Format: ORAL

Juli Caujap-Castells1*, Isabel Saro1, Ruth Jan-Molina1, Antonio Daz Prez2, Avigdor Surez-Prez1, Inmaculada Guillermes-Vzquez1, Miguel A. Gonzlez-Prez1, Carlos Garca-Verdugo3, Isabel Sanmartn4, Javier Fuertes4, Mara Romeiras5, Rafael Nebot R6, Daniel Reyes6, Alejandro Curbelo6, Carlos Caraballo6

1 Jardín Botánico Canario ‘Viera y Clavijo’-Unidad Asociada de I+D+i al CSIC, Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Spain. 2 Gestión y Planeamiento Ambiental S.A., Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. 3 Depto. de Botánica, Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias, Spain. 4 Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC, Spain. 5 Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. 6 Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

The diversification of the Canarian endemic flora is a dynamic process influenced by multiple biotic and ecological variables, but also greatly related to the geological ontogeny and complex geography of the archipelago. Many current radiations may have evolved from widely distributed ancestors or from ubiquitous endemics (UE, those which occur on all islands), but the selective and stochastic landscapes of the islands trigger fast diversification, so that a widespread occurrence should be an extremely transient distributional feature in most taxa. The SIE are also subject to frequent diversification, and there are numerous examples where molecular tools have discovered sharp genetic discontinuities within this distributional category. We compile data on the existing phylogenetic evidence for the 256 Canarian endemics currently known in one of the most complex and species-diverse islands of the archipelago (Gran Canaria), alongside biotic and abiotic variables associated with their distributions, to gain insight into the factors that influence floristic diversification and conservation status. We show that the closest extant mainland congeners of the UE often occur in distant mainland regions, thereby supporting the hypothesis of extinction of their closest relatives from Western Africa or close Mediterranean regions during the glacial cycles in the late Pleistocene. Our spatial analyses compellingly show that most UE occur in lower regions with less complex relief, tentatively indicating that ecological processes are still an inconspicuous influence on their diversification. By contrast, most of the SIE tend to occur in geographically complex regions, likely reflecting a major role of ecology, relief and stochasticity on their diversification. We analyse multiple data layers related to ecological, geographic, climatic and phylogenetic parameters to suggest restoration strategies to recover areas subjected to high anthropogenic pressure related to renewable energy sources. All calculations were made using the supercomputing platform created by the NEXTGENDEM project (MAC2/4.6d/236).