Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna

Thomas Couvreur; Gilles Dauby; Anne Blach-Overgaard; Vincent Deblauwe; Steven Dessein; Vincent Droissart; Oliver Hardy; David Harris; Steven Janssens; Alexandra Ley; Barbara Mackinder; Bonaventure Sonké; Marc Sosef; Tariq Stévart; Jens-Christian Svenning; Jan Wieringa; Adama Faye; Alain Missoup; Krystal Tolley; Violaine Nicolas; Stéphan Ntie; Frédéric Fluteau; Cécile Robin; Francois Guillocheau; Doris Barboni; Pierre Sepulchre

doi:10.1111/brv.12644

Journal articles

Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna

Thomas Couvreur ^{1, *} Gilles Dauby ² Anne Blach-Overgaard ³ Vincent Deblauwe ⁴ Steven Dessein ⁵ Vincent Droissart ^{6, 7, 8, 2} Oliver Hardy ⁶ David Harris ⁹ Steven Janssens ⁵ Alexandra Ley ¹⁰ Barbara Mackinder ⁹ Bonaventure Sonké ⁷ Marc Sosef ⁵ Tariq Stévart ^{6, 8} Jens-Christian Svenning ³ Jan Wieringa ¹¹ Adama Faye ¹² Alain Missoup ¹³ Krystal Tolley ^{14, 15} Violaine Nicolas ¹⁶ Stéphan Ntie ¹⁷ Frédéric Fluteau ¹⁸ Cécile Robin ¹⁹ Francois Guillocheau ¹⁹ Doris Barboni ²⁰ Pierre Sepulchre ^{21, 22}

* Corresponding author

1 UMR DIADE - Diversité, adaptation, développement des plantes

2 UMR AMAP - Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations

3 Aarhus University [Aarhus]

4 UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles]

5 Botanic Garden Meise

6 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles

7 Université de Yaoundé I

8 Missouri Botanical Garden

9 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

10 Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg

11 Naturalis Biodiversity Center [Leiden]

12 LNRPV Laboratoire National de Recherches et de Productions Végétales

13 LPF, University of Douala

14 South African National Biodiversity Institute

15 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]

16 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité

17 USTM - Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku [Franceville, Gabon]

18 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

19 GR - Géosciences Rennes

20 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement

21 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]

22 CLIM - Modélisation du climat

LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] : DRF/LSCE

Abstract : Tropical Africa is home to an astonishing biodiversity occurring in a variety of ecosystems. Past climatic change and geological events have impacted the evolution and diversification of this biodiversity. During the last two decades, around 90 dated molecular phylogenies of different clades across animals and plants have been published leading to an increased understanding of the diversification and speciation processes generating tropical African biodiversity. In parallel, extended geological and palaeoclimatic records together with detailed numerical simulations have refined our understanding of past geological and climatic changes in Africa. To date, these important advances have not been reviewed within a common framework. Here, we critically review and synthesize African climate, tectonics and terrestrial biodiversity evolution throughout the Cenozoic to the mid-Pleistocene, drawing on recent advances in Earth and life sciences. We first review six major geo-climatic periods defining tropical African biodiversity diversification by synthesizing 89 dated molecular phylogeny studies. Two major geo-climatic factors impacting the diversification of the sub-Saharan biota are highlighted. First, Africa underwent numerous climatic fluctuations at ancient and more recent timescales, with tectonic, greenhouse gas, and orbital forcing stimulating diversification. Second, increased aridification since the Late Eocene led to important extinction events, but also provided unique diversification opportunities shaping the current tropical African biodiversity landscape. We then review diversification studies of tropical terrestrial animal and plant clades and discuss three major models of speciation: (i) geographic speciation via vicariance (allopatry); (ii) ecological spe-ciation impacted by climate and geological changes, and (iii) genomic speciation via genome duplication. Geographic speciation has been the most widely documented to date and is a common speciation model across tropical Africa. We conclude with four important challenges faced by tropical African biodiversity research: (i) to increase knowledge by gathering basic and fundamental biodiversity information; (ii) to improve modelling of African geophysical evolution throughout the Cenozoic via better constraints and downscaling approaches; (iii) to increase the precision of phylogenetic reconstruction and molecular dating of tropical African clades by using next generation sequencing approaches together with better fossil calibrations; (iv) finally, as done here, to integrate data better from Earth and life sciences by focusing on the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of tropical African biodiversity in a wider geodiversity context.

Keywords : Cenozoic African geology fossils speciation models palaeoclimate models dated molecular phylogenies tropical Africa

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Earth Sciences / Tectonics

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Earth Sciences / Climatology

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Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna

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