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Introduction
Publications
Publications (582)
Transposable elements (TEs) have been hypothesized to play a pivotal role in driving diversification by facilitating the emergence of novel phenotypes and the accumulation of divergence between species. The rapid speciation and ecological diversification characteristic of adaptive radiations offer a unique opportunity to examine the link between TE...
The megadiverse plant family Asteraceae forms an iconic component of island floras including many spectacular radiations, but a global picture of its insular diversity is lacking. Here, we uncover the global biogeographical and evolutionary patterns of Asteraceae on islands to reveal the magnitude and potential causes of their evolutionary success....
Astydamia latifolia is the only species of the genus Astydamia, which forms an early‐diverging lineage of Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae. This species is subendemic to the Canary Islands and one of the most representative species of the coastal environments of this archipelago. Astydamia displays diplochory, that is, diaspores with two long‐distance...
Euphorbia canariensis is an iconic endemic species representative of the lowland xerophytic communities of the Canary Islands. It is widely distributed in the archipelago despite having diasporas unspecialized for long-distance dispersal. Here, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of E. canariensis at two levels: a time-calibrated phylogenetic...
The hyperdiverse plant family Asteraceae, with over 32,000 species globally, forms an iconic component of island floras, including many spectacular radiations, but a global picture of their insular diversity is lacking. Here, we uncover the global biogeographical and evolutionary patterns of Asteraceae on islands to reveal the magnitude and potenti...
Estimation of the number of colonization events between islands of the same archipelago for a species. It uses rarefaction curves to control for both field and genetic sample sizes as it was described in Coello et al. (2022).
The sclerophyllous syndrome is characterized by well-defined traits (evergreen coriaceous leaves, inconspicuous flowers, and fleshy fruits). It has been hypothesized that lineages displaying the sclerophyllous syndrome show lower speciation rates than non-sclerophyllous lineages after the establishment of the mediterranean climate. Daphne gnidium d...
Seed dispersal is a critical process in plant colonisation and demography. Fruits and seeds can be transported by several vectors (typically animals, wind and water), which may have exerted strong selective pressures on plant’s morphological traits. The set of traits that favour dispersal by a specific vector have been historically considered as se...
Background
The last taxonomic account of Olea recognises six subspecies within Olea europaea L., including the Mediterranean olive tree (subsp. europaea) and five other subspecies (laperrinei, guanchica, maroccana, cerasiformis, and cuspidata) distributed across the Old World, including Macaronesian islands. The evolutionary history of this monophy...
A recurring feature of oceanic archipelagos is the presence of adaptive radiations that generate endemic, species-rich clades that can offer outstanding insight into the links between ecology and evolution. Recent developments in evolutionary genomics have contributed towards solving long-standing questions at this interface. Using a comprehensive...
Euphorbia canariensis is an iconic endemic species of the Canary Islands and one of the most characteristic species of lowland xerophytic communities known, in Spanish, as ‘cardonal-tabaibal’. This species is widely distributed in the archipelago, which contrasts with the theoretically low dispersal abilities suggested by its unspecialized diaspora...
Background and aims:
The Canary Islands have strong floristic affinities with the Mediterranean Basin. One of the most characteristic and diverse vegetation belt of the archipelago is the thermophilous woodland (between 200 and 900 m.a.s.l.). This thermophilous plant community consists of many non-endemic species shared with the Mediterranean Flor...
Understanding what drives non‐native species naturalization (the establishment of a self‐sustainable population outside its native range) is a central question in invasion science. Plant capacity for long‐distance dispersal (LDD) is likely to influence the spread and naturalization of non‐native species differently according to their introduction p...
The current distribution of most species results from ecological niche, past distribution, migrations during glacial‐interglacial periods and in situ evolution. Here, we disentangle the colonization history of Saxifraga longifolia Lapeyr., a limestone plant abundant in the Pyrenees and rare in other Iberian mountains and the African Atlas. Our work...
