaintops may have acted as climatic refugia for lowland lineages during the Pleistocene by preventing extinctions. In addition, we found evidence for the existence of lowland micro-refugia during the Pleistocene, which may explain the high species diversity of East African coastal forests. We discuss the conservation implications of the results in the context of future climate change.

Original language	English
Article number	e48908
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	7
Issue number	11
Number of pages	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048908
Publication status	Published - 19 Nov 2012

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Why do tropical mountains support exceptionally high biodiversity? The Eastern Arc Mountains and the drivers of Saintpaulia diversity

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