Nº613/1091 - The Ultimate Dispersers? How Dispersal Has Shaped Global Patterns of Fern Biodiversity
Emily B. Sessa1, Weston L. Testo2, Cody C. Howard3
1 William & Lynda Steere Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, USA
2 Department of Plant Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
3 Department of Plant Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Fern life cycles are characterized in part by their reliance on spores as the primary unit of dispersal. Unlike seeds, which may be a variety of sizes and often rely on animals to assist with dispersal, fern spores are almost uniformly microscopic and wind dispersed, and as a result, these plants have long been recognized as being exceptional long-distance dispersers. We will explore the consequences of this dispersal ability for fern distribution and natural history, focusing on recent studies of globally dispersed groups (including genera such as Asplenium and Dryopteris, and families like Blechnaceae) and how their evolutionary history has been shaped by long distance dispersal. We will also discuss the implications for various biogeographical patterns as they apply to ferns, such as island biogeography, classical examples of disjunct distributions, and fern species ability to colonize of newly available habitats.