Biologist think that Darwin was right when he formulated all his ideas, and that the results of recent years have only proved him right. And this is partially true,becausethere are many new results. In this book, a complete tour of the Evolution of Living Organisms proposed through 100 key questions. Specifically, prevailing concepts will be shown...
The repeated, rapid and often pronounced patterns of evolutionary divergence observed in insular plants, or the ‘plant island syndrome’, include changes in leaf phenotypes, growth, as well as the acquisition of a perennial lifestyle. Here, we sequence and describe the genome of the critically endangered, Galápagos-endemic species Scalesia atractylo...
Traditional classification of speciation modes has focused on physical barriers to gene flow. Allopatric speciation with complete reproductive isolation is viewed as the most common mechanism of speciation. Parapatry and sympatry, by contrast, entail speciation in the face of ongoing gene flow, making them more difficult to detect. The genus Iberod...
El diario de Antonio Pigafetta (1536), escrito durante la primera vuelta al
mundo, es único por los siguientes motivos. Supone el primer relato de la
Edad Moderna sobre un viaje de exploración que atraviesa varios
continentes. Además, es la primera fuente documental donde se describen
nuevos animales y plantas de Sudamérica y Asia. Y no solo eso. S...
Aim
Colonization is a central topic in ecology and one of the cornerstones of island biogeography. Although the evolutionary history of island species is widely studied, the quantification of colonization is particularly challenging because the same area may be colonized multiple times by the same species, whereas initially successful colonization...
Oceanic archipelagos comprise multiple disparate environments over small geographic areas and are isolated from other biotas. These conditions have led to some of the most spectacular adaptive radiations, which have been key to our understanding of evolution, and offer a unique chance to characterise the genomic basis underlying rapid and pronounce...
La ecología y el comportamiento de la mayoría de las especies de abejas mediterráneas (fenología, comportamiento solitario o social, apareamiento, nidificación, especialización en plantas) son aún poco conocidos o no han sido descritos en profundidad, salvo para contadas especies. Tal es el caso de la abeja roja de los caracoles, Rhodanthidium stic...
Euphorbia canariensis is one of the most iconic species of the Canarian flora. It is one of the two cactus-like species of Euphorbia in the Canary Islands, but while the other species (E. handiensis) only occurs in the Jandía peninsula (south of Fuerteventura), E. canariensis is widely distributed in the archipelago. Although both species belong to...
Summary of species inhabiting laurel forest that are consumed by the black rat (Rattus rattus) in the Canary Islands as registered by direct observation, personal communication, bibliography review, and detected in our macrohistological and DNA-based analyses (taxonomic identification of species using DNA sequences).
Summary of number of observations per level of each variable, including dropping locations and habitat, DNA barcoded plant species and dietary toxicity following Delgado (1998).
We removed dropping nº4 from the statistical analyses because it was taken the same day and at the same location that dropping nº60.
Frequency of invertebrates found in the 79 droppings (out of 100) genetically identified using the GenBank BLAST.
Significance
Invasive alien species pose major threats to biodiversity and ecosystems. However, identifying drivers of invasion success has been challenging, in part because species can achieve invasiveness in different ways, each corresponding to different aspects of demographics and distribution. Employing a multidimensional perspective of invasi...
Aim
Seed dispersal by oceanic currents (thalassochory) is considered one of the main long‐distance dispersal (LDD) mechanisms for the colonization of oceanic islands by plants. Diaspores of littoral species are often hypothesized to be physiologically adapted to seawater dispersal, favouring interisland colonization. In this study, we experimentall...
The black rat (Rattus rattus) is an alien species that causes severe impact on island ecosystems, floras and faunas. The main aim of this study was to determine the plant and animal contributions to black rat diet in a pristine misty laurel forest area on La Palma (Canary Islands). Our working hypothesis was that this rat equally consumes plants an...
