Abstract Detail

Ecological Section

Sims, Hallie J. [1], Stein, William E. [2], Rees, Allister [3], Tiffney, Bruce H. [4], Looy, Cindy V. [5], Gensel, Patricia G. [6], Wing, Scott L. [1], Raymond, Anne [7], Wilf, Peter [8], Gastaldo, Robert A. [9], Johnson, Kirk R. [10], Alroy, John [11].

The evolution of within-community land plant diversity over the Phanerozoic.

Variation in the number of taxa within a community (alpha diversity) often is linked to environmental factors or biological innovations that allow some organisms to subdivide niche space more finely and thus increase the carrying capacity of a habitat. Land plants in particular show marked variation in alpha diversity in modern communities, with higher values associated with tropical communities and lower latitudes. Previous work has suggested that alpha diversity in plant communities increased steadily through the mid-Paleozoic to a late Paleozoic

1 - Dept. of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
2 - Dept. of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, Binghamton NY
3 - Dept. of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
4 - Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara CA
5 - Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
6 - Dept. of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC
7 - Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M, College Station TX
8 - Dept. of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA
9 - Dept. of Geology, Colby College, Waterville ME
10 - Dept. of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver CO
11 - National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara CA

Keywords: diversity, macroevolution, community.
Abstract ID:153

Presentation Type: Paper
Session: 38-6
Location: MCC, 202A
Date: Wednesday, July 30th, 2003
Time: 2:15 PM