Biology subjects

Fernandez-Palacios, J. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Fernandez-Palacios, J. M..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Global failure to track international biodiversity targets on islands

Islands harbour exceptional biodiversity but face severe threats, making their conservation crucial to achieving the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We therefore evaluated whether existing indicators can track progress toward the Framework's 23 targets across islands worldwide. We screened 504 biodiversity and socioeconomic indicators from the official framework and other global initiatives, retaining 47 indicators. Historical time series from 1950 onward were modelled and projected to 2030. Indicators were also classified using the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) and Theory of Change (ToC). Results showed uneven progress: eight targets improved across all available indicators, while ten displayed conflicting trends. Nearly half of the indicators focused on policy and management responses showed improvement, whereas trends in biodiversity pressures and states were mixed. Critically, 15 of 23 targets (65%) lacked a suitable headline indicator, and five targets had no indicator at all. Notably, Targets 2 and 8, addressing ecosystem restoration and climate change impacts, respectively, lacked island indicators entirely. Over half of the available indicators (29 of 47; 62%) were reported at the national level, limiting their applicability to subnational island jurisdictions and potentially obscuring differences between mainland and island conditions. Most targets also lacked quantitative objectives, limiting evaluation of whether the rate of change is sufficient to meet the targets by 2030. We recommend island-level reporting, island-specific indicators, and quantitative benchmarks tailored to island needs.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Trait-dependent diversification and spatio-ecological limits drive angiosperm diversity unevenness across the Canary Islands archipelago

Island biotas often show highly uneven species richness among lineages, influenced by clade age, diversification rates, and/or spatio-ecological limits. However, disentangling these drivers has been challenging due to the lack of comprehensive datasets across multiple lineages in the same geographical arena. The flora of the Canary Islands includes hundreds of plant lineages with contrasting species richness and harbours the highest number of species that evolved their woodiness in-situ ("insular woodiness"). Here, we present a phylogenomic reconstruction for Canary Island angiosperms and show that diversity unevenness in the flora is not driven by lineage age but by trait-dependent diversification and spatio-ecological limits. Our phylogenomic dataset, based on 1,244 newly generated and 501 published DNA sequences for 669 Canary Island species and 771 closely related mainland taxa, allows us to simultaneously study 435 plant lineages ([~]50% of total). Applying dynamic stochastic modelling, we find the flora is shaped by high extinction and colonisation rates, maintaining a macroevolutionary equilibrium. Additionally, insular woody lineages exhibit higher diversification rates than the remaining flora. Our results suggest the uneven diversity of a highly dynamic insular region can be explained by the interaction of trait evolution and ecological constraints, providing insights into island biodiversity dynamics.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

The biogeography of evolutionary radiations on oceanic archipelagos

Evolutionary radiations on oceanic archipelagos (ROAs) have long served as models for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes underlying species diversification. Yet, diversity patterns emerging from ROAs have received relatively little attention from biogeographers, even though characterizing the effect of key geo-environmental factors on island clades species distribution could be important for unraveling diversification dynamics. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis using island-specific species richness values for approximately one hundred ROAs across major oceanic archipelagos (mostly Hawaii, Canary Islands, Galapagos and Fiji) and taxa (vascular plants, invertebrates and vertebrates). Our aim was to determine whether (1) ROA species richness patterns scale as a function of key geo-environmental factors including island area, geological age, environmental heterogeneity (elevation and topographic complexity) and inter-island isolation, and (2) whether the magnitude of the effects of these factors varies across archipelagos and taxa. Our results identified elevation as a key driver of ROA species richness patterns on islands, supporting existing theoretical and empirical work that highlighted the central role of environmental heterogeneity in driving diversification on oceanic islands. As importantly, we found that the influence of geo-environmental factors varies across archipelagos and taxa, suggesting that unique archipelagic dynamics and biological traits together shape diversification differently. Our findings emphasize the value of applying biogeographical modeling at the resolution of individual radiations to improve our understanding of evolutionary processes on oceanic archipelagos.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Assembly of functional diversity in an oceanic island flora

Oceanic island floras are well-known for their morphological peculiarities and exhibit striking examples of trait evolution1,2. These morphological shifts are commonly attributed to insularity and thought to be shaped by biogeographical processes and evolutionary histories of oceanic islands1,3. However, the mechanisms through which biogeography and evolution have shaped the distribution and diversity of plant functional traits remain unclear. Here, we describe the functional trait space of an oceanic island flora (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain) using extensive field and laboratory measurements, and relate it to global trade-offs in ecological strategies. We find that the island trait space is concentrated around a functional hotspot dominated by shrubs with a conservative life-history strategy. By dividing the island flora into species groups with distinct biogeographical distributions and diversification histories, our results reveal that long-distance dispersal, and the interplay between inter-island dispersal and archipelago-level speciation processes drive functional divergence and expand trait space. Conversely, speciation via cladogenesis has overall led to functional convergence, densely packing trait space around shrubbiness. Our approach combines ecology, biogeography and evolution and opens avenues for new trait-based insights into how dispersal and speciation shape the assembly of native island floras.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Multiple origins of insular woodiness on the Canary Islands are consistent with palaeoclimatic aridification

AimInsular woodiness, referring to the evolutionary transition from herbaceousness towards woodiness on islands, has arisen at least 38 times on the Canary Islands. Distribution patterns and physiological experiments have suggested a link between insular woodiness and increased drought stress resistance in current-day species, but we do not know in which palaeoclimatic conditions these insular woody lineages originated. Therefore, we estimated the timing of colonisation events and origin of woodiness of multiple Canary Island lineages and reviewed the palaeoclimate based on literature. LocationCanary Islands (Spain). Taxon37 lineages, including 24 insular woody and 13 non-insular woody (i.e. herbaceous, ancestrally woody, and derived woody). MethodsTo enable a simultaneous dating analysis for all 37 lineages, two chloroplast markers (matK and rbcL) for 135 Canary Island species and 103 closely related continental relatives were sequenced and aligned to an existing matK-rbcL dataset including ca 24,000 species that was calibrated with 42 fossils from outside the Canaries. After constraining the species to the family level, 200 RAxML runs were performed and dated with TreePL. ResultsWoodiness in 80-90% of the insular woody lineages originated within the last 7 Myr, coinciding with the onset of major aridification events nearby the Canaries (start of north African desertification, followed by Messinian salinity crisis); in ca 55-65% of the insular woody lineages studied, woodiness developed within the last 3.2 Myr during which Mediterranean seasonality (yearly summer droughts) became established on the Canaries, followed by dry Pleistocene glacial fluctuations. Main conclusionsAlthough details of the initial colonisation and settlement of many island plant lineages remain elusive, our results are consistent with palaeodrought as a potential driver for woodiness in most of the insular woody Canary Island lineages studied.

evolutionary biology↗