Metabolome of Canary Island Endemic Plants

In thi study, we present a novel test of macroevolutionary patterns of diversity in plant specialized chemistry and its drivers, using 54 species sampled in situ on the Canary Islands, including both endemic species and non-endemic native species of the archipelago. To this end, metabolomic analyses were conducted on leaf samples to provide a comprehensive assessment of plant specialized chemistry. First, we tested the effects of mean crown node age (i.e., the elapsed time since the most recent common ancestor of a clade or lineage colonized an island), using this predictor as a proxy for the island residence time of each species, i.e., island-associated evolutionary time. Second, as a follow-up and more specific test related to abiotic forcing, we characterized species' climatic niches based on temperature- and precipitation-related variables and assessed whether these climatic predictors correlated with phytochemical diversity on the archipelago.