Science Enabled by Specimen Data

Beaulieu, W. T., D. G. Panaccione, Q. N. Quach, K. L. Smoot, and K. Clay. 2021. Diversification of ergot alkaloids and heritable fungal symbionts in morning glories. Communications Biology 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02870-z

Heritable microorganisms play critical roles in life cycles of many macro-organisms but their prevalence and functional roles are unknown for most plants. Bioactive ergot alkaloids produced by heritable Periglandula fungi occur in some morning glories (Convolvulaceae), similar to ergot alkaloids in …

Vasconcelos, T., J. D. Boyko, and J. M. Beaulieu. 2021. Linking mode of seed dispersal and climatic niche evolution in flowering plants. Journal of Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14292

Aim: Due to the sessile nature of flowering plants, movements to new geographical areas occur mainly during seed dispersal. Frugivores tend to be efficient dispersers because animals move within the boundaries of their preferable niches, so seeds are more likely to be transported to environments tha…

Xue, T., S. R. Gadagkar, T. P. Albright, X. Yang, J. Li, C. Xia, J. Wu, and S. Yu. 2021. Prioritizing conservation of biodiversity in an alpine region: Distribution pattern and conservation status of seed plants in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Global Ecology and Conservation 32: e01885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01885

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) harbors abundant and diverse plant life owing to its high habitat heterogeneity. However, the distribution pattern of biodiversity hotspots and their conservation status remain unclear. Based on 148,283 high-resolution occurrence coordinates of 13,450 seed plants, w…

Canavan, S., D. M. Richardson, J. J. Le Roux, S. A. Kelchner, and J. R. U. Wilson. 2021. The status of alien bamboos in South Africa. South African Journal of Botany 138: 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2020.11.027

The growing interest in commercial cultivation of bamboos (Poaceae subfamily Bambusoideae) has led to the introduction of new alien species into South Africa. The rate at which bamboos are being planted in South Africa is a cause for concern because of the impacts of bamboo invasions in other parts …

Goodwin, Z. A., P. Muñoz-Rodríguez, D. J. Harris, T. Wells, J. R. I. Wood, D. Filer, and R. W. Scotland. 2020. How long does it take to discover a species? Systematics and Biodiversity 18: 784–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2020.1751339

The description of a new species is a key step in cataloguing the World’s flora. However, this is only a preliminary stage in a long process of understanding what that species represents. We investigated how long the species discovery process takes by focusing on three key stages: 1, the collection …

Ringelberg, J. J., N. E. Zimmermann, A. Weeks, M. Lavin, and C. E. Hughes. 2020. Biomes as evolutionary arenas: Convergence and conservatism in the trans‐continental succulent biome A. Moles [ed.],. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29: 1100–1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13089

Aim: Historically, biomes have been defined based on their structurally and functionally similar vegetation, but there is debate about whether these similarities are superficial, and about how biomes are defined and mapped. We propose that combined assessment of evolutionary convergence of plant fun…

Kass, J. M., R. P. Anderson, A. Espinosa‐Lucas, V. Juárez‐Jaimes, E. Martínez‐Salas, F. Botello, G. Tavera, et al. 2019. Biotic predictors with phenological information improve range estimates for migrating monarch butterflies in Mexico. Ecography 43: 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04886

Although long‐standing theory suggests that biotic variables are only relevant at local scales for explaining the patterns of species’ distributions, recent studies have demonstrated improvements to species distribution models (SDMs) by incorporating predictor variables informed by biotic interactio…

Grossenbacher, D. L., Y. Brandvain, J. R. Auld, M. Burd, P. Cheptou, J. K. Conner, A. G. Grant, et al. 2017. Self‐compatibility is over‐represented on islands. New Phytologist 215: 469–478. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14534

Because establishing a new population often depends critically on finding mates, individuals capable of uniparental reproduction may have a colonization advantage. Accordingly, there should be an over-representation of colonizing species in which individuals can reproduce without a mate, particularl…