Mark A. Carine

• Natural History Museum, London

Oceanic archipelagos provide striking examples of lineages that have radiated over pronounced ecological gradients. Accompanying this diversification, lineages have evolved adaptations allowing survival in extreme environments. Here, we investigate the genomic basis of ecological adaptation in Canary Island Descurainia (Brassicaceae), an island rel...

Oryza rufipogon is the wild progenitor of cultivated rice O. sativa and exhibits high levels of genetic diversity across its distribution, making it a useful resource for the identification of abiotic stress tolerant varieties and genes that could limit future climate-changed induced yield losses. To investigate local adaptation in O. rufipogon, we...

Ecological isolation is increasingly thought to play an important role in speciation, especially for the origin and reproductive isolation of homoploid hybrid species. However, the extent to which divergent and/or transgressive gene expression changes are involved in speciation is not well studied. In this study, we employ comparative transcriptomi...

Plants of South Asia The Plants of South Asia dataset comprises details of herbarium specimens from the South Asian region and includes botanical specimens Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and reflects the extensive collections from the South Asian region held in the herbarium at the Natural History Museu...

Premise of the study: Oceanic islands offer the opportunity to understand evolutionary processes underlying rapid diversification. Along with geographic isolation and ecological shifts, a growing body of genomic evidence has suggested that hybridisation can play an important role in island evolution. Here we use genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) to u...

Aim How spatial, historical and ecological processes drive diversity patterns remains one of the main foci of island biogeography. We determined how beta diversity varies across spatial scales and among organisms, disentangled the drivers of this variation, and examined how, consequently, biogeographic affinities within and among archipelagos vary...

Collections assessments can inform strategic planning, project management, baseline assessment reports, project cost-benefit analyses, support funding requests and collections advocacy. In 2018, 77 staff at the Natural History Museum, London, took part in a successful collections assessment exercise on its 80 million item collection. 17 questions p...

Oceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale...

Phylogenetic analysis has revealed that Argyranthemum broussonetii is polyphyletic, with subsp. broussonetii (Tenerife) and subsp. gomerensis (La Gomera) resolved in separate clades within the Macaronesian endemic genus Argyranthemum. We show that A. broussonetii subsp. broussonetii and subsp. gomerensis are similar in leaf traits, likely a consequ...

This article comments on: Rafael G. Albaladejo, Sara Martín-Hernanz, J. Alfredo Reyes-Betancort, Arnoldo Santos-Guerra, María Olangua-Corral and Abelardo Aparicio Reconstruction of the spatio-temporal diversification and ecological niche evolution of Helianthemum (Cistaceae) in the Canary Islands using genotyping-by-sequencing data, Annals of Botan...

The sub-alpine zones of oceanic islands are unique and dynamic ecosystems with high levels of endemism, making them particularly suitable model systems in which to investigate evolutionary and biogeographic processes. The sub-alpine flora of the Canary Islands is restricted to the islands of Tenerife and La Palma. Its origins are poorly understood....

An article about the history of the herbaria (BM) at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in: The Vasculum 16(1): https://issuu.com/thevasculum/docs/vasculum_16.1/s/11551043

Inferring the processes responsible for the rich endemic diversity of oceanic island floras is important for our understanding of plant evolution and setting practical conservation priorities. This requires an accurate knowledge of phylogenetic relationships, which have often been difficult to resolve due to a lack of genetic variation. We employed...

Never before has the biosphere, the thin layer of life we call home, been under such intensive and urgent threat. Deforestation rates have soared as we have cleared land to feed ever-more people, global emissions are disrupting the climate system, new pathogens threaten our crops and our health, illegal trade has eradicated entire plant populations...

Societal Impact Statement Plant and fungal specimens provide the auditable evidence that a particular organism occurred at a particular place, and at a particular point in time, verifying past occurrence and distribution. They also document the aspects of human exploration and culture. Collectively specimens form a global asset with significant pot...

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important inte...

Biological collections, including herbarium specimens, are unique sources of biodiversity data presenting a window on the history of the development and accumulation of knowledge of a specific geographical region. Understanding how the process of discovery impacts that knowledge is particularly important for oceanic islands which are often characte...