Researchers in phylogenetic systematics typically choose a few individual representatives of every species for sequencing based on convenience (neighboring populations, herbarium specimens, samples provided by experts, garden plants). However, few studies are based on original material, type material or topotypic material (living specimens from the...
Background
Olive tree ( Olea europaea L. subsp . europaea , Oleaceae) has been the most emblematic perennial crop for Mediterranean countries since its domestication around 6000 years ago in the Levant. Two taxonomic varieties are currently recognized: cultivated (var. europaea ) and wild (var. sylvestris ) trees. However, it remains unclear whethe...
Aim
Coastal plants are terrestrial organisms for which ocean surface currents often act as long‐distance dispersal vectors (thalassochorous species) favouring broad distributions and connecting distant populations. However, few studies have statistically assessed the role of currents in modulating gene flow and species distributions of terrestrial...
Evolutionary radiations on oceanic islands have fascinated biologists since Darwin’s exploration of the Galápagos archipelago [1, 2]. Island radiations can provide key insights for understanding rapid speciation, including evolutionary patterns and the processes behind them. However, lack of resolution of species relationships has historically hind...
Drosophyllaceae is the only plant family endemic to the Mediterranean Floristic Region. It includes a single species, the carnivorous Drosophyllum lusitanicum, which is hypothesised to be a relict plant. Our aim here is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Drosophyllum to evaluate whether the African-European disjunction across the Strait of...
Species distribution patterns are widely studied through species distribution models (SDMs), focusing mostly on climatic variables. Joint species distribution models (JSDMs) allow inferring if other factors (biotic interactions, shared phylogenetic history or other unmeasured variables) can also have an influence on species distribution. We identif...
Bees (Apoidea) are the main pollinator group in Mediterranean ecosystems, having a dominant role as connectors of modules (groups of species tightly linked in pollination networks), but little is known about the role of particular species. Here, we analyse data from four Iberian networks, and we pay special attention to the role played by the solit...
Background
The olive tree ( Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea , Oleaceae) has been the most economic perennial crop for Mediterranean countries since its domestication around 6,000 years ago. Two taxonomic varieties are currently recognized: cultivated (var. europaea ) and wild (var. sylvestris ) trees. To shed light into the recent evolution and do...
Geography and climate have been the main drivers of evolution in recent geological epochs. While new lineages of species have been formed in the last millions of years (speciation) and others have vanished as a result of historical climate changes (extinction), some ancient lineages appear to have persisted to the present day without net diversific...
Accurate inference in phylogeography requires appropriate sampling strategies. Complex questions demand a large sample size at both the population and genetic levels to obtain precise reconstructions. This is the case of the phylogeographic history of Cistus monspeliensis, a plant that displays low plastid (cpDNA) diversity in the Mediterranean Bas...
- Traditional classification of speciation modes has focused on physical barriers to gene flow. While allopatry has been viewed as the most common mechanism of speciation, parapatry and sympatry, both entail speciation in the face of ongoing gene flow and thus both are far more difficult to detect and demonstrate. Iberodes (Boraginaceae, NW Europe)...
Traditional classification of speciation modes has focused on physical barriers to gene flow. While allopatry has been viewed as the most common mechanism of speciation, parapatry and sympatry, both entail speciation in the face of ongoing gene flow and thus both are far more difficult to detect and demonstrate. Iberodes (Boraginaceae, NW Europe) w...
Una especie nueva de Linaria sect. Supinae en la Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central, Península Ibérica)Linaria vettonica Luceño, Mazuecos & P. Vargas, a new species of Linaria sect. Supinae, is described. It is a narrow endemic inhabiting the southern hills of the western and central massifs of Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Pe...
Aim
Long‐distance dispersal research in plants has long been dominated by the assumption that an association between plant diaspore adaptations and related transport vectors (standard dispersal) determines the success of colonization. However, the role of diaspore adaptations in a biogeographic context is being increasingly questioned, as evidence...
