Climatic stability recorded in speleothems may contribute to higher biodiversity in the Cape Floristic Region

Aim: The geography and genesis of diversity remain an enduring topic in ecology and evolution. Mediterranean Climate Ecosystems (MCEs), with their high plant diversities in winter rainfall climates, pose a challenge to popular hypotheses evoking high water availability and temperature as necessary for the evolution of high diversity. We test the hypothesis of environmental stability as a driver for the evolution of regional-scale floristic diversity using speleothem oxygen (delta O-18) and carbon (delta C-13) isotopic values as proxies for past climatic variability in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) and other MCEs.Location: south-western Africa, California, Mediterranean Basin.Taxon: Plantae.Methods: We present new speleothem delta O-18 and delta C-13 records from a cave near Robertson in the western CFR. Stable isotope samples included in the analyses cover the time intervals between 240 and 670 ka BP with hiatuses at 630-500 ka and 360-310 ka. The dispersion of these stable isotope records is used as a measure for climatic variability. We compare our new analyses to speleothem records that cover full glacial and interglacial conditions in other MCEs (California and the Mediterranean Basin) as well as in eastern regions of the CFR. All sites used in this comparison have lower vascular plant biodiversity than the western CFR.Results: Analyses of the dispersion of the delta O-18 and delta C-13 datasets suggest that the highly diverse western CFR experienced climatic stability across several glacial-interglacial cycles, compared with the less diverse regions within and outside of the CFR.Main Conclusion: This result provides support for the hypothesis that lower extinction rates associated with Pleistocene biome stability may explain the higher diversity in the CFR relative to other MCEs.

Automated summary

By analyzing the oxygen (delta O-18) and carbon (delta C-13) isotopic records from a cave in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in southwestern Africa, this study found that the highly diverse western CFR experienced climatic stability across several glacial-interglacial cycles, compared to other regions. This suggests that lower extinction rates associated with Pleistocene biome stability may explain the higher biodiversity in the CFR relative to other Mediterranean Climate Ecosystems (MCEs).