Evolutionary winners are ecological losers among oceanic island plants

Aim: Adaptive radiation, in which successful lineages proliferate by exploiting untapped niche space, provides a popular but potentially misleading characterization of evolution on oceanic islands. Here we analyse the respective roles of members of in situ diversified vs. non-diversified lineages in shaping the main ecosystems of an archipelago to explore the relationship between evolutionary and ecological ‘success’.

Location: Canary Islands.

Taxon: Vascular plants.

Methods: We quantified the abundance/rarity of the native flora according to the geographical range (number of islands where present and geographical extent of the range), habitat breadth (climatic niche) and local abundance (cover) using species distribution data based on 500 × 500 m grid cells and 2000 vegetation inventories located
all over the archipelago.

Results: Species of diversified lineages have significantly smaller geographic ranges, narrower climatic niches and lower local abundances than those of ...