Methods: We used connectivity models for prevailing wind and ocean currents based on satellite data to explore the correspondence between connectivity and species distribution patterns. Using a randomization test to eliminate the effect of wind and current directionality, we evaluated whether the proportion of species that is more connected than ra...
Aim: Long‐distance dispersal research in plants has long been dominated by the assumption that an association between plant diaspore adaptations and related transport
vectors (standard dispersal) determines the success of colonization. However,
the role of diaspore adaptations in a biogeographic context is being increasingly
questioned, as evidence...
Biogeographic dispersal is supported by numerous phylogenetic results. In particular, transoceanic dispersal, rather than vicariance, is suggested for some plant lineages despite current long distances between America and Europe. However, few studies on biogeographic history of plants have also studied the role of diaspore syndromes in long‐distanc...
Understanding the distribution of species has aroused scientific interest since ancient times. In this study, we intend to hypothesize a possible dispersal mechanism that allows us to understand the current distribution of Astydamia latifolia in the Canary Islands. The study of the fruits by scanning electron microscopy allowed to verify the existe...
PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Long-distance dispersal (LDD) syndromes, especially endozoochory, facilitate plant colonization of new territories that trigger diversification. However, few studies have analyzed how epizoochorous fruits influence both range distribution and diversification rates. We examined the evolutionary history of a hyperdiverse clade o...
Lizards have been reported as important pollinators on several oceanic islands. Here we evaluate the potential role of Galápagos lava lizards (Microlophus spp.) as pollinators across their radiation. During three years, we sampled pollen transport by nine lava lizard species on the 10 islands where they are present, including seven single‐island en...
Floral nectar spurs are widely considered a key innovation promoting diversification in angiosperms by means of pollinator shifts. We investigated the macroevolutionary dynamics of nectar spurs in the tribe Antirrhineae (Plantaginaceae), which contains 29 genera and 300–400 species (70–80% spurred). The effect of nectar spurs on diversification was...
Glacial refugia are key elements to understand the recent biogeographic history of species, and they are expected to harbour high levels of genetic diversity. However, sometimes the location of refugia is not well established despite the sampling of numerous populations. An example is the rockrose Cistus monspeliensis in the Mediterranean Region. L...
Aim
To investigate factors that explain the spatial pattern of genetic diversity in three closely related species (Linaria glacialis, Linaria nevadensis and Chaenorhinum glareosum) endemic to a fragile high mountain ecosystem.
Location
The alpine belt of Sierra Nevada, Spain.
Methods
We analysed the spatial pattern of cpDNA diversity of the three...
Frugivory in lizards is often assumed to be constrained by body size; only large individuals are considered capable of consuming fruits, with the potential of acting as seed dispersers. However, only one previous study has tested the correlation of frugivory with body and head size at an archipelago scale across closely related species. All nine la...
Despite decades of broad interest in global patterns of biodiversity, little attention has been given to understanding the remarkable levels of plant diversity present in the world’s five Mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions, all of which are considered to be biodiversity hotspots. Comprising the Mediterranean Basin, California, central Chile,...
Dispersal is the process that allows organisms to reach new suitable territories and expand their area of occupancy. In plants, long-distance dispersal (LDD) of diaspores is related to the presence of morphological structures (dispersal syndromes) that favor mobility by wind (anemochorous), sea currents (thalasochorous) and animals (epizoochorous a...
Seed dispersal and mycorrhizal associations are key mutualisms for the functioning and regeneration of plant communities; however, these processes have seldom been explored together. We hypothesised that obligatory mycorrhizal plants will be less likely to have long-distance dispersal (LDD) syndromes since the probability of finding suitable mycorr...
Disentangling species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships within recent evolutionary radiations is a challenge due to the poor morphological differentiation and low genetic divergence between species, frequently accompanied by phenotypic convergence, inter-specific gene flow and incomplete lineage sorting. Here we employed a genotyping-by-seq...