Phylogenetic Diversity in Neotropical Forest Ecosystems

Phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical forests captures the evolutionary relationships among lineages that compose some of the world’s richest plant communities. By mapping species onto time-calibrated trees, researchers quantify both the total branch length represented in a local assemblage and the distinctiveness of constituent taxa. This approach reveals how past climatic shifts, geological events and ecological interactions have shaped current patterns of richness across rainforests, montane cloud forests, savannas and seasonally dry tropical forests. High speciation rates in the Neotropics, coupled with frequent biome transitions and occasional long-distance dispersal, have generated a mosaic of clades that range from ancient Gondwanan relicts to recent radiations. Phylogenetic niche conservatism—the tendency of lineages to retain ancestral environmental preferences—often underpins community assembly, yet biome shifts associated with morphological and physiological innovation have permitted clades to colonise new habitats. Understanding this balance between conservatism and innovation is critical for predicting the resilience of Neotropical forests under rapid environmental change and for prioritising areas that capture the deepest evolutionary history.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Revisiting the concept of ‘hyperdominance’ in Amazonian tree flora has shown that several purportedly widespread species are in fact complexes of multiple, independently evolving lineages. Integrative analyses of morphology, genome-wide markers and functional traits have revealed that what was once treated as a single abundant taxon actually comprises at least eight distinct entities, each adapted to different soil and climatic conditions. Most of these newly recognised lineages are geographically restricted and lack the numerical dominance previously attributed to them. This finding not only reframes our understanding of tree community composition and ecosystem functioning in Amazonia but also highlights the urgent need for finer taxonomic resolution to inform conservation strategies, since some of the cryptic species occupy rapidly diminishing habitats.

Phylogenetic Diversity in Neotropical Forest Ecosystems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in phylogenetic diversity in neotropical forest ecosystems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Phylogenetic diversity: a measure of evolutionary heritage represented by the sum of branch lengths connecting species in a phylogenetic tree.

Phylogenetic niche conservatism: the tendency of species to retain ancestral ecological traits such as climate tolerance over long periods.

Hyperdominant species: taxa that appear exceptionally abundant in ecological surveys, often masking cryptic diversity.

Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF): tropical forest ecosystems characterised by distinct wet and dry seasons and high levels of drought-adapted endemism.

References

1. Conceptual and empirical advances in Neotropical biodiversity research. PeerJ (2018).
2. Freezing and water availability structure the evolutionary diversity of trees across the Americas. Science Advances (2020).
3. The Origins and Historical Assembly of the Brazilian Caatinga Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2022).
4. Revisiting the hyperdominance of Neotropical tree species under a taxonomic, functional and evolutionary perspective. Scientific Reports (2021).