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Inferring the factors for origin and diversifications of endemic Himalayan flora using phylogenetic models

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Abstract

Formation of the Himalaya resulted from collision of the Indian and the Eurasian plates around the early Cenozoic (55–45 million years ago). Various geo-physical changes, namely disappearance of Tethys Sea, formation of land bridges and evolution of monsoon system followed the collision. These changes are cumulatively responsible for high plant endemism in the Himalaya. Here, we show that the high plant endemism in the Himalaya is likely linked to changes in geology, geomorphology and climate during the past millions of years. We used phylogenetic supertrees and ancestral area reconstructions to investigate the rates and biogeographic source areas of the Himalayan endemic plant species assembly through different geological time periods. Our results show that Eastern Himalaya (EH) harbors twice the number of plant endemics than the Western Himalaya (WH). The time-calibrated phylogenies revealed that maximum endemic diversifications of plant families in both the EH and WH occurred during 35–20 million years ago (Oligocene–Miocene), the period that coincided with evolution of the South West Asian monsoon. Further, the majority of plant endemics in the EH have ancestral lineages from South East Asian and Sino-Japanese regions. The WH endemic taxa have ancestor lineages from Southeast Chinese, Sino-Japanese, Irano–Turanian, and Central Asiatic regions. The high endemic plant diversity in the Himalaya is a result of immigration of ancestral lineages from the neighboring regions followed by their local radiations and diversifications after the formation and intensification of monsoon system.

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Fig. 1

modified from Pandit (2017), (c) the locations of field survey and sampling sites in the Indian Himalayan region. The base map was generated using Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) in Arc GIS 9.3 software while the land-use and land-cover classes were generated using unsupervised classification method in ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1 and Arc GIS V 9.3

Fig. 2
Fig. 3

source areas: A-Tropical; B-South East Asiatic Malaysian; C-Indian; D-SE Chinese; E-Sino-Japanese; F-Irano-Turanian; G-Centrasiatic; H-Holarctic

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The supporting data for this article are listed in the Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

KM acknowledges the support of DST INSPIRE Research Fellowship, Government of India [grant number: DST/INSPIRE Fellowship/2012/432]. MKP acknowledges the support of DU-DST PURSE grant by University of Delhi. The funders had no role in data collection, data analysis, interpretation of data and in the writing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi, Yamuna Vihar, Delhi, India

    Kumar Manish

  2. Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Kumar Manish & Maharaj K. Pandit

  3. Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Mountain and Hill Environment, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Kumar Manish & Maharaj K. Pandit

  4. Delhi School of Climate Change and Sustainability, Institution of Eminence, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Maharaj K. Pandit

  5. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India

    Sandeep Sen

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  1. Kumar Manish
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Manish, K., Pandit, M.K. & Sen, S. Inferring the factors for origin and diversifications of endemic Himalayan flora using phylogenetic models. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 8, 2591–2598 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-021-01251-z

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