Publication Date:
2004-05-25
Description:
Anisotropic (direction-dependent) long-distance dispersal (LDD) by wind has been invoked to explain the strong floristic affinities shared among landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere. Its contribution has not yet been systematically tested because of the previous lack of global data on winds. We used global winds coverage from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration SeaWinds scatterometer to test whether floristic similarities of Southern Hemisphere moss, liverwort, lichen, and pteridophyte floras conform better with (i) the anisotropic LDD hypothesis, which predicts that connection by "wind highways" increases floristic similarities, or (ii) a direction-independent LDD hypothesis, which predicts that floristic similarities among sites increase with geographic proximity. We found a stronger correlation of floristic similarities with wind connectivity than with geographic proximities, which supports the idea that wind is a dispersal vehicle for many organisms in the Southern Hemisphere.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Munoz, Jesus -- Felicisimo, Angel M -- Cabezas, Francisco -- Burgaz, Ana R -- Martinez, Isabel -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 May 21;304(5674):1144-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Real Jardin Botanico, Plaza de Murillo 2, 28014 Madrid, Spain. jmunoz@ma-rjb.csic.es〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15155945" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Anisotropy
;
*Bryophyta/growth & development
;
*Ferns/growth & development
;
Geography
;
*Hepatophyta/growth & development
;
*Lichens/growth & development
;
Statistics as Topic
;
*Wind
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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