Journal
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00195
Keywords
flickering connectivity system (FCS); glaciation; Hengduan Mountains; mountain-geobiodiversity hypothesis (MGH); phylogeography; Pleistocene; Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; refugia
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Funding
- German Science Foundation [DFG PAK 807, MU 2934/2-1, MU 2934/3-1]
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
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Recently, the mountain-geobiodiversity hypothesis (MGH) was proposed as a key concept for explaining the high levels of biodiversity found in mountain systems of the Tibeto-Himalayan region (THR), which comprises the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the Himalayas, and the biodiversity hotspot known as the Mountains of Southwest China (Hengduan Mountains region). In addition to the MGH, which covers the entire life span of a mountain system, a complementary concept, the so-called flickering connectivity system (FCS), was recently proposed for the period of the Quaternary. The FCS focuses on connectivity dynamics in alpine ecosystems caused by the drastic climatic changes during the past ca. 2.6 million years, emphasizing that range fragmentation and allopatric speciation are not the sole factors for accelerated evolution of species richness and endemism in mountains. I here provide a review of the current state of knowledge concerning geological uplift, Quaternary glaciation, and the main phylogeographic patterns (contraction/recolonization, platform refugia/local expansion, and microrefugia) of seed plant species in the THR. In addition, I make specific suggestions as to which factors future avenues of phylogeographic research should take into account based on the fundamentals presented by the MGH and FCS, and associated complementary paradigm shifts.
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