This repository stores the code associated with the project:
Authors: Maria Fernanda Torres Jiménez1,2,3, Nicolas Chazot1,2, Thaise Emilio4, Johan Uddling F1, Alexandre Antonelli1,2,5,6, Søren Faurby1,2, Christine D. Bacon1,2
Author institutions: 1Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden 2Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden 3Institute of Biosciences, Life Sciences Centre, Vilnius University, Lithuania 4Department of Plant Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paolo, Brazil 5Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3RB Oxford, United Kingdom 6Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, TW9 3AE Richmond, United Kingdom
Aim: Leaves display a remarkable variety of shapes, each with potential ecological advantages in certain climates. Studies correlating leaf shape with either climate or height constraints have focused on intraspecific variation, while the macroecological drivers of shape remain poorly known. Here, we determine associations between climate and plant height with the evolution of leaf shape in a lineage with high species and morphological diversity. Location: Global. Time period: Cretaceous to contemporary. Major taxa studied: Palms (Arecaceae). Methods: We apply a Bayesian phylogenetic mixed model to test for associations between climate and leaf shape (entire, pinnate, palmate, and costapalmate). We further reconstruct the ancestral leaf shape using multistate speciation and extinction models and compare the frequency of shapes with global temperatures through time. Results: We find that plant height associates with dissected shapes, and that annual precipitation correlates with pinnate shapes. The ancestral leaf shape is likely entire or polymorphic. Pinnate lineages originated multiple times after transitions from entire-leaved to either polymorphic (species with entire-leaved or pinnate individuals) or pinnate shapes. Main conclusions: Palms that are tall and live in humid regions are more likely to have pinnate leaves. Through geological time scales, temperature did not play a role in determining leaf shapes. This study contributes to our understanding of how the diversity of leaf shapes is linked to biological and climatic factors.
The code here is under constant updates and will be (one would hope) annotated and simplified as much as possible.
🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