Johann Reinhold Forster and his teenaged son John Georg Adam Forster (then 17) joined James Cook’s second voyage (1772-1775), as botanist and artist, respectively. Upon their return they described six species that are pertinent to the study of the Macaronesian flora. Previous typifications are revisited and we designate lectotypes for Aytonia rupes...

Krascheninnikovia ceratoides (Chenopodiaceae) is a steppe and semi-desert plant with two subspecies, K. ceratoides subsp. ceratoides, which is widespread in Eurasia, and K. ceratoides subsp. lanata, which grows in western and central North America. A few disjunct populations of K. ceratoides subsp. ceratoides are found in Anatolia, Europe and North...

One day symposium on Biological Refugia held at Natural History Museum London.

Las islas Canarias poseen una flora muy peculiar que ha atraído el interés de numerosos naturalistas desde el siglo XVI, pero, principalmente, a partir de finales del siglo XVII, cuando las potencias europeas comenzaron a financiar expediciones científicas alrededor del mundo. Algunas hicieron escala en el archipiélago y, a su regreso, llevaron sem...

Well‐characterised examples of homoploid hybrid speciation (HHS) are rare in nature yet they offer the potential to study a number of evolutionary processes. In this study we investigate putative homoploid hybrid species in the genus Argyranthemum (Asteraceae), a group of plants endemic to the Macaronesian archipelagos of the North Atlantic Ocean....

This paper investigates the spectrum of herbarium uses and users. A simplified classification of herbarium uses is presented and used to investigate the spectrum of uses of herbaria by means of a Web of Science survey covering the period 2013–16. To investigate the user profile of a herbarium, we categorised herbarium visitors to the Natural Histor...

The phylogenetic relationships and phylogeography of two relatively rare Macaronesian Lactuca species, Lactuca watsoniana (Azores) and L. palmensis (Canary Islands), were, until this date, unclear. Karyological information of the Azorean species was also unknown. For this study, a chromosome count was performed and L. watsoniana showed 2n = 34. A p...

Collection needs are a challenge to communicate. Collection staff know the attributes of their collections, but other museum colleagues may not. In collections management, decisions of resource allocation may be made locally, rather than within the context of a larger organisational and strategic framework. The Natural History Museum (NHM), like an...

This study examines changing spatial patterns of botanical collections over a 400 year time frame, focussing on the collections at the Natural History Museum (BM) in comparison with global patterns. The Plant Collector Resource Database, which contains 68,000 collector records was used to generate 250,667 unique collector × country × date records....

Background At a global scale, the temperate zone is highly fragmented both between and within hemispheres. This paper aims to investigate how the world’s disjunct temperate zones have been colonised by the pan-temperate plant group Convolvuleae, sampling 148 of the c. 225 known species. We specifically determine the number and timing of amphitropic...

Abstract Background Oceanic archipelagos typically harbour extensive radiations of flowering plants and a high proportion of endemics, many of which are restricted to a single island (Single Island Endemics; SIEs). The Azores represents an anomaly as overall levels of endemism are low; there are few SIEs and few documented cases of intra-archipelag...

Premise of the study: Oceanic islands offer unparalleled opportunities to investigate evolutionary processes such as adaptation and speciation. However, few genomic resources are available for oceanic island endemics. In this study, we publish transcriptome sequences from three Macaronesian endemic plant species (Argyranthemum broussonetii [Asterac...

Recently evolved island lineages that exhibit a broad range of ecologies are particularly suitable model systems for addressing such issues. The 29 species of Echium endemic to Macaronesia display a diverse range of growth forms and occupy almost every ecological zone on the islands. The morphological and ecological diversity of this plant radiatio...

A new species of Aichryson, A. santamariensis, is described. The species is endemic to the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Analysis of molecular (ITS and trnL-F) and morphological data support the segregation of this new species from A. villosum with which it was formerly considered conspecific. Aichryson santamariensis differs from A. villosu...

Premise of the study: Oceanic island endemics typically exhibit very restricted distributions. In Macaronesia, only one endemic angiosperm species, Ranunculus cortusifolius, has a distribution spanning the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries. Earlier work suggested possible differences between archipelagos and the multiple origins of...

