Ecology of the podocarpaceae in tropical forests
By: edited by Benjamin L. Turner and Lucas Cernusak
Series: Smithsonian contributions to botany -- no. 95; Smithsonian contributions to botany -- no. 95.
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 207
Subjects: Tropical plants; Podocarpaceae
Description: The emergence of angiosperms in tropical forests at the expense of the gymnosperms, their ancestral relatives, was one of the most important events in the evolutionary history of terrestrial plants. Gymnosperms were nearly eliminated from the tropics after the evolution of angiosperms in the early Cretaceous, yet conifers of the Podocarpaceae are among the few gymnosperm families that persist in tropical forests worldwide. Podocarps are often considered to be restricted to montane sites in the tropics, a feature of their biogeography that is used by paleoecologists to reconstruct past forest communities.However, podocarps also occur in the lowland tropics, where they can be the dominant component of forest canopies. Podocarps have proved to be remarkably adaptable in many cases: members of the family have a semi-aquatic lifestyle, exhibit drought tolerance and resprouting, and include the only known parasitic gymnosperm. Other intriguing aspects of podocarp physiology include the mechanism of water transport in the leaves and the conspicuous root nodules, which are not involved in nitrogen fixation but instead house arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Perhaps most surprising, paleobotanical evidence indicates that far from being "relict" members of tropical forest communities, podocarps have been dispersing into the tropics since the late Eocene epoch more than 30 million years ago. These and other aspects of the Podocarpaceae explored in this volume have far-reaching implications for understanding the ecology and evolution of tropical rain forests.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Podocarp evolution: a molecular phylogenetic perspective / Edward Biffin, John Conran, and Andy Lowe; title: Dispersal and palaeoecology of tropical podocarps / Robert Morley; title: Ecology and distribution of neotropical Podocarpaceae / James W. Dalling ... [et al.]; title: Ecology and distribution of the Malesian podocarps / Neal J. Enright and Tanguy Jaffre; title: Podocarps in Africa: temperate zone relicts or rainforest survivors? / Hylton Adie and Michael J. Lawes; title: The ecology of podocarps in tropical montane forests of Borneo / Kanehiro Kitayama ... [et al.]; title: Temperate and tropical podocarps: how ecologically alike are they? / David A. Coomes and Peter J. Bellingham; title: Ecology of fire tolerant podocarps in southern Australia / Phillip G. Ladd and Neal J. Enright; title: Conifer-angiosperm interactions: physiological ecology and life history / Christopher H. Lusk; title: A functional analysis of podocarp ecology / Timothy J. Brodribb; title: Podocarp roots, mycorrhizas, and nodules / Ian A. Dickie and Robert J. Holdaway; title: Podocarpaceae in tropical forests: a synthesis / Lucas A. Cernusak ... [et al.].