Browsing by Author "Cotterill, FPD"

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    Plants as biotic indicators of Neogene palaeoenvironmental evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
    (2012) Hoffmann, Vera; Verboom, George Anthony; Cotterill, FPD
    Comparative biologists have refined the synthesis of molecularly dated phylogenies and ecological data into an important tool to reconstruct the evolution of species and biomes, and to unravel the history and role of abiotic determinants of diversity patterns (fire, climate, tectonism). This has been extended into the cross-disciplinary, geobiological approach of 'geoecodynamics' has exploits the spatial fidelity of locally restricted organisms to unravel the temporal and spatial evolution of landforms. This research approach is adopted here across 11 plant clades representing six prominent plant families of the Cape flora (Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Restionaceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae and Proteaceae) to infer (i) the relative roles of climatic changes and neotectonic uplift in shaping the CFR since the Early Miocene, and to detemine (ii) whether contrasting evolutionary processes (adaptive versus non-adaptive) exhibit spatial structuring within the flora, given the complex topography of the region.