Species diversity patterns in the large genus Solanum L. (Solanaceae)

Abstract

Species diversity is one of the most important indicator in ecological research and conversational biology. Factors that correlates with species diversity and the mechanism how environmental factors affect species richness have long been studied by scientists. Abundant hypothesis were proposed, among which heat and moisture are commonly considered to have prominent influence on species richness. Solanum L. (Solanaceae) is a meta-diverse angiosperm genus with more than 1,200 specie accepted, which has a large number of species with high economic value. This project studied the distribution of Solanum species, indicated that spatial diversity centers of Solanum species are mostly montane near coasts. It was confirmed that water-heat condition has remarkable effect on Solanum species diversity, but the mechanism is still not clear, which requests further study.