Tribe Merremieae, as currently circumscribed, comprise c. 120 species classified in seven genera, the largest of which (Merremia) is morphologically heterogeneous. Previous studies, with limited sampling, have suggested that neither Merremieae nor Merremia are monophyletic. In the present study, the monophyly of Merremia and its allied genera was r...

An account of the genus Ipomoea L. in Bolivia is presented. 102 species are recognised in the country and each of these is described. Notes are provided on diagnostic features, distribution, habitat, phenology and conservation status. A dichotomous key to all species is provided together with additional informal keys focussing on outstanding featur...

The UK has 14 Overseas Territories (UKOTs): Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands (commonly known as the Pitcairn Islands); St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia an...

Knowledge of the Azores flora has historically relied on the study of collections obtained during sporadic and brief visits conducted by collectors and naturalists coming from abroad. However, the far oceanic location of the Azores made it more inaccessible to these early studies than other Atlantic archipelagos, such as the Canary Islands and Made...

A global revision of Convolvulus L. is presented, Calystegia R.Br. being excluded on pragmatic grounds. One hundred and ninety species are recognised with the greatest diversity in the Irano-Turanian region. All recognised species are described and the majority are illustrated. Distribution details, keys to species identification and taxonomic note...

Conservation of plant diversity on islands relies on a good knowledge of the taxonomy, distribution and genetic diversity of species. In recent decades, a combination of morphology- and DNA-based approaches have become the standard for investigating island plant lineages and this has led in some cases to the discovery of previously overlooked diver...

Two endemic species of Leontodon are currently recognized in the Azores archipelago: Leontodon filii and L. rigens. However, there has been confusion regarding the application of these names and field observations and herbarium studies suggested three morphotypes in the islands. Here, we present a taxonomic revision of the Azorean endemic Leontodon...

the taxonomic status of the azorean endemic Viburnum tinus subsp. subcordatum is reassessed, using morphological characters and new molecular data from the ItS region and the trnK intron. a survey of morphological variation supports the recognition of V. tinus subsp. subcordatum as distinct from V. tinus subsp. tinus and the Canary endemic V. rugos...

The perceived low levels of genetic diversity, poor interspecific competitive and defensive ability, and loss of dispersal capacities of insular lineages have driven the view that oceanic islands are evolutionary dead ends. Focusing on the Atlantic bryophyte flora distributed across the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, weste...

Buril et al. (2013) transferred a Brazilian species of Jacquemontia Choisy to the new genus Austinia Buril & A.R. Simões, named after Daniel F. Austin (1943–2015 ). However, the name Austinia was already occupied by a genus of a moss family, Fabroniaceae, described in 1875 by Johann Karl August Müller. The later homonym Austinia Buril & A.R. Simões...

The stage at which DNA sequence data is incorporated into the taxonomic process and the extent of its contribution has been much discussed, but rarely in the context of assembling a taxonomic revision or monograph of a sizeable group of organisms. We present a new approach, the “foundation monograph”, which incorporates DNA sequence data into a lar...

Austinia, a new genus of Convolvulaceae is described and its relationship with other genera is discussed. Two species previously placed in Jacquemontia are referable to the genus. However, a revision of species delimitation demonstrates that the two are conspecific. Austinia therefore comprises a single species, endemic to Brazil.

A new species, Pericallis menezesii, is described from the island of Porto Santo in the Madeiran archipelago. Morphological comparisons are made with its sister taxon, P. aurita which is now considered to be endemic to the island of Madeira.

This paper reviews the development of knowledge of the flora of the Cape Verde archipelago, the only portion of Macaronesia located in the tropics, from the discovery of the islands in the 15th century until the end of the 18th century. The first settlers of the islands came from Portugal and their accounts recorded that the dense forests and lush...

• Premise of the study: Most orchid species native to the Macaronesian islands reflect immigration from western Europe or North Africa followed by anagenesis. The only putative exception is the butterfly orchids ( Platanthera ) of the Azores, where three species apparently reflect at least one cladogenetic speciation event. This multidisciplinary s...

Premise of the study: Geographic isolation, habitat shifts, and hybridization have contributed to the diversification of oceanic island floras. We investigated the contribution of these processes to the diversification of Pericallis, a genus endemic to Macaronesia. Methods: Data from the chloroplast psaI-accD and trnV-ndhC regions and the nuclea...

Data from the chloroplast trnL-F region are used to test the delimitation of putative diploid species in the Polypodium cambricum aggregate. In particular, we investigate the distinctiveness of the Macaronesian Polypodium macaronesicum, P. azoricum and the continental P. cambricum, investigate molecular diversity patterns within Macaronesia and est...

A major goal in biology is to identify the genetic basis for phenotypic diversity. This goal underpins research in areas as diverse as evolutionary biology, plant breeding and human genetics. A limitation for this research is no longer the availability of sequence information but the development of functional genetic tools to understand the link be...

The generic placement of the Socotran endemic Seddera section Socotroseddera is reassessed. A molecular phylogenetic analysis using the chloroplast matK resolves Seddera as polpyphyletic with samples of Seddera section Socotroseddera resolved within Convolvulus. This placement is congruent with morphology, notably style morphology as the species of...

Asplenium auritum Sw. sensu lato (Eared Spleenwort) is recorded for the Azores and the Macaronesian region for the first time. Misidentified herbarium specimens indicate it to have first been collected on Flores by Drouet in 1857, strongly supporting a native status. A member of a critical species complex of sexual and apogamous lineages of various...

Samples of the Canarian-Madeiran E. mellifera from across its range were sequenced for the nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer region (ITS) to document the variation, investigate congruence between molecular data and infraspecific taxonomy, contrast the patterns with those documented in its sister species E. stygiana and consider the impl...

A fundamental challenge to our understanding of biodiversity is to explain why some groups of species diversify, whereas others do not. On islands, the gradual evolution of a new species from a founder event has been called ‘anagenetic speciation’. This process does not lead to rapid and extensive speciation within lineages and has received little...

With about 470 species Hypericum Linnaeus (1753) is one of the 100 large angiosperm genera that collectively comprise an estimated 22% of angiosperm diversity (Scotland, 2000). The size of such genera means that complete monographic treatments to account for species diversity are time-consuming, costly and labour-intensive. Consequently, the specie...

Background Tribe Fabeae comprises about 380 legume species, including some of the most ancient and important crops like lentil, pea, and broad bean. Breeding efforts in legume crops rely on a detailed knowledge of closest wild relatives and geographic origin. Relationships within the tribe, however, are incompletely known and previous molecular res...

Annex 1. Accepted species of the tribe Fabeae. Overview table for Fabeae with genus, subgenus, and section, distribution and synonyms for each accepted species. Data compiled from [3,7,8] and herbarium label information.

Figure S9. Chronogram of the Fabeae. Dated phylogeny of the Fabeae estimated using BEAST on a combined sequence alignment. When multiple accessions were present in the full dataset, we merged them into one consensus sequence per species resulting in 262 ingroup species (6274 nucleotides). The age estimates with 95% confidence intervals (green bars)...

Figure S1. Best ITS maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the ITS dataset for 394 ingroup accessions (260 species) plus five outgroup species (668 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S8. Bayesian consensus phylogeny for the combined dataset. Bayesian phylogeny reconstruction using MrBayes on a combined sequence alignment. When multiple accessions were present in the full dataset, we merged them into one consensus sequence per species resulting in 262 ingroup species (6274 nucleotides). Bayesian posterior probability valu...

Figure S2. Best rbcL maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the rbcL dataset for 79 ingroup accessions (72 species) plus five outgroup species (1352 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S5. Best trnL/trnL-trnF maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the trnL/trnL-trnF dataset for 191 ingroup accessions (146 species) plus four outgroup species (733 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S6. Best psbA-trnH maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the psbA-trnH dataset for 150 ingroup accessions (111 species) (688 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S7. Best plastid marker maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the combined plastid marker dataset for 353 ingroup accessions (230 species) plus seven outgroup species (5501 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S10. Consensus ML phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on a combined plastid and ITS matrix with multiple accessions per species merged into a single consensus sequence resulting in 262 ingroup species (6274 nucleotides).

Table S1. Material used for phylogenetic analyses. Data for sequences used in the phylogenetic analyses: name, origin, Genbank accession number and voucher specimen for all sequenced taxa and for the sequences retrieved from Genbank.

Figure S3. Best matK maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the matK dataset for 163 ingroup accessions (118 species) plus five outgroup species (1587 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

Figure S4. Best trnS-trnG maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Fabeae. Best maximum likelihood tree based on the trnS-trnG dataset for 171 ingroup accessions (125 species) plus three outgroup species (1174 aligned nucleotides). Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 50% are given at the nodes.

In a recent paper, two of us discussed diversity patterns and diversification processes in the Azores flora. Triantis et al. (2012, Journal of Biogeography, 39, 1179–1184) challenged our hypothesis that palaeoclimatic differences had an effect on diversification rates and suggested that area, island age and isolation explain diversity patterns. The...

Discovering biological diversity is a fundamental goal--made urgent by the alarmingly high rate of extinction. We have compiled information from more than 100,000 type specimens to quantify the role of collectors in the discovery of plant diversity. Our results show that more than half of all type specimens were collected by less than 2 per cent of...

Aim Using the heather Erica scoparia s.l. as a model, this paper aims to test theoretical predictions that island populations are genetically less diverse than continental ones and to determine the extent to which island and continental populations are connected by pollen- and seed-mediated gene flow. Location Macaronesia, Mediterranean, Atlantic f...

James Cuninghame (ca. 1665-1709) was the first person to explore, collect and send back to the West significant numbers of Chinese plants and animals. During his first voyage to the Far East, this distinguished Scottish surgeon and naturalist stopped at the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). Although we do not know the exact dates of his arrival...

Much work has been done on the endemic floras of Madeira and the Canary Islands but little is known about the origin and diversification of endemic plants of the Cape Verde archipelago. In this study we focus on the three endemic species of the genus Echium L. (Boraginaceae) in Cape Verde. Phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear (ITS1, ITS2) and pla...

Abstract—The clover fern Marsilea azorica was described in 1983 from the isolated Azores archipelago in the northern Atlantic, where it is restricted to a single roadside pond. Thought to be an extremely local endemic, it was subsequently listed as a conservation priority species for the Azores, Macaronesia, and Europe, included as `critically enda...

The Macaronesian region comprises the volcanic, oceanic archipelagos of the Cape Verdes, the Canaries, the Savage or Selvagem Islands, Madeira and the Azores, located in the Atlantic Ocean between 15 and 30°N (Fig. 14.1). In keeping with other volcanic oceanic archipelagos, Macaronesia is characterised by high levels of endemicity and recent years...

Aim Bryophytes exhibit apparently low rates of endemism in Macaronesia and differ from angiosperms in their diversity patterns by the widespread occurrence of endemics within and among archipelagos. This paper investigates the phylogeography of the leafy liverwort Radula lindenbergiana to determine: (1) whether or not morphologically cryptic divers...

Aim Speciation processes on islands are still poorly understood. Previous studies based on the analysis of distribution data from checklists found that the flora of the Azores archipelago differs from other island floras in the exceptionally low number of radiations and the low number of single-island endemics. The general mechanism(s) responsible...

The publication of Species Plantarum by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 represented a major milestone in the history of plant sciences, laying the foundation for the scientific system of naming plants that we use today. However, long before Linnaeus, plant exploration was a major priority for the early botanic gardens stablished in Europe during the 16th and...

A revision of the Convolvulus sabatius complex is presented and five taxa are now recognised. Convolvulus valentinus is re-circumscribed to comprise only blue-flowered individuals. Yellow-flowered plants previously referred to this species are transferred to C. supinus where they are recognised as a distinct variety: C. supinus var. melliflorus, co...

Despite the importance of species discovery, the processes including collecting, recognizing, and describing new species are poorly understood. Data are presented for flowering plants, measuring quantitatively the lag between the date a specimen of a new species was collected for the first time and when it was subsequently described